Kelley wrote:
>
> At 10:36 AM 8/27/03 -0400, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
> > > This isn't a direct response to you, J, but in general, why should
> > > pwoggies shun popular culture?
> > >
> >
> >For the same reason they shun religion - it is the opium of the people.
> >
> >Wojtek
>
> "Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and
> the protest against real distress. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed
> creature, the heart of the heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a
> spiritless situation. The demand to give up illusions about its condition
> is the demand to give up a condition that needs illusions. Criticism has
> plucked the imaginary flower from the chain, not so that men will wear the
> chain without any fantasy or consolation, but that they will break the
> chain and cull the living flower."
If one takes the question as Wojtek takes it, and as you accept it, this response is decisive. End of discussion.
But -- we do need to consider what is being identified here as "popular culture" and as "pwoggies."
_Popular Culture_: I suppose on your pop culture list this has been discussed thoroughly, but just to give some preliminary focus, let me suggest that the _core_ of popular american culture _at this time_ is the belief that the invasion of Iraq is a legitimate and necessary part of the war on terrorism.
Now it seems to me that, in fact, your quote from Marx also explains that. and explains it far better than do the moralistic diatribes of Doug and Zizek at the (alleged) wilful ignorance of the american people.
What do you think?
I'll leave for later a discussion of "pwoggies" (or "the left"), but I will suggest that this alleged contempt for popular culture, if it exists, should be ascribed to "intellectuals" in general, and that "intellectuals" and "leftists" are by no means identical categories.
Carrol
>
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