Sub-cultures are becoming less and less underground.
Alternative identity choices are no longer really about rejecting a perceived mainstream and more about shopping for desired identity in a marketplace of identities. The mainstream has more or less co-opted its detractors as consumption choices.
Welcome to late capitalism.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Private Utopias
I wonder if anyone has writen about this before...
It seems to me that history is full of people putting their hopes in utopias. This comes through in its most obvious guises and religious conceptions of heaven, or nirvana. Perhaps obtainable through a life of peity, or by the discrimination of God.
Utopian is also an obvious presence in political projects. Socialism, Liberalism, Conservative all have their fair share of utopias.
In recent times, aspirations in political goals have seemed to have waned. Few people ever longer hope for a socialist utopia round the corner.
My question is, has this been supplanted with private utopias? These utopias are the outcome of a more individualist, celf-centred self of modern times. Do people now, instead of placing their hopes and dreams in collective or devine utopias, set themselves personal, utopian goals? For example, somebody hoping that the completion of their studies will lead to a perfect world. It could come through work, or family or through things like fitness. Are these goals less stable simply because they are realisable and measurable? Does this contribute to loss of meaning in modernity?
It seems to me that history is full of people putting their hopes in utopias. This comes through in its most obvious guises and religious conceptions of heaven, or nirvana. Perhaps obtainable through a life of peity, or by the discrimination of God.
Utopian is also an obvious presence in political projects. Socialism, Liberalism, Conservative all have their fair share of utopias.
In recent times, aspirations in political goals have seemed to have waned. Few people ever longer hope for a socialist utopia round the corner.
My question is, has this been supplanted with private utopias? These utopias are the outcome of a more individualist, celf-centred self of modern times. Do people now, instead of placing their hopes and dreams in collective or devine utopias, set themselves personal, utopian goals? For example, somebody hoping that the completion of their studies will lead to a perfect world. It could come through work, or family or through things like fitness. Are these goals less stable simply because they are realisable and measurable? Does this contribute to loss of meaning in modernity?
Calvinism and Environmentalism
Thinking about whether forms of the Calvinist concept of the elect are reappearing in new formations. For example; environmentalism. Environmentalists demonstrate through their consumption choices that they are aware of thier impact on the environment and attempting to ameliorate it. Is this a viable solution to environmental problems, or are they simply driven by guilt over the original sin of being born into a consumptionist society? Do consumption choices serve as a demonstration to themselves and others that they are part of the 'solution' (ie a member of the elect). How does this relate to the doctrines of Protestantism that Weber spoke about in The Protestant Ethic? Is this a middle class phenonmenon? Have old middle class values changed in the face of the 'death of God' and modern preoccupations with the failures of our society?
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