Ben Beller of the Harvard Political Review reviews the book “Beyond the Global Culture War” by Adam K. Webb (see sidebar). Since I hardly come across articles talking about the theory of global culture, I found this book very promising with an argument built around the concept of “ethoses”:
Webb devotes the first part of his book to illustrating four frames of thinking that he claims have co-existed throughout history. These four “ethoses,” which embody different images of the ideal character, are atomism, demoticism, perfectionism, and virtuocracy.
And how many of the issues we talk about in this blog (globalization, capitalism, consumism, etc) can be traced back to a single cause:
Atomism is based on “homogeneity and detachment,” according to Webb, and it values “autonomy, raw authenticity, and adaptability to ever shifting circumstances.” Unchallenged by other ethoses in the late 19th century and early 20th century, he argues, atomism latched its principles onto the concepts of modernity, globalization, and liberalism
While a bit abstract, Webb proposes a solution that may lead us out of our current atomism:
He proposes a push towards a more cosmopolitan resistance and he vouches for virtuocracy (the dominance of moral worth and merit in society) as the basis for [...]
The Toronto International Film Festival announced a line-up of 352 films from 61 countries. While there are the mandatory celebrities promoting their big-budget films, such a number guarantees that there will be plenty of newcomers that travel to the festival with the same attitude of the migrant, trying to understand a new culture and figuring out how their cultural baggage (their movie) makes sense in this new place. They will have a very small opportunity to convey their message, but we are all hoping they succeed.
In the post jazz & macdonald’s I criticized an article by Professor Richard Pells that, although full of wonderful historical analysis, seemed to be politically charged and lost credibility. One of the statements from Professor Pells is that American media industry has learned to produce content for a very heterogeneous (culturaly diverse) audience, therefore is ability to produce content with world-wide appeal. I believe that one of the reasons the TIFF has raised as one of the top film festivals has to do with the exact same fact: the diversity of its audience provides a powerful filter for what will resonate across cultural contexts.
If during this or any other local [...]
According to Wikipedia, the original slogan “Eight hours labour, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest” was coined by Robert Owen early in the XIX century. The industrial revolution would only provide the appropriate climate for the Eight-hour day movement to become the central demand of the labour movement across the world. Labour Day (as it is celebrated in the U.S. & Canada) is the sad remnant of what was at some point a passionate struggle for what common workers thought were fair labor conditions. It’s commemoration in September is the result of some clever politician trying to diminish the historic impact of Chicago’s Haymarket riots.
But I’m not trying to revive an old working-class vs. Corporations fight. In the spirit of hackers & work culture, I’m more interested in understanding how some of our programmed habits (i.e. culture) are being deeply challenged by the mechanisms of our modern society and its obsession with the net. In the title “8 hours blog”, blogging is a metaphor for all those little things we do seeking to participate in the global village. It is appropriate that it replaces the 8 hours of recreation that our ancestors were [...]
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