Thanks for the link to your 2019 presentation and audio. Lot of potent ideas, and thought provoking point of view. A whirlwind packed into 12 minutes, actually. It would be very interesting to see a slightly slowed down version of the same thing, expanding on some of the ideas, maybe considering how some of this might actually look on the 10 year timescale you suggest is necessary (I'm not disagreeing with that analysis), and also in light of the disposition of political forces in the US and elsewhere. Cheers!
Throughout human history, TPTB (i.e. the elites) have used spurious claims of influencing the weather to enhance their power. If that were happening now, how would life be different?
Thanks for this, nice article. I applaud how you highlight the role of mass media in constructing social myth in the neoliberal era. Many of us construct our identities around the shows and other cultural 'products' that we 'consume'; not only this, but we also use these mass media products to construct our understanding of others in our society. 'Others' in this case being people that we have virtually no personal contact with, and therefore we are completely at the mercy of the subliminal messages that we see on television or the internet. Once the stage is set and we are predisposed to believe certain things about certain groups, the necessity of profit causes media to reproduce these prejudices and these beliefs calcify.
This process has continued for many generations in the United States, but is being imitated by many other media companies around the world. For example, from where I write in Finland, many of the most popular live TV shows here (Survivor, Love Island, the Bachelor/Bachelorette) are simply copied from shows in the U.S., while streaming services allow us to watch sitcoms like Friends and HIMYM which construct our own visions of the U.S. This is a sort of cultural imperialism, where domestically produced cultural products are squeezed out or made to look like Hollywood products in order to attract viewers. This process can in many ways (or at least partially) explain the rise of right-wing politicians in Europe and beyond, as the isolationism produced by mass media causes social bonds and civic engagement to weaken. Thomas Frank wrote about this well, but another American writer/novelist who observed this trend well was David Foster Wallace in his essay 'E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction' and novel 'Infinite Jest.'
This was a long comment, but I wanted to say that your article was well written and insightful for this reason. The political impotence we are seeing is partially a result of the ubiquity of mass media entertainment coupled with a breakdown of social bonds produced by neoliberalism. It also helps to explain why we are unable to address structural problems such as the ecological crisis or the threat of super-weapons. So we turn to undemocratic but entirely necessary measures by institutions who are forced to overreach in order to sustain the economic processes we are reliant upon; thus we have the era of central bank capitalism, where QE programs, once thought of as an extreme and temporary measure, has become the norm of the last decade and probably will be for years to come. That is, unless we can do something about it.
The elites will opt for victory, not compromise, in the domestic Cold War. A group which is winning will not suddenly slam on the brakes and offer concessions. They will enforce their narrative, and make it increasingly costly to oppose it. They will create buy-in from below by making alternatives impossible. Sticks are cheaper and more reliable than carrots.
Thanks for the link to your 2019 presentation and audio. Lot of potent ideas, and thought provoking point of view. A whirlwind packed into 12 minutes, actually. It would be very interesting to see a slightly slowed down version of the same thing, expanding on some of the ideas, maybe considering how some of this might actually look on the 10 year timescale you suggest is necessary (I'm not disagreeing with that analysis), and also in light of the disposition of political forces in the US and elsewhere. Cheers!
Throughout human history, TPTB (i.e. the elites) have used spurious claims of influencing the weather to enhance their power. If that were happening now, how would life be different?
Thanks for this, nice article. I applaud how you highlight the role of mass media in constructing social myth in the neoliberal era. Many of us construct our identities around the shows and other cultural 'products' that we 'consume'; not only this, but we also use these mass media products to construct our understanding of others in our society. 'Others' in this case being people that we have virtually no personal contact with, and therefore we are completely at the mercy of the subliminal messages that we see on television or the internet. Once the stage is set and we are predisposed to believe certain things about certain groups, the necessity of profit causes media to reproduce these prejudices and these beliefs calcify.
This process has continued for many generations in the United States, but is being imitated by many other media companies around the world. For example, from where I write in Finland, many of the most popular live TV shows here (Survivor, Love Island, the Bachelor/Bachelorette) are simply copied from shows in the U.S., while streaming services allow us to watch sitcoms like Friends and HIMYM which construct our own visions of the U.S. This is a sort of cultural imperialism, where domestically produced cultural products are squeezed out or made to look like Hollywood products in order to attract viewers. This process can in many ways (or at least partially) explain the rise of right-wing politicians in Europe and beyond, as the isolationism produced by mass media causes social bonds and civic engagement to weaken. Thomas Frank wrote about this well, but another American writer/novelist who observed this trend well was David Foster Wallace in his essay 'E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction' and novel 'Infinite Jest.'
This was a long comment, but I wanted to say that your article was well written and insightful for this reason. The political impotence we are seeing is partially a result of the ubiquity of mass media entertainment coupled with a breakdown of social bonds produced by neoliberalism. It also helps to explain why we are unable to address structural problems such as the ecological crisis or the threat of super-weapons. So we turn to undemocratic but entirely necessary measures by institutions who are forced to overreach in order to sustain the economic processes we are reliant upon; thus we have the era of central bank capitalism, where QE programs, once thought of as an extreme and temporary measure, has become the norm of the last decade and probably will be for years to come. That is, unless we can do something about it.
The elites will opt for victory, not compromise, in the domestic Cold War. A group which is winning will not suddenly slam on the brakes and offer concessions. They will enforce their narrative, and make it increasingly costly to oppose it. They will create buy-in from below by making alternatives impossible. Sticks are cheaper and more reliable than carrots.