For The Heavenly Fire No

If You Are Prepared To Accept The Consequences Of Your Dreams Then You Must Still Regard America Today With The Same Naive Enthusiasm As The Generations That Discovered The New World.

The New Shopping Malls Make Possible The Synthesis Of All Consumer Activities, Not Least Of Which Are Shopping, Flirting With Objects, Idle Wandering, And All The Permutations Of These.

Today, Every Principle Of Identity Is Affected By Fashion, Precisely Because Of Its Potential To Revert All Forms To Non-origin And Recurrence. Fashion Is Always Retro, But Always On The Basis Of The Abolition Of The Passé (the Past): The Spectral Death And Resurrection Of Forms. Its Proper Actuality (its 'up-to-dateness', Its 'relevance') Is Not A Reference To The Present, But An Immediate And Total Recycling.

Mistakes, Scandals, And Failures No Longer Signal Catastrophe. The Crucial Thing Is That They Be Made Credible, And That The Public Be Made Aware Of The Efforts Being Expended In That Direction. The Marketing Immunity Of Governments Is Similar To That Of The Major Brands Of Washing Powder.

Cities Are Distinguished By The Catastrophic Forms They Presuppose And Which Are A Vital Part Of Their Essential Charm. New York Is King Kong, Or The Blackout, Or Vertical Bombardment: Towering Inferno. Los Angeles Is The Horizontal Fault, California Breaking Off And Sliding Into The Pacific: Earthquake.