[lbo-talk] Re: The postmodern prince

Michael Dawson -PSU mdawson at pdx.edu
Fri Dec 5 14:08:35 PST 2003



> Because Western culture demands the maintenance of identrity to fuel
desire to fuel consumption to keep capitalism going.

I don't like this formulation. Widespread print literacy, which happened to take hold in Europe first, lead to both democracy and increased psychological individuation. Both of these latter things are indispensable treasures, two of the greatest achievements in human history.

Capitalism did not invent identity. It exploits and distorts identity, via marketing. If we want to be taken seriously by lots of people, we must stop being so damned imprecise and hyperbolic in this area, IMHO.



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