‘The golden age of cultural theory is long past’. It has been swallowed by the consumer strategy of mega-corporations targeting our Achilles spot: self-indulgence. Since the revolution in our world perception, which made us to realise that it is OK to be human with needs and these needs can be discussed and studied, we are constantly being reminded HOW to fulfil our needs and that they MUST be fulfilled.
The idea of ‘after theory’ theorists to study every day life was truly revolutionary. Yes, they would talk and write about sex; yes, they would study pornography for their PhD thesis. And.. they were cool, they were rebellious. So why shouldn’t we, generation NEXT, go with the flow and simply have fun discussing flavour of malt whiskies in the dissertation (surely doing daily research on the matter in the nearest pub)??
Well, it seems to me that there is a quite big chunk missing from the ‘generation NEXT’ equation: sex, drugs and rock-and-roll are not revolutionary matters any more. However, they are marketed as such. To be rebellious you have to rebel against something. Popular culture theorists threw historicisms away and pronounced common people and events of today the subjects of study. Though, the dismantled theoretical foundations were well known to them. They were studied, understood and only after torn down. That act made popular culture studies viable and its students cool.
Popular culture is still cool, but this ‘coolness’ is just an echo from the past amplified by capitalist structures to make us not only consume more and more, but ‘also identify our own fulfilment with the survival of the system’. And I and many others from my generation are accepting this baby- food-like processed and adapted theory still thinking that we are rebelling against something openly talking about sex and watching life TV for educational purposes. I think we are just being lazy. This laziness is being encouraged as we often hear that ‘our own opinion matters the most’ (obviously not supported by any facts, because life experience is way more important than texts by some Marx or Derrida). I feel I am missing on something and planning to read more, but will I? To be frank, I don’t know - it is comfortable and what is more important widely accepted to be lazy.
hhmmmm whiskey research in the pub sounds like a great choice of subject! Love your blog kira, so fun to read and so well written, well done! :-)
ReplyDeletemark
www.boidus.co.uk
PS i think life experience is more important than fact. imagine it is a FACT that the world is round, but one day i walked and fell off the edge. this is my experience, i know it happened, so i dont care if someone tells me i am wrong - i have made up my mind based on what i know - and that is that the world is flat and i fell off it.
how do we expect to change our minds if we believe eveything we are told, sometimes we have to go against the grain to show that the "fact" IS wrong,,,, (or maybe, the fact is not wrong, but it is not quite "black and white"). If we did not do this we would stil think E=mc2
;-)
good stuff, keep it up
Thanks for the comment, Mark. I hope you are not being polite saying that 'the blog is well written', hahah.
ReplyDeleteWell, I am not saying that we should be living according to 'facts' as you have chosen to call them, the life will be well dumb and not interesting (G. Orwell '1984', hihi). I am just trying to say that there must be a balance. Tell me, what great thing can average European kid from middle class family without any extremes (no drugs/abuse), who hasn’t traveled around the world and whose life was generally 'steady' bring to this world if his mind wasn’t triggered by some fascinating 'facts' or texts??? Will you being that average kid with 'steady' life experience be interested in that discussion about flatness of the world? Or even if you were will you suddenly rush to check if it is true?? I think you need some motives to be engaged with the discovery of something new and if your steady life doesn't supply you with any you have to find them elsewhere.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIt IS well written, I promise, there are the occasional slip ups but nothing major - you are not making any basic mistakes like the wrong "you're" or "your" or "there" or "their" so its fine! You under estimate your english ability, just because you havent written a 10000 word classical book yet doesnt mean your english is bad! I have read a lot of bad english that has been printed in BOOKS, so really you need not worry, LOL. besides - it is a blog - not a journal ;-)
ReplyDeletei agree - everyone needs motives to angage themselves in something. But regarding th flatness of the world, yes, i am the sort of person that when u tell me it is round i will check. if u tel me a candle is hot and not to burn myself i wil check, i just like to see for myself, lol, but thats just me.
travelling and exploring other countries and communities probably provides the biggest stimulation to a persons mind. going somewhere different makes you realise "it doesnt have to be that way" and there are more than one way of doing things. i love going to other places and studying the tiny differences in the way people do things, like in Kos they dont have many health and safety rules for buildings. it means hand rails vary in height and treads on all steps are not the same. these are small and boring facts - but they made me think, and that is fun :-D
Woo, thanks! I can write in English :). That makes me happy :)
ReplyDelete