Saturday, December 04, 2004
"Values" or "Value"?
Somewhere in the back of my musty memory bank is an echo from my days as a Philosophy major, a whisper of vague recollection from Das Kapital, something about the "inherent contradiction of capitalism". Now I'm certain Mr. Marx had something completely different in mind from what I'm about to say but I'm pretty sure he wouldn't disagree with my point.
See, conservatives love capitalism and, in fact, they like capitalism so much, they despise anything that stands in the way of how it works. Conservatives never met a market that was too free because they have an aversion to regulated markets. That's just how they are.
Funny thing is, conservatives have also positioned themselves as the "values" people, you know, the folks who are going to protect everyone from the decline of decency that liberals have wrought. Because, as we know, liberals have supported everything from permissiveness to drug taking to federally funding drag shows in Baptist churches. So really, in the minds of conservatives, the reason why our culture is obsessed with sex, violence, and godless iconography is because liberals have nothing but time on their hands to subvert and dirty up the minds of normally upright American citizens.
Let's get back to Mr. Marx (historically the filthiest pornographer and subverter of clean minds - well, except that pervert Freud) and contradictions. Because if you look at the most obvious, most ubiquitous purveyor of filth, prime-time television, it's all about market forces. As Robert Scheer put it so well, "these national moralists -- dominated these days by evangelical Christians -- politicize the issue by blaming "liberal Hollywood" for what deregulation and the free market have wrought."
Rupert Murdoch, the baron of conservative chest-thumping self-righteousness knows the value of lascivious programming so much that the FCC has seen fit to fine him $1.18 Million dollars for an incident on Married by America where:
I wonder where Bill O'Reilly's outrage is regarding THAT?
Yes, Mr. Marx, there is a Satan clause, which says that the crap on television is strictly the fault of liberals and free-market capitalism gets a walk. More than that, you can pretty much say what you like on radio (as long as it has to do with bare breasts and lesbians, preferably at the same time) but if you gussy it up with "God & Country" the way Clear Channel does (scroll down to the bottom on that link to see what those hypocrites are up to), everything's Right in capitalist, moral America.
No contradiction, there.
See, conservatives love capitalism and, in fact, they like capitalism so much, they despise anything that stands in the way of how it works. Conservatives never met a market that was too free because they have an aversion to regulated markets. That's just how they are.
Funny thing is, conservatives have also positioned themselves as the "values" people, you know, the folks who are going to protect everyone from the decline of decency that liberals have wrought. Because, as we know, liberals have supported everything from permissiveness to drug taking to federally funding drag shows in Baptist churches. So really, in the minds of conservatives, the reason why our culture is obsessed with sex, violence, and godless iconography is because liberals have nothing but time on their hands to subvert and dirty up the minds of normally upright American citizens.
Let's get back to Mr. Marx (historically the filthiest pornographer and subverter of clean minds - well, except that pervert Freud) and contradictions. Because if you look at the most obvious, most ubiquitous purveyor of filth, prime-time television, it's all about market forces. As Robert Scheer put it so well, "these national moralists -- dominated these days by evangelical Christians -- politicize the issue by blaming "liberal Hollywood" for what deregulation and the free market have wrought."
Rupert Murdoch, the baron of conservative chest-thumping self-righteousness knows the value of lascivious programming so much that the FCC has seen fit to fine him $1.18 Million dollars for an incident on Married by America where:
...a topless woman straddling a man... whipped cream being licked off one woman's bare chest and an underwear-clad man being spanked by two topless female strippers...
I wonder where Bill O'Reilly's outrage is regarding THAT?
Yes, Mr. Marx, there is a Satan clause, which says that the crap on television is strictly the fault of liberals and free-market capitalism gets a walk. More than that, you can pretty much say what you like on radio (as long as it has to do with bare breasts and lesbians, preferably at the same time) but if you gussy it up with "God & Country" the way Clear Channel does (scroll down to the bottom on that link to see what those hypocrites are up to), everything's Right in capitalist, moral America.
No contradiction, there.
