Assignment 08

In Jodi Dean’s essay, “Whatever Blogging,” she speaks about “new modes of community and new forms of personality anticipated by the dissolution of inscriptions of identity through citizenship, ethnicity, and other modern markers of belonging.” The idea of “whatever being” is described by Pettman as “an enactment of existence without qualities, or at least qualities so interchangeable and obvious that they erase all identity” (169).

To grasp it better, the term “whatever” that is commonly used in our culture, is one that is used to avoid confrontation. An example of this being the pop-punk song called “Whatever” made by Liam Lynch. He uses a George W. Bush impersonation and yells out lyrics: “I’m George W. Bush, leader of the free world. I want to bomb Iraq. And when the world says, “no!” I say, “whatever!” Saddam has started to meet our demands. Yeah, whatever”(170). This shows how the word “whatever” can be seen as a resistance and refusal to accept what has been told. Not only does it show a refusal but it also makes it difficult for another to fully understand the message that is given. This term gives very little awareness as to what the message is sending out, making it difficult for us to make something of it.

Another example that helps to show this sense of “whatever being” is mass media. It’s the fact that today we are communicating with friends and strangers; however what we post is unique to us. Although what we post is different from others, other users have the ability to find us and in a way, consume what they want from our profile. If they don’t like what they see, they move on from it. They resist looking further because they don’t like what they see or can’t relate to it. Bloggers and regular people that post on social media sites do not have to conform to a set way of running their profile or belong to a certain category.

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