re: Betjeman
On appeals to the "popular", there's a brilliant passage by Bourdieu in
Language & Symbolic Power, under the title "Did you say 'popular'?", - An
argument which is very applicable, outside sociology of art, to areas like
healthcare rhetoric where "the population" often means that the concerns &
healthcare needs of a part is being elevated to the whole. Its a magical
referent that can be extended or limited at will, so eminently political.
"Sayings containing the magical epithet 'popular' are shielded from scrutiny
by the fact that any critical analysis of a notion which bears closely or
remotely on 'the people' is apt to be identified immediately as a symbolic
aggression against the reality designated - and thus immediately castigated
by all those who feel duty bound to defend 'the people'"
Edmund
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