[lbo-talk] Re: Uniforms/Fashion

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Wed Aug 27 09:53:32 PDT 2003


Brian Siano wrote:


>Carrol Cox wrote:
>
>>_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.
>>
>Let me be the first to disagree with this postulate, then. I don't
>think that such a statement could ever serve as a "core" or "popular
>American culture," at this time or any other. And given the degree
>to which our culture obviously dissents from that point of view, I
>wouldn't say that that's a 'core' at all. At best, it may be a
>widely held belief, but it's nowhere near as much as 'core' as, say,
>belief in the First Amendment.
>
>And Carrol's statement begs an obvious question: if support for the
>invasion is the current 'core' of popular culture, then what was the
>'core' _before_ the invasion?

And if this is the "popular" belief, it's probably hopeless to do radical politics in the U.S. So why not retire to a tower and read Milton, Carrol? You're just wasting your time pontificating.

Doug



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list