2/13 Reading quotes
"In our present economic system, where making culture and making money are deeply intertwined, each of us participates in the capitalist system, no matter how much we might wish to think otherwise."
This is a system that is rooted in exploitation, but in some ways, it's impossible to escape. You can buy clothes at a higher price from ethically sourced stores, or support local community stores run by families and those within your area, but the materials they buy, the phone you use, the toothpaste you have in your bathroom, all of these are cogs in the capitalist machine. The person who packaged the food in your fridge is on minimal wages, the phone you have was completed in a factory with a net between the floors because employees commit suicide so often, the toothpaste was bottled by a machine that doesn't require a wage after a human employee was let go after cut backs. It's more than just a local issue that you can write to your government about because the temptation of unethical, but cheaper, produce is so irresistible to the capitalist machine that suggesting we spend even one cent more than necessary for the benefit of us all earns you the politically charged insults like "socialist" or "communist."
"My goal is for readers of Seeing Power to come away from this book with a set of actionable insights into the production of culture and, by extension, the production of politics."
People who claim to not be interested in politics, or that they don't know much, don't value politics like they should. Perhaps they have a real insight into the way that a social club at school is run, or have opinions about why it's wrong a popular girl group tease fellow classmates. Politics is everywhere, it's the basis for literally every section of life; what is available to you, how it is made available, why it's available, and the implications for taking part in it. Everything we do is somehow rooted in politics, making a statement about what is important to us. It's not just legislation making and voting. This isn't a bad thing or something to be scared of, it's very powerful and we can use this power to steer our society into a more inclusive, welcoming space to benefit everyone, not just those on top.
2/20 Reading quotes
"That is to say, the facts are not necessarily “true”, but then again, as the project implicitly asks whose perspective is?"
This is interesting because there's plenty of social theories regarding perceptions of truth from an event that you and other people witnessed to your own person. As we all perceive things differently because of our individual socialisation, even people within a similar community to you will have differences that allow them to see perspectives you don't. A different version of you exists in so many people's heads, all about the same subject, I think that's really funny to think about.
"Frustrated with political irrelevance, many interventionists have catered their projects to fit in numerous spheres and to resonate across a wide-range of audiences."
When this class first started, we were asked to think of examples of activism, and I feel that most of the obvious ones came out first such as protest, performance art, things that are explicitly clear, but as we've progressed through the class, it's clear that there's activism everywhere, in aspects of life one might not even expect to find it.
No comments:
Post a Comment