[lit-ideas] Re: the WC controversy
- From: Eric Yost <eyost1132@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2005 22:59:53 -0500
Alex: the essay itself has ventured deeply into untouchable territory,
and has encountered the predictable reaction. What, us? I watch the
unfoldings around it with both exhilaration and nausea...
_____
I had the uncomfortable sensation, when reading the essay, that the
author was an asshole and also right in some points.
It also dredged up weird feelings about life in the wired world--that
there is no news, just marketing to prejudice. You know, if you agree
with some of Churchill's points, you fall into marketing group B, and an
O'Reilly fan would respond with talking points from the marketing group
A list, to which you respond with group B talking points.
How to put it? That supporting Bush and hating Bush are both marketing
targets, all generated by the same forces, all serving the same ends.
That Bush probably loves it that people think him a dummy or a fiend,
because that falls into a marketable and controllable reaction to the
"current events machine," whose sole purpose is to make people feel
alienated and empty so they buy things and don't organize into coherent
opposition groups to power.
Contra Chomsky, it feels like the simultaneous manufacturing of dissent
and consent, in all their discernible varieties, all organized to
promote global capitalism by fragmenting views and discouraging action.
Every possible kind of clothing, from things to blue jeans to business
suits to tuxedos--all made by WalMart for their greater good.
Maybe the feeling will pass. I don't expect an action hero to spring me
from my pod anytime soon.
Eric
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