display all the ideas for this combination of texts
3 ideas
9311 | We have achieved a sort of utopia, and it is boring, so that is the end of utopias [Svendsen] |
Full Idea: There can hardly be any new utopias. To the extent that we can imagine a utopia, it must already have been realised. A utopia cannot, by definition, include boredom, but the 'utopia' we are living in is boring. | |
From: Lars Svendsen (A Philosophy of Boredom [2005], Ch.4) | |
A reaction: Compare Idea 8989. Lots of people (including me) think that we have achieved a kind of liberal, democratic, individualistic 'utopia', but the community needs of people are not being met, so we still have a way to go. |
15662 | The 'culture industry' is an advertisement for the way things are [Finlayson] |
Full Idea: Critical theory said that culture unwittingly played the role of an advertisement for the way things are. Horkheimer and Adorno referred to this phenomenon as the 'culture industry'. | |
From: James Gordon Finlayson (Habermas [2005], Ch.1:04) | |
A reaction: An interesting perspective. However, absolutely everything is an advertisement for what it offers. I think this is especially true of moral (and immoral) actions. |
9303 | The concept of 'alienation' seems no longer applicable [Svendsen] |
Full Idea: I do not believe that the concept of 'alienation' is all that applicable any more. | |
From: Lars Svendsen (A Philosophy of Boredom [2005], Ch.1) | |
A reaction: Interesting but puzzling. If alienation is the key existential phenomenon of a capitalist society, why should it fade away if we remain capitalist? He is proposing that it has metamorphosed into boredom, which may be a different sort of alienation. |