Thoughts on production, alienation, and ideology
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.
As of late, I’ve written a fair bit about factions and sectarianism on the left. On that topic, I recently revisited a quote from Thomas Merton.
For anyone who doesn’t know Merton, he was a Trappist monk. He wrote on Catholicism, social justice, and other topics. Among many other books, he wrote the autobiographical The Seven Storey Mountain.
I remember the first time I heard about Facebook. I worked for the Indiana University Bookstore in my senior year of college. The job paid minimum wage ($5.15 at the time), but it was the easiest job in the world. I walked about 10 minutes from my apartment to the middle of the IU campus and lounged around for 4-8 hours. Those were the days?
Anyway, one day someone at work told me about Facebook. I thought she said ‘Face Party’ and didn’t think much of it. A few months later, I had an account and used it all the time. 17 years later – but who’s counting? – I think I’ve seen enough to reflect a bit on social media, its impact on my own life, and its impact on the lives of those younger than me.
In his book Know-It-All Society, Michael P. Lynch claims that intellectual arrogance rules US politics. Along the way, he points out that people share the news not to get at the truth. Or even to engage with ideas. Rather, they share the news an act of expression – a case of what Lynch calls ‘expressivism’ (related to, but somewhat distinct from, ethical expressivism). ‘Expressivism,’ here, means they post news stories on Facebook and Twitter to say something about themselves rather than about the world.
I think Lynch makes a good point. And I want to extend that point a bit. I think the term ‘expressivism’ provides us with a useful way to look at how people talk about COVID policy and even the politics they want to see.
While the COVID-19 virus technically emerged in 2019, the pandemic got very real very quickly in the US in March 2020. It was a stark enough change that I still remember some of my ‘lasts’ from that March. I worked my last in-person shift on March 9. I attended my last in-person activist meeting on March 10. Last trip to the movie theater: March 11. And last trip to a coffee shop: Friday, March 13.
I’ve done a couple of those things again in 2021 or 2022. But it was a huge gap. It’s hard to believe it’s been a full 2 years since the start of the pandemic. It hit home for me a few weeks ago when the Englert Theatre notified me it had canceled a Dweezil Zappa show. A show originally scheduled for late March 2020. So, yeah, it’s been a long time.
It’s a good time to check in. Have we learned anything?
I suppose this post is part statement and part confession. But I like a certain kind of movie. What kind of movie? Here’s a way to describe it: the movie concerns professional class people and their problems. Especially their various neuroses – their anxiety, guilt, and other issues.
I thought about this recently when reflecting on why Stanley Kubrick stands out as one of my favorite directors. He excelled at making this kind of movie! In a bit less politically savory move, I might also point out that Woody Allen made quite a few good movies like this (e.g., Manhattan, Annie Hall). But Allen is a tougher choice for people who want to tie their evaluation of a movie to their evaluation of the director’s character.
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