Re: [microsound] privilege, boundaries and class

[Matthew Mitchell <matmi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I undoubtedly feel privileged to be a
> musician, to be able to think about such things, and to live in the 
> country in
> which I live, the recent political situation notwithstanding.
>>that statement is another discussion altogether...but in passing: why 
do you feel privileged to live in your country - which I am assuming to 
be the US given the reference to the 'recent political situation' in 
your statement...but most countries have had 'recent political 
situations' and I could be wrong here...

Yeah, its the US - I was originally trying to avoid trumpeting a 'proud to be an American' tone which I find distasteful in many others who use it.  I guess what makes me feel that way, not intending to sound proud, is a general love of life and the general feeling that what has made that possible for me is my location, though in retrospect time is the other big factor.  So I guess its not the US per se, it just happens to be so, if that makes sense.


>>also, aren't borders/nation-states et. al. just 'artificial' constructs 
that we are sold through indoctrination and media? and if they are 
artificial why do we cling to them? what real purpose do these 
boundaries serve?

That's a huge question that I don't have time to explore really at the moment, but my basic response would be no.


>>in any event, by using the term 'privilege' I didn't mean 'the feeling 
of gratitude' but an 'immunity' from the underlying mechanisms and 
agendas of consumer capitalism...a state of 'privilege' tends to blind 
those who have had life-long indoctrination by western power 
structures...our privileged way of life colors how we see things (or 
not see things), our unquestioned bourgeois life-style of convenience 
which some person in a remote part of the planet has made available to 
us through their labor...we wall all this off so that it remains 
hidden...this is the psychic defense mechanism of 'freedom' we learn to 
acquire in a late stage capitalist society...a system where markets 
aren't free but manipulated and programmed to benefit the corporate 
power structures that sustain them...the point being 
that privilege creates a state of being made politically unaware and 
isolated by the very act of consumption...

I understand what you're saying.  That tendency for Americans to be not politically aware is why I've tried for years to be as politically aware as I can.  I guess my confusion resulted and still resides in not understanding how taking Adorno to task for his dismissal of jazz in 'the jazz quote' is privileged or bourgeois.  Maybe its my insistence of focusing solely on the music that makes it that way.  As I stated earlier, I don't really have a complaint about Adorno on the whole, as I've not read enough of him to muster a complaint.  

-matt




www.mattmitchell.us  
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