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Politics of Obscenity: Review Piece

Rammstein Stripped

Rammsteins music video for their cover of the Depeche Mode song Stripped and its
subsequent liberal critical reaction exemplifies the problematic way in which Rammsteins
usage of Nazi imagery and military rhythms has been interpreted as either; promotion of
Neo-Nazism or, as more sophisticated critics argue, dangerously bringing unconscious
authoritarian desires to the surface when they are best kept repressed. It is worth noting
Rammstein themselves do not politically identify with the far right, to quote their song
Links, 2, 3, 4 They want my heart on the Right spot, but I look below, it beats on the Left.

Stripped combines the industrial rhythm of Rammstein with a montage of Leni Riefenstahls
documentary of the 1936 Olympics Olympia. On a purely aesthetic level, Riefenstahls
representation of her ideal human form is impressive, while we likely wish to dissociate
ourselves from its Nazi connotations, we nonetheless find the images emotionally arresting,
even beautiful.

Certain themes are consistent across fascist art, a fascination with discipline, heroic effort
and the display of perfect bodies. The virtues of fascist art are seemingly contradictory,
heroism and servitude, yet in Olympia the contradiction disappears as athletes are presented
simultaneously as submitting to a higher force/ideal and representing the heroic ideal
themselves. A further theme which features especially within the Nazi era works of
Riefenstahl, is as Sontag puts it the massing of groups of people; the turning of people into
things; the multiplication of things and grouping of people/things around an all-powerful,
hypnotic leader figure or force (Sontag 1975, p.27), in Olympia and Stripped we see large
rhythmic gymnastic performances performed in unison, where it seems as if every performer
is submitting to a higher ideal of beauty. There is certainly the sense of the sublime here, as
we simultaneously are drawn to the beauty of the performers while remaining in awe of
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their formidable power. Riefenstahls images have such power that they even subsume the
lyrics into the meaning of the image. Stripped goes from being a perhaps romantic song
about desiring to engage with your partner without artifice, to taking on a broader meaning
about authenticity, drawing parallels with the fascist elevation of the rural over the urban
and the physical over the intellectual.

Stripped can be considered obscene because it invites us to engage aesthetically (though not
politically) with the imagery of fascism. Stripped does not seek to judge or distance itself
from Nazism, rather it ignores the political aspect altogether. In interviews Rammstein stress
that their music is apolitical, that they only chose clips from Olympia because it was a
visionary work of art (Berlinski 2005, p.72). That they seek to engage with Riefenstahl on a
purely aesthetic level makes Rammstein a particularly interesting group. When a Neo-Nazi
group screens Olympia we can dismiss it as pure propaganda, likewise when Sontag
critiques Riefenstahl while she may provide an interesting analysis there is nothing
controversial or particularly interesting about the act itself. Yet Rammsteins act raises a
number of questions. Firstly is it possible to engage with art on a purely aesthetic level?
Secondly whether is it possible for this engagement to liberate the aesthetic experience from
its fascist political meaning? Thirdly is this an effective method for antifascism?

I will argue that in contrast to critics such as Sontag, we can engage with Riefenstahls
imagery on a purely aesthetic level and this allows us to deprive fascism of a powerful
aesthetic, and that Rammstein are actually unintentionally engaging in a highly effective
method of undermining fascism by stripping away its aesthetic attractions.

If we refer to Sontags analysis of fascist art, we can see the ways in which fascist art may
facilitate the ideology of fascism. The presentation of ideal bodies, heroism, discipline and
submission serves fascism by replicating aspects of the fascist regime as an aesthetic ideal
(Sontag 1975, pp. 23-7). It appears the idea behind creating a taboo around fascist artistic
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representations is that by preventing the fascist aesthetic experience we prevent people from
seeking to realise the aesthetic ideal within the political sphere, an act which history shows
us can cause great suffering.

One explanation of the fears around fascist aesthetics and of the desire to make it a taboo
subject is the psychological discourse on the cause of the rise of fascism. It was inevitable
that when confronted with the horrors of the holocaust, we would seek an explanation of
what could motivate humans to commit such evil. With the increasing prominence and
sophistication of social psychology, attention was directed towards attempts to explain
Nazism as a psychological phenomenon rather than one caused by economic or political
circumstance. The questions ultimately motivating the research were could it happen again
and if so, how can we stop it?

