Wednesday, June 13, 2007

 

A thought on the subway..!

It might be that carnivalesque practices have long been a prominent feature in many societies across the globe. After all, carnivals and "carnivalesque" behaviors offer an opportunity to freely express the "true" self. And this opportunity is highly valued -rather, much needed- by many people who find it difficult to express a certain identity (e.g. homosexuality) or beliefs (e.g. political views) within the ordinary mainstream social system. Still, on my way home on the subway, while thinking about the video we watched today, a thought occured to me- in our modern world, the American society offers a specific model of carnivalesque political behavior. It is no big truh that the US citizens embrace a unique sense of ultrapatriotism and a set of metaconcious beliefs of their benevolence, noble causes and national "defense" against the rest of the world's demons. This is tightly linked to our course on popular culture- the political culture of the masses offers them a relatively narrow apparatus through which they view and judge everything. Americans do believe in free speech. It is only when some of them do it, they are shocked. Take the staged rediculous specatcle we watched in class today. I do think that the audience we saw represents the vat majority of the population, it is only -possibly- less educated and more elaborate in their form of expression. Most of the scholars, top politicians and "doctors and lawyers" share that political culture that incorporates elements of intolerence and nationalistic myths. You don't believe me? just dig up some jurnals from our very own library websie. Even those who criticize the war on Iraq, for example, extensively analyze planning mistakes but there is a common underlined belief that cheers for Iraq's democratization. Another example is terrorism. Everyone who is fighting American allies is a terrorist, despite the fact that these "terrorists" fight for very different reasons.
Back to our topic- That powerful political ideology offers them the opportunity to passionately and blindly express their nationalism- in various settings. Just watch Bush's "Axis of Evil" speech. I find that no less carnivalesque than what we watched today.
I have tried to present what i see as a valid argument. Any thoughts?

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