Monday, August 30, 2010

First blog entry ( 8/30)


Modern times he's crazy
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In this clip from 'Modern Times" Charlie is seen as  going against the grain, resisting the normal way one "should" behave at work. This is a great demonstration of our readings and class discussions this last week because it shows us a humorous image of the average lower class worker's struggle against "The Machine". He has no other option but to work in a factory, yielding to those that are in authority over him. This leads first towards his insanity and later his termination due to him stepping outside the norm; being radical in his rebellion against society norms.

 I have throughly enjoyed thinking about these concepts / ideologies this weekend. After reading chapter two and 'Introduction: "The Politics of Culture", this ideology from our hand out grabbed my
 attention; "Culture is both a means of domination, of assuring the rule of one class or group over another,and a means of resistance to such domination, a way articulating oppositional points of view to those in dominance." This is what inspired me to use Charlie Chaplin's clip and is something that I will continue to dwell on in the coming weeks. Also, the clip is a good picture of the 'above' people who have the power to dominate the ones 'below'.

The other point I would like to discuss from our text (p.66); "For Gramsci, hegemony implies a situation where a 'historical bloc' of ruling-class factions exercise social authority  and leadership over the subordinate classes. This is archived through a combination of force and , more importantly, consent."  The idea in hegemony that those 'below'  have to give consent to the ones 'above' for the culture to live and succeed is interesting. I have to choose to do as the forces 'above' me tell me to, or the culture as we know it might collapse. For example, if we choose not to eat at McDonald's and cooked our meals at home then the whole chain of Mickey D's would have to change their approach. They might have to give us better quality of food, or more choices. Instead we as a culture "consent" by purchasing their product.