The first major development was Adorno et als Authoritarian Personality, which sought to
identify the psychological characteristics that make one susceptive to supporting fascism.
Interviews and studies of family background led to a measurable scale that at one end
identified the democratic personality and at the other the authoritarian personality (iek
2011, pp.383-5). Following Adorno et al was Milgram, his study into obedience presented
powerful evidence that even well adjusted democratic personalities could commit great acts
of violence on behalf of a legitimate authority (Milgram 1963). The first shift in discourse
was from the reactionary idea that fascism was the result of national character, towards an
understanding that fascism requires a certain personal disposition that is primarily the result
of upbringing and early interactions with institutions. After Milgram, doubt was cast on the
idea that fascism resulted from just one personality type and instead the view became that
we are all susceptible to commit great acts of evil when ordered by a legitimate authority.
The final contribution to psychological discourse on fascism was an experiment by
Californian high school teacher Ron Jones. In order to explain to his students the power and
attraction of fascism, Jones created a student movement within his class called The Third
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Wave. Which criticised individualism and promoted discipline, community and pride as
virtues. Within four days the experiment was out of his control and students were showing a
frightening commitment to the cause (iek 2011, p.383).

The liberal interpretation of the psychological discourse on fascism was one of concern
were we all potential fascists? Yet, I think a failure to bring in further discourses led to a
radical conclusion shift into a reactionary response. Rather being spurred on by the finding
that most people were highly susceptible to fascism to prompt a greater look at the
economic and political causes of fascism, the liberal response was (returning to Adorno et
als terminology) to cast it as internal struggle between the democratic personality and the
authoritarian personality. If we are all susceptible to becoming fascists, then we need to
actively repress the authoritarian personality. As a result, pure aesthetic engagement with
fascist works becomes taboo. To use Freudian terms, the Democratic Superego represses the
desires of the Authoritarian Id to engage with fascist aesthetics such as Rammstein.

Interpreting the discourse as a struggle between the democratic and authoritarian
personalities is problematic however. It creates a false dichotomy, where we cannot have an
alternative to the status quo of liberal politics without allowing authoritarianism to triumph.
It closes off the prospect of any emancipatory alternative to liberal democratic politics and
denies the possibility of positive engagement with fascist art.

We should reject this interpretation because Rammstein shows that it is possible to do just
that. Zizek draws the Lacanian distinction between the hermeneutic dimension and what
Lacan called the sinthome. The sinthome can be understood as a symptom cleansed of
meaning (iek, 2011 p.385). With Stripped Rammstein force the viewer to over-identify with
the sinthome. We should not fear the over-identification with the sinthome, rather we
should guard against attempts to bring the sinthome into the hermeneutic dimension where
it gains ideological meaning. Identifying with the sinthome can be seen as engaging directly
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with the raw emotional experience, as a result we can enjoy the displays of strength,
discipline and the like without attaching a fascist meaning.

There is a further point to Stripped; it does not just create a space in which we can enjoy
certain aspects of fascist art. It actually provides a mechanism that allows us to undermine
fascism from within. Stripped highlights the aesthetic appeal of Riefenstahl and the fascist
aesthetic, yet by allowing us to engage directly with the sinthome we can liberate our
enjoyment from the fascist ideology. Thus, we are able to isolate the most appealing aspects
of fascism and make concrete the absence of where ideology would usually assign meaning.

To conclude, Rammsteins Stripped is politically significant because it engages directly with
the sinthome and thus does not allow the images to be articulated into the space of fascist
meaning. This undermines the fascist ideology by depriving it of one its strongest reactions.
While Stripped was intended as an apolitical aesthetic expression, it demonstrates one of the
most effective means of challenging the fascist ideology.

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Bibliography


Berlinski, Claire. (2005) "Rammsteins Rage." Azure: Ideas for the Jewish Nation 20: 63-96.
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Milgram, Stanley (1963) "Behavioural Study of Obedience" Journal of Abnormal and Social
Psychology 67 (4): 3718.

Sontag, Susan. "Fascinating Fascism." New York Review of Books (February 6, 1975): 23-30.

iek, Slavoj (2011) Living in the end times, Verso: London