>Hmm, obviously the irony did not translate well in its travels around
>the world. Still, I think the question that this does raise is exactly
>that of homogeneity - is heterogeneity (multi-culturalism in its
>weakest form) an ideological ruse to give the semblance of
>resistance while the conditions of existence are those of the
>dominant political force? Does transgression become, as
>Stallybrass & White point out, merely a safety valve sanctioned by
>those controlling the, to use a slightly archaic term, "means of
>production"? To what extent is cultural criticism tolerated at all?
>And if tolerated, then surely ineffectual?
>
>David
>
>silence - exile - cunning
"How long will the workers keep building him new ones?
As long as their soda cans are red white and blue ones!"- The Dead Milkmen
Well, actually, according to Marx, the workers control the means of
production... but I digress.
What else, beyond being a safety valve, should transgression be? Societies
have rules and don't like it when those rules are challenged, you can't
just let everybody run around and break all the rules all the time, now can
you? As for hetereogenity, its a fact of life in the states... America's a
big place, full of different types of people... I've lived in 8 states, and
they were all different in significant and interesting ways. Movies reflect
a common denominator becuase they're a MASS market product! Some movies,
like "Higher Learning," "Smoke Signals" and the like, are targeted (in
part) to smaller, more niche audiences.
Cultural Criticism is tolerated as a safety valve and becuase there is
often no legal way to stop it. Most television shows that I watch are
critical of the dominant ideology to some extent, but most people don't
like having their culture _overtly_ criticized. Once again, mass market, to
be applicable to a broad spectrum of people, a critique has to be very
general, and if very general, it is typically somewhat risky... because
once an individual feels criticized, they stop liking the critique.
But as for the academy, this whole thing is essentially a PR issue. IF the
social sciences are percieved as being full of communists, hostile to the
social good, and without an education of value to offer society, thats our
own damn fault. Its our job, our obligation, to demonstrate that the
education that we offer is a benefit to the greater good, that we are not
hostile, and that the communist thing is either a)not true, or b)not a bad
thing. Personally, I'm a libertarian, but try to get that viewpoint
expressed in academia. Or society, for that matter.
j.daigle
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