I'm wondering just how many of you have an understanding of what Cultural Theory might be, for instance, with the perspective of Cultural Theory, you could,'t compare Dubai with The Great Pyramids, beacause Anciwnt Egypt was a DEATH CULT- or could you?
I think you could quite easily compare these two, and see the similarities, we are all told about Egyptians and their slave labour of the Jews constructing vast iconic structures in the desert, but yet we fail to recognise it in present day, or we choose to ignore it when we go holiday in Dubai, the badly treated and entrapment of the Indian workers, who can only afford to live in small room with 12 other people. Is this type of labour the only way in which vast images and icons can be built? even in china coming up to the Olympics the Nest Stadium, 4 workers died constructing but yet they carried on building and the project did not suffer.
ReplyDeletewe could and we should!
ReplyDeletehistorical reference sets the foundation for analysis. despite of the freedom made possible by abandoning the past establishment, the absolute truth and set rules, we are confronted with forced amnesia. we could create something from nothing on a whim; design something because it looks cool.
I think it really depends on what characteristics of different cultures, civilisations or poltical systems that you can compare. From my humble opinion, cultural theory allows you to see parallels and contradictions even within that same system. There are similarities between Dubai and Egypt where slavery and feudalism is concerned. But even within Dubai, the libertarian( as against the prudish patriachal system)princes and princess have almost no moral compass and you can easily find many such lost souls in the so-called 'decadent West'. Come on, recently, there is an increase in the number of wealthy Arab drug addicts that came to London to seek treatment probably as many as the high-flying executives and celebrities over here!
ReplyDeleteThe Egyptian pyramids are an unnecessary excessive display of wealth, similar to Dubai's megastructures. Both effectively built using slave labour for the benefit of the privileged few.
ReplyDeleteThis is true throughout society - the privileged few strive to exert power and control, telling others what to do. Just remember Badiou writing about the technical jargon of the bankers. By using jargon the bankers are not allowing anyone but educated economists to understand what they are doing with our money.
I agree with the previous comment: both projects compare in terms of showing off wealth and pretending to produce something "cultural" be it the construction of the "death cult" or a "city".
ReplyDeleteCultural should be a term used for something to do with a collective, a common ground for people to relate democratically. Both, Dubai and pyramids are the opposite of such concept.
Saying that, I guess one could argue that capitalism/globalization are not really engaged in cultural production but rather work against it. As T.E. puts it:
"For a socialist, the true scandal of the present world is that almost everyone in it is banished to the margins. As far as the transnational corporations go, great masses of men and women are really neither here nor there. Whole nations are thrust to the periphery. Entire classes of people are deemed to be dysfunctional. Communities are uprooted and forced into migration."
Basically, he is saying, the power is taken from the people as there is no mass of people anymore. Capitalism and globalization have brought with them the decentralization of communities. Since the erasure (or mingling up) of the social classes through capitalism there is no common ground for people to develop new theories.
Both the Ancient Egyptians and Modern Emiratis are basically Feudal societies that have no problem ideologically with exploitation. Established. It was more interesting to hear Eagleton dissect the Leftist social models of Russian Marxism which socially subverted its ideals through the implementation of human rights abuses to survive. In terms of whether the three are comparable within the parameters of Cultural Theory though, I'm going to be really dumb and say that of course you can; Culture is a human invention, and symptoms of it are what distinguish us from the animal kingdom. In that sense, Cultural Theory could be loosely defined as the study of what humans do...
ReplyDeleteThat encapsulates some pretty awkward things, and understandably cultural theorists obssess about trying to pin down what i is that they should do, what they should focus their critical faculties on.
I think Eagleton believes that the political realm is one of those that holds the most topicality and is hence the worthiest: Why else would he publish a book about the role of the critic and use it as a lanuchpad to talk about neo-colonialism, third worldism and the status of leftist historiography? If Cultural Theory is the study of political systems on the ground, then whilst that includes the operation of states regardless of their ideologies and rightly so...
palm islands vs the great pyramid of giza
ReplyDeleteindian slaves vs egyptian slaves
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum vs Pharaoh Kchan
pyramids will stand while the island will sink
nobody will remember you Rashid
The Pyramides are essentially a tomb for the old Pharaohs. The Sheik of Dubai, Al Maktoum, will when he dies, have built the largest tomb in the world - for himself. The essential differences in how this is done - between the earliest civilized culture we know, and 2011 - are not huge. In fact, pretty small. These great monuments are being built, ordered by an emperor, built by imported labour. Cheap labour. If Dubai was to be built by western european workers, on western european terms and costs, the place would not have been the same.
ReplyDeleteTE is questioning capitalism, and how the elite, with the controlling power, is dependent on cheap labour to make the system work. But if we look at this example, is this just not another proof of human nature? Survival of the fittest? We are no different then the earliest human civilization known to us, and even though we are living in an enlightened and civilized time, 'everything' works the same. Even in leading western countries you have massive differences between the elite and 'the bottom of the ladder'.
Ironically, it is so far the only ideology that has ever worked on a global scale, is it not?