Monday, 2 June 2008

I'm a freaking Marxist!

Originally uploaded by sandrino
I've started to realise I am becoming a closet lefty. It all started when I was watching Wheel of Fortune with Nofo, my father in law.

Nofo's not an intellectual. English is not his first language. His passions are gambling and gardening.

Nofo didn't see that the words on Wheel of Fortune were forming "The Roman Colloseum". In fact, I'm almost sure he doesn't know what the Roman Colloseum is.

Wouldn't it be great, I thought to myself, if Wheel of Fortune could be an educational programme. Just a little bit. I mean, just a photo of the Colloseum, so you know what it is. Where it is. What happened there.

But no, we just see appliance porn - lovingly crafted shots of fridges, washing machines and wide screen TVs.

All this is, I continued to think to myself, is a conditioning device. Conditioning people like Nofo and like me into knowing the right pieces of information - popular culture - in order to receive the right rewards - consumer appliances. It's all a plot by the capitalists to make us want their things.

Religion is not the opiate of the people. TV is.

I felt a bit better after dinner, but these thoughts kind of stay with you.

What next? Conga dancing in a public place? Or is it public? The security guard seemed pretty sure it was private property - no conga dancing allowed here. Interesting!

(PS: Maybe here's where it really started...)


Johnny-johnny said...

Whoa! Hold on for a minute here... you think Capitalism is responsible for propaganda on TV.

I guess that would NEVER happen with Marxists... LOL!

Btw, caring for people doesn't make you a lefty... Wanting to make decisions for people (because you know better) does...

Simon said...

Well spoken, my free-market friend!

Actually, I did the Political Compass test and found myself slightly toward the libertarian end of the spectrum, and only a titch to the left.

And after I've finished reading about India and China, I'm going to read a biography of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations.

Economics can be so interesting sometime!