Process
Status Items Output None Questions None Claims None Highlights Done See section below
Document Notes
Good point in here about how people can criticize something, like elites, while missing the entire point of what’s at stake and where the real issue lies. It’s not about individuals.. it’s about systems.
Highlights
id844783176
there is often a criticality to those portrayals. However, I think the criticality is very often a little bit skin deep or superficial. There’s also a sense in which the aesthetic of these programs delights still in the glamour of that elite status. There’s an ambiguous representation going on that’s saying: “Look, we want to say these people are flawed, even though they are powerful and wealthy. But we’re also still going to get you to watch these programs because you’re fascinated by them in a spectacular way.”
✏️ The trend of showcasing the ultra wealthy in tv shows and movies. This is my issue with it. It’s sometimes critical, but mostly it’s reveling in their wealth and spectacle. 👓 storytelling propaganda 🔗 View Highlight
id844783284
What often is missing is a structural critique. It tends to be more of a “these people are individually flawed, rather than the processes that have brought them to those positions.”
✏️ This is the essential issue.. they’re right. It’s still character-focused, but never looking at the system that put them in place, let alone criticizing it and pointing out the problems there. 👓 propaganda systems storytelling 🔗 View Highlight
id844783908
wealth tax
✏️ distribute wealth and economic means. 🔗 View Highlight
id844783916
distribute power: a classic one being more workers on boards of big companies and also changing the House of Lords to something that is more of an elected body, or something that has a more bottom-up representation of the country as a whole.
✏️ distribute power 🔗 View Highlight
id844783949
social structure that not only undermines elites’ capacity to influence but eliminates the existence of elites altogether?
✏️ addtoquestions Can you make society work without needing individuals with authority and responsibility that inevitably gives them too much power, and creates an elite class eventually? 🔗 View Highlight