“

So if this was some sort of critical last stand, a desperate ploy by critics to display their power by circling the wagons, it seems to have failed. Even if The Social Network wins the Oscar as expected, Freedom the Pulitzer Prize and Boardwalk Empire the Emmy, it would only serve to confirm the breach that now seems to exist between the critics and the public. Once upon a time, critics could close that breach through a process close to cultural brainwashing. They could get people to see and love The Social Network, to read Freedom, to watch Boardwalk Empire. Now they can’t.



The usual suspect in this immunisation is the internet. It is certainly no secret that the internet has eroded the authority of traditional critics and substituted Everyman opinion on blogs, websites, even on Facebook and Twitter where one’s friends and neighbours get to sound off. What is less widely acknowledged is just how deeply this populist blowback is embedded in America and how much of American culture has been predicated on a conscious resistance to cultural elites. It is virtually impossible to understand America without understanding the long ongoing battle between cultural commissars who have always attempted to define artistic standards and ordinary Americans who take umbrage at those commissars and their standards.



This is hardly a recent occurrence occasioned by the internet and other democratising elements. It actually began at the country’s inception when political opposition to England bled into a form of cultural opposition as well. Europe was seen as effete, corrupt, supercilious and haughty. By contrast, ordinary Americans saw themselves as manly, honest, commonsensical and populist, and early on they tried to fashion a culture that manifested these characteristics – an American culture divorced from any European antecedents, a democratic culture.

”
— via The Guardian, from the article "Everyone’s a critic now."

“This is a big surprise. I don’t agree with the concept of award ceremonies, but I’m prepared to make an exception for the ones I’m nominated for. The last time there was a naked man covered in gold paint in my house, it was me.”
— Banksy, on his Oscar nomination, by way of indieWire. (via ckck)

Arizona Suspect’s Recent Acts Offer Hints of Alienation →

benzado:

heyjb:

I know everyone’s really, really excited to blame Sarah Palin for the shooting in Arizona, but it’s pretty clear the guy was just nuts.

Well, yeah, of course he was nuts. That’s precisely the reason Palin is getting heat for it.

Here’s the point, that I think some people who do not regularly follow politics are missing: for a while now, people have been concerned that persistent and repeated use of gun metaphors and warfighting imagery in political talk by Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, et al. were creating the sort of environment that would drive an unbalanced person with a gun to do something like this.

Any sane person should realize that repeatedly saying “Don’t Retreat, Reload” and using crosshairs to mark Democratic candidates’ on a map doesn’t mean Palin actually wanted someone to shoot them. But it wasn’t just one web page, it’s repeated over and over again, and pretty soon this guy who is just nuts is finding encouragement everywhere he looks. Even if you could prove Jared Lee Loughner had never read a word by Sarah Palin, that’s not the point: by giving this kind of talk legitimacy, they allow it to permeate the environment.

To what degree the relevant politicians and pundits are responsible for the shooting is difficult to answer, but the fact that Palin has removed much of the offending material at least acknowledges it is in disgustingly poor taste, as it always has been.

kateoplis:

MSNBC talks to Rep. Gabrielle Gifford about the death threats, vandalism and harassments. Aired 3/25/10.

“Sarah Palin has the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district and when people do that, they’ve gotta realize there are consequences to that action.”