Post I

 

By definition, “Power” is the possession of control or command over others. It is the ability to create change by mere influence or suggestion.  John Berger supports this idea in his book, Ways of Seeing, when he suggests money is the prime form of power. He lists numerous details supporting the idea that power is manipulated by a minority of elitists within our society. “The power to spend money is the power to live, those who lack the power to spend money become literally faceless.” In other words, those who have money matter.

Berger also goes on to explain that the, “publicity is the culture of the consumer society.” We the public, aka the consumer, must have money to remain elite within the society.  Today, America is ruled by a hegemonic culture where the ruling class has a strong influence on the public. This class has been given such power through modern-day society and popular culture. It is through their opinions that mass media is created, and the consumption of this information is what creates pop culture. And as Gustave LeBon claims, they have power because they control the mass.

 Popular culture is a thought or idea that is made famous through a multitude of people’s opinions. It is the collection of glamor and the publicity of our culture. It is the mainstream cultural media of a society including, objects, music, fashion, television and publication. Bell Hooks says that popular culture is, “where the learning takes place.” He referred to it as pedagogical tool where most our society wants to understand the politics of differences-- the difference of envying as to being envied.

 The idea “you are what you have” starts with the representation of an illusion through pop culture, an advertisement. If it is popular, it will create appeal which offers the buyer (consumer) an opportunity to become glamorous and envied by others. Advertisements use the gaze technique as a tool to get their consumer to picture themselves owning these products that will make them materialistically happy. Publicity is always about the future buyer. “Publicity is about social relations, not objects. Its promise is not of pleasure, but of happiness. Happiness as judged from the outside by others.” As Guy Debord claims, publicity forms a spectacle- a “social relationship between people mediated by images.” It obscures our ways of looking at people making us more judgmental.

These illusive representations of power could also be recognized as “high art,” as Barbara Kruger claims in Remote Control, Arts and Leisures. “High art is the ability through visual, verbal, gestural, and musical means to objectify ones experience to the world: to show and tell through a kind of eloquent short hand , how it feels to be alive”. Kruger argues that popular culture has the ability to do some of the same. However, one must recognize that it is the producers of this “high art” that contain power. As consumers, we unconsciously give in to the temptations of this pop culture. Bell Hooks asks us to open our eyes to these images and not fall victim to our “white supremacist capitalist patriarchy in which sexism and popular culture are used as a way to foster social roles and stereotypes based on gender.”

Thanks to popular culture, Berger stands correct in stating how powerful money really is. As Guy Debord's Society of the Spectacle argues, “…money has dominated society as the representation of universal equivalence — the exchangeability of different goods whose uses remain incomparable — the spectacle is the modern complement of money… The Spectacle is an affirmation of appearances and identification of all human social life with appearances. The spectacle is able to subject human beings to itself because the economy has already totally subjected them. Society became less concerned of who they are and more concerned of what they own.” However, Lucy Lippard asks us to “Double Take” to popular culture and ask ourselves, are we being consumed? Your interpretation validates what is most powerful!

 

Everything you need to know about America's pop-culture could be found here: http://www.eonline.com/shows/enews/

 

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