Cultural Relevance

Out and about I heard some Bible thumper trying to witness to someone. After some excuse that the person gave for why they would wait to become a Christian the thumper answered “Let the dead bury the dead.” The other person looked at them and said “Whatever” and walked away.

I am also killing myself laughing watching 3^rd Rock from the Sun. Watching a bunch of aliens in human form from another planet trying to understand us and our culture. Our metaphors, taken literally by the aliens, are utterly hilarious. (I have the DVDs as a gift. The giver said I would fit into the “family” quite perfectly. I am thinking this was intended as an insult.  I will have to ask.)

And I finished reading Geek Wisdom – a book about nerd aphorisms and what they mean to nerds and geeks everywhere. Not to anyone else – just geeks and nerds. Several of them are quite brilliant in their criticism of capitalist culture and society. I must give them points for that.

Why type all this?

If we can not speak the language of the people we are trying to reach out to, they will never understand us or want to join us. And if we get too arrogant in our loft knowledge and wisdom, they will blow us off and remain forever in the prison that is capitalism. And our desired revolution will be but a dream in the future. And the capitalist class will be able to use charlatans like Clinton and Trump (among many others) to channel people into maintaining the system.

The Occupy movement was brilliant in its depiction of society as the 99% versus the 1% - with the 1% being the cause of the problems we face and a protected & privileged class from the problems that they create.

But if we go into deep analysis about the crisis with long winded diatribes with heavy language we will never reach the people that we need in order to spark the revolution that everyone knows that they want.

Look at Lenin and the Russian Revolution. He could write some very deep books about imperialism, capitalism, and the crisis that the world faced. When push came to shove, it was three words that gained the support of the masses and secured the success of the revolution. Land, bread, and peace.

I have heard people saying that we should not simplify how we write, talk, our analysis, etc – but what good is Anti-Düring or Das Capital if no one will read it? The Communist Manifesto was popular because it was simple, brief, and explained what people needed to know. More popular than the Manifesto was Socialism: Utopian and Scientific. This simple text is loaded with easy to understand analysis that any high schooler could understand. (For the record, this book was key sections from Anti-Düring. And I win debates with people from information gleaned from this short book.)

We need to speak to people about the crisis this world is in using language they understand.

Otherwise they will, like the Saturday Night Live skit featuring John Lovitt (The Amazing Alexander), keep supporting capitalism. They will like it better than Cats and will see it again and again as the only way to live their lives.

Just a thought.