...sigh. I'm sorry. I'm not trying to accuse you of being a hate-monger, but if that's what it sounds like to you, okay, I take it back.
Frankly, I'd say the same think about any politician, including Barack Obama...especially the more popular ones, I suppose. But in saying that, I'm not necessarily trying to lay blame on him--it's a problem with how our (televised) political campaigning system works, and possibly more than that.
I don't know how much it goes to reinforce them, but it certain doesn't contradict them...and what does tends to be ridiculed, marginalized, or simply not accepted.
I'm not sure what you mean about there not being room for criticism of Narnia and Indiana Jones, although I do get the thing about not mocking itself. I guess I'd say (and maybe this is my own way of saying the same thing) that it makes criticism have to come from an essentially reactive standpoint, from someone pointing a finger at it and calling it wrong. And yes, that is what it means to be part of the hegemonic culture.
But I have just as much of a problem with that sort of criticism as I do with the original prejudices. Which is what I meant to say. It sets up a system in which you have to divide yourself, you have to make an "us" (the marginalized viewpoint) and "them" (the hegemonic one) that invariably get moralized, to even be able to argue for something different. That, in my view, is what the worst part of it is. I suppose the only way for it not to be that way is to change the structure of the culture/society itself as a whole, because only then can you change what it is that's making the hegemonic viewpoint hegemonic. Not that societies are independent structures that can be separated out and counted.
I haven't seen the new movie, nor have I seen the old ones in a very long time. The rehashing seems pretty lame, though. Actually, I didn't know there was a new one till the other day when Tara pointed this out on her cereal box, and it weirded me out, 'cause Harrison Ford is like ancient now.
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Frankly, I'd say the same think about any politician, including Barack Obama...especially the more popular ones, I suppose. But in saying that, I'm not necessarily trying to lay blame on him--it's a problem with how our (televised) political campaigning system works, and possibly more than that.
I don't know how much it goes to reinforce them, but it certain doesn't contradict them...and what does tends to be ridiculed, marginalized, or simply not accepted.
I'm not sure what you mean about there not being room for criticism of Narnia and Indiana Jones, although I do get the thing about not mocking itself. I guess I'd say (and maybe this is my own way of saying the same thing) that it makes criticism have to come from an essentially reactive standpoint, from someone pointing a finger at it and calling it wrong. And yes, that is what it means to be part of the hegemonic culture.
But I have just as much of a problem with that sort of criticism as I do with the original prejudices. Which is what I meant to say. It sets up a system in which you have to divide yourself, you have to make an "us" (the marginalized viewpoint) and "them" (the hegemonic one) that invariably get moralized, to even be able to argue for something different. That, in my view, is what the worst part of it is. I suppose the only way for it not to be that way is to change the structure of the culture/society itself as a whole, because only then can you change what it is that's making the hegemonic viewpoint hegemonic. Not that societies are independent structures that can be separated out and counted.
I haven't seen the new movie, nor have I seen the old ones in a very long time. The rehashing seems pretty lame, though. Actually, I didn't know there was a new one till the other day when Tara pointed this out on her cereal box, and it weirded me out, 'cause Harrison Ford is like ancient now.