[lit-ideas] Cultural Diversity and Freedom (Jackass edition)
- From: AT <atri2715@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 22 Oct 2005 21:55:33 -0400
"The UN's cultural agency, Unesco, is expected tomorrow [October 20] to
approve a convention that will allow countries to protect their cultures from
globalisation, despite bitter opposition from the United States...."
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Freedom of expression. Globalization. But also, cultural dignity. The bum on
the street and the CFO eating his $500 dinner tonight at Bruno Jamais in
Manhattan (whatever!) are equally free. One is free to complain about cultural
protectionism, the other free to watch.....MTV's Jackass. Cultural difference.
I am thinking tonight about the show "Jackass" on MTV. Some people are easily
won over by such home-grown entertainment as "WWF Smackdown" and "Jackass".
Bad taste has a way of driving out good--that's just how it is, empirically
speakin'. It is more than a question of taste, of preferring a Whopper over
Chicken Chow Mein. This kind of crap, while being a great example of freedom
of cultural expression, really undermines something in society. Global
society. I don't know what exactly it undermines, but I think it undermines
something. I'm a social liberal, 23 out of 24 hours a day, and I can handle
(and even enjoy!) Jackass. But--a world without Jackass would not be a
terribly diminished world. Taking cultural exception to it is not necessarily
(though it can be) the sign of puritanical, protectionist thinking. No, you
can't always turn the TV off. Doesn't work that way. Jackass is there,
subconsciously, globally, in the street, on your cell-phone ringer, at the
office, and in your bedroom, even if you turn it off.
Jackass is just a vehicle, a means, for the shareholders of Disney, or Time
Warner or GE or whoever (hard to keep track these days), to pack their
dividend. I am all for higher dividends and freedom of expression. But this
incrementally higher dividend comes at the expense of something intangible in
the community. Global self-dignity? Who knows. So, Jackass perhaps has less to
do with freedom of expression, and much more to do with the Armani and Patek
Philippe people eating those $500 dinners at Bruno Jamais in Manhattan--who
will not, I suppose, be watching Jackass tonight.
Crazy world....
Alex T
Boston/ Hanover St.
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