Subject to private schooling during my formative years I was taught the theory of mass society when it comes to popular culture. The idea that the masses, as the inheritors of popular production threaten the elite is totally aristocratic. Maybe the masses threaten the old system where being a part of the elite allowed you to dictate what should be read, viewed, or thought important. But again and again the masses want to be a part of the same elite they critique, if the elite is the group making these decisions so that they might have economic power through the selling of their art. Whether the masses are a threat to capitalism and democracy, the very means by which they can become the elite and determine what is consumed, seems questionable.
It seems to me that mass society, if such buying trends should ever be separated from individuals linguistically, is at once interested in buying something new, and also something durable at the same time. It is a matter of human reproduction that the young people make decisions at some point about what culture to invest in and it would seem like parents, critics and teachers are teaching a type of economics where students learn to pick out artistic products that will last, if they are practical, or ones they prefer, when they feel more emotional, or often, to like ones similar to what they render, if they are selfish.
Essentially teachers (economically repressed themselves usually), seem to influence us in buying things that we can carry with us proudly for a long time. The threat to the teaching elite is only that the children will not purchase what the elite are selling: the books they write, or the music they produce. The business elite has long since learned to counter this by publishing the work of the economically disadvantaged (or non-teaching elite), no matter how revolutionary the content, and selling it everywhere. Making it available so that the economic power stays in the hands of the elite and the subversive ideas seem to be exposed as popular thereby generating the need for a counter-rebellion against the previous norm, and finally reinforcing conservative values. The flux from rebellion to conservation is so rapid today, that I advise following the dollars, not the text of the art, to show who is truly opposed to the elite, and to who just wants to be in charge of it.
At the point of purchase some decisions are shaped by a culture industry. What is at the book store is decided by companies. What is available on line, free content, like this blog you are reading, might be the most dangerous work in production. I recognize that I am sensitizing conservatives to this fact, but it’s cool, I’m a law and order type at my core. This is either due to the aforementioned education, or if you give me more credit, because I recognize law and order as safe. Safety is rejected only when not appreciated. I love a peaceful, friendly society, this is why I participate here in this revolutionary context of the internet, and why you should too.
It’s a matter of power relationships, something better understood with the theory of culture industry. These theorists think I work for the state. I kind of do. I don’t get paid by anyone, except anonymous donors, you can see my hand out over there with my digital “tip” jar, but I don’t want a revolution. I don’t want to be shot at, or stolen from. I just want varied, excellent art, and mass culture is not anathema to this anymore, in my polite conclusion. It creates art that will last, a ton of stuff that will be forgotten, but at the end of the day I want art that reinforces public safety and that I will still want on my shelves thirty years from now. My shelves are full of poetry, comics, and philosophy, but I am always weeding through them and eliminating what I will never read again. I share with you this process, to influence you in buying stuff that might last on your shelves too.
I am susceptible to the notion that an elite exists dictating what’s on radio and television. I don’t listen to radio, or watch television, but I did at one point, this is when mass decisions were made for me, I just sat there and received these decisions. This time of received content shaped me just as my education did.
But there is another sense of the elite: the elite of the intellect, where the smart kids make the art and “smart” can be taught to a point, but good art can’t be taught in my personal experience, and smart kids make great art with poor educations all the time, while great educations are still usually purchased in our culture, thereby handed to kids who don’t appreciate them, and watch out for what they like to write. Phew, it can be awful, irony intended.
Finally, or final for today at least, meaning right here: there’s the theory of progressive evolution. Capitalism provides us all with an opportunity to participate in capitalism says the theory, and the weeding out process I mentioned above about my bookshelf, is totally personal. But we all know money makes money, education can lead to smarter kids, so who are they fooling by thinking that anyone, no matter where they were born or to whom they were born can participate? Some families value education and the arts. Some don’t. Some people are disabled, so they lack the capital investment ability necessary to produce many types of art.
Or is that not true? I can’t afford to print a magazine, but I invested in a computer. As computers become ubiquitous, these blogs will be everywhere, so is this the height of the revolution? Me, a disabled, mentally ill guy, still having his say? Perhaps it is. Or maybe you are only still reading this because we share so many sensibilities thanks to our respective private (private in the sense of forced upon us, this can be public, private, or television) and personal (personal in the sense that we make our own choices about what we expose ourselves to) educations?
If I still have your attention let me leave you with a riddle: I think I spend way too much time reading about mutants and I don’t check out my Shakespeare often enough. Or is that my repressive aristocratic education rearing its ugly head? Why is the head reared so often ugly? Must be some old guy's head they are talking about...
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