On the Unpopularity of Leftish TV shows....

RE earnest at tallynet.com
Tue Sep 10 13:59:36 PDT 2002


It's definitely not an individualistic approach in the usual sense of the term. (Is it possible to say "Hey, let's try to think dialectically about this" without sounding like I'm resorting to mumbo-jumbo?) A person's ability to tolerate dislocations in their internal adjustment to coercive social conditions depends to some degree on social conditions. But it's useful to recognize -- this *happens*, it's not just a figment of a theoretical model -- that a person being exposed to criticism of coercive social conditions to experience an internal dynamic of an increasingly vivid experience of anger and frustration that can set off a countermovement.
>
> Well, you still propose an individualistic approach - a personal appeal to
> individual tastes - and dismiss my suggestion that we should concentrate
on
> institution building as "big generalization."
>

The food analogy isn't very helpful, but I think it does reveal your implicit psychological model as pivoting on acclimation. No, wait.....Can't you see how much is being begged by the reference to "legitimate public institutions"? In the sense I'm arguing, "legitimacy" would imply that for someone watching these shows anxious/depressive/shitty emotional responses are parried off by the "legitimacy" of the anger, and so humor would not be as necessary in a defensive/fantastic sense.


> To make my point clear - ideas are like food, you like what you are
> familiar with. People who not exposed to, say, Ethiopian food, are
> unlikely to like it - no matter how much you try to persuade them. To
make
> them like it, you need to introduce a bunch of restaurants serving the
> Ethiopian cuisine to the area.
>
> Ditto for political views and opinions. The left is not institutionally
> represented in this country in any commonly recognizable form (fringe
> campus groups are NOT legitimate public institutions), hence the US public
> has no taste for left views and opinions. The only way to change it is to
> build "left food restaurants" - legitimate public institutions (such as
> political parties and unions) representing the left point of view.
>
> wojtek
>
>
>



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