But is it not revisionist and self-historicizing to believe that the world
hasn't seen this problem before? Even the Romans had "Caveat Emptor."
> For, though
> Marxist critique was theoretically correct, it offered neither
> prophylactic nor escape. Truth is, I fear that we could all be
> seriously fucked, ie, like globally brain dead very soon dudettes (so
> few people, even now, are able to be aware of this).
> When the vision is commercial, the image is alienated, impersonal, A
> death. The Dark Age is now beginning, double time has lost most
> meaning...the taste for space has gone flat. Beware, you seem to have
> become your wares, as meaning goes to the grave...to escape.
In a media culture of commodification, we have a strong brainwash to deal
with. But also, our systems of information flow are much more flexible
than previous generations have enjoyed. (Look at the possibility of this
forum, for instance!) For a lazy person, it probably doesn't matter if one
is confronted by a rigid social hierarchy or an infomercial, they are
equally deadening. But for a self-motivated person, I think the world of
information is better.
Commodification has won when it destroys self-motivation. Personally I
find Existentialism, i.e. recognition that one is choosing a particular
life and responsible for how it unfolds, is both the prophylactic and the
escape.
Cheers,
Brandon J. Van Every <vanevery@blarg.net> DEC Commodity Graphics
http://www.blarg.net/~vanevery Windows NT Alpha OpenGL
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