Base and Superstructure

Thoughts on production, alienation, and ideology

Category: Culture (Page 18 of 21)

These are posts on culture from the blog Base and Superstructure. Mostly the focus is on American culture. But there might be a few posts on broader, international issues.

How Does Our Work Shape Us?

September 26, 2019 /

I read an in-depth and at times terrifying account of how moderating Facebook posts impacts staff. The Verge published it some time ago, and in fact I read it some time ago. Apparently Facebook moderation is an endless wall of hate speech, graphic porn, threats of violence, depictions of violence, etc. And people spend hours at a time wading through the stuff. It’s enough to give anyone panic attacks and nightmares.

I don’t have any stories like that, though I’ve had the kind of chronic career stress grad school in the humanities often produces. And we’re at a unique historical juncture when it comes to issues of jobs and career.

How about you? How does your work shape you?

middle managers

Why Do Companies Have Middle Managers?

September 23, 2019 /

The business literature says middle managers form an essential part of the company. But, really, why do companies have middle managers? Do they perform some essential task or service? Do they serve some rhetorical or ideological function? I’ll lay out some thoughts on middle managers, what they do, who they serve, and why the role exists.

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authentic food

Should We Eat ‘Authentic Food’?

August 12, 2019 /

People talk about ‘authentic food’ or ‘authenticity’ during discussions of cultural appropriation. That’s a frequent site of disagreement. But I think it’s worth talking about those phrases in their own right. Not that I don’t have any thoughts on cultural appropriation. Maybe I’ll write about that later. For now, check out Briahna Joy Gray’s article in Current Affairs as a starting point.

‘Authenticity’, in general, and ‘authentic food’, in particular, raise their own issues.

The fact is, ‘authentic food’ is all the rage. Diners and reviewers alike demand it. When you turn on Food Network, you see celebrity chef Aarón Sánchez judging Chopped contestants on it. And when the show goes to commercial break, you listen to him tell you to ‘go auténtico’.

And it’s not only reviewers and diners. There’s a broad consensus on this. Plenty of left-leaning critics of cultural appropriation, particularly ones found on social media, also uphold the virtues of authentic food. Along with it, they extol the virtues of broader notions of authenticity.

What should we make of all this? A few leading questions: What do people mean when they talk about ‘authentic food’? The same thing? What kind of a word is ‘authentic’? Where do broader cultural practices enter the picture?

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declining trust

Declining Trust in Democratic Institutions?

August 8, 2019 /

Earlier this year, William Davies published a book called Nervous States: Democracy and the Decline of Reason. The book’s about a number of things, but I want to focus on one of them. That’s the declining trust in democratic institutions among Americans. But this declining trust isn’t consistent across institutions. It’s unevenly distributed.

So which ones do Americans trust and distrust? We see declining trust in the media and in elected representatives above all. And we see the least declining trust in doctors, nurses, the military, and (perhaps) the police.

Let’s speculate a bit about all this.

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