Marsupialized wrote:There comes a point where what the dude was actually like does not matter anymore, it's what people believe he was and was like and what he stood for. What's the point in telling some kid wearing his shirt that he was a prick and not exactly who he thinks he was? Just so he knows? He was cool thinking something else altogether and we all know what he's getting at with the shirt.

Goes for anyone.

People think Lincoln loved black people and just would stop at nothing to free the slaves. What's wrong with letting them believe that? That's a way better story than the actual truth, does far more good for people to think that's what was going on, I think.

Ty Webb wrote:

Marsupialized wrote:There comes a point where what the dude was actually like does not matter anymore, it's what people believe he was and was like and what he stood for. What's the point in telling some kid wearing his shirt that he was a prick and not exactly who he thinks he was? Just so he knows? He was cool thinking something else altogether and we all know what he's getting at with the shirt.

Goes for anyone.

People think Lincoln loved black people and just would stop at nothing to free the slaves. What's wrong with letting them believe that? That's a way better story than the actual truth, does far more good for people to think that's what was going on, I think.

Which is how we got our current president and our present state of affairs.

Myths and heroes are important, but only if they are so removed from present circumstances by time that the lessons derived from them are general and fundamental. Weaving myths from recent history creates obfuscation and propaganda, not clarity, because the agendas behind those myths are still operating.

In the field of ideas that do not lead to activities involving production, it is easier to see the division between material and spiritual necessity. For a long time individuals have been trying to free themselves from alienation through culture and art. While a person dies every day during the eight or more hours in which he or she functions as a commodity, individuals come to life afterward in their spiritual creations. But this remedy bears the germs of the same sickness: that of a solitary being seeking harmony with the world. One defends one's individuality, which is oppressed by the environment, and reacts to aesthetic ideas as a unique being whose aspiration is to remain immaculate. It is nothing more than an attempt to escape. The law of value is no longer simply a reflection of the relations of production; the monopoly capitalists — even while employing purely empirical methods — surround that law with a complicated scaffolding that turns it into a docile servant. The superstructure imposes a kind of art in which the artist must be educated. Rebels are subdued by the machine, and only exceptional talents may create their own work. The rest become shamefaced hirelings or are crushed.

A school of artistic experimentation is invented, which is said to be the definition of freedom; but this “experimentation” has its limits, imperceptible until there is a clash, that is, until the real problems of individual alienation arise. Meaningless anguish or vulgar amusement thus become convenient safety valves for human anxiety. The idea of using art as a weapon of protest is combated.

Those who play by the rules of the game are showered with honors — such honors as a monkey might get for performing pirouettes. The condition is that one does not try to escape from the invisible cage.

Ty Webb wrote:

Marsupialized wrote:There comes a point where what the dude was actually like does not matter anymore, it's what people believe he was and was like and what he stood for. What's the point in telling some kid wearing his shirt that he was a prick and not exactly who he thinks he was? Just so he knows? He was cool thinking something else altogether and we all know what he's getting at with the shirt.

Goes for anyone.

People think Lincoln loved black people and just would stop at nothing to free the slaves. What's wrong with letting them believe that? That's a way better story than the actual truth, does far more good for people to think that's what was going on, I think.

Which is how we got our current president and our present state of affairs.

Myths and heroes are important, but only if they are so removed from present circumstances by time that the lessons derived from them are general and fundamental. Weaving myths from recent history creates obfuscation and propaganda, not clarity, because the agendas behind those myths are still operating.