What Price Hollywood? by Chris Hedges on Truthdig.com
Chris Hedges on 'celebrity culture.' Brilliant, as usual with Mr. Hedges. I guess maybe going to the seminary after years of working in war zones gives one an excellent perspective on American culture ... or what passes for culture.
Been reading Cornell West of late. He points out that for a long time, American culture compared itself to and strove to achieve what European culture was achieving. American culture tended to be either a copy. Or the sort of insecure statements that tried to assert American culture as independent of European culture.
Of course, that's changed since WWII and the assumption of the United States of the role of great power in the world. Today its American culture that blasts itself into every brain, and to which other cultural ideas try to compete or imitate. But, is this really culture at all? Journeys to Graceland or Hollywood to gawk at 'the stars'? Or trips to Las Vegas where we can pretend to be a celebrity ourselves and try to live like one, as long as one has the money?
2 comments:
Prole makes some interesting comments in response to this linked article. When prole talks about the fetishising of competition she/he is perhaps talking about the fetishism of the "products", the celebrities. Obama certainly has a Unique Selling Point and under current political market conditions only likely to become more valuable to monopolistic corporations in monetary terms as time goes by.
I see that we arent allowed to be obscene, so I will not list all the corporations that the Obama Team has sold logos too...anyone get their Obama Chia Pet yet?
Post a Comment