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[microsound] privilege, boundaries and class



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...

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?

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...
unless of course it's fashionable to participate in a PC-feel-good fashion marketing plan...e.g. last night I heard something on NPR w/r/t Bank of America building a 'green' skyscraper in NYC - Bof A's real motives are submerged while the consumer gets the friendly face on all this posturing...if BofA were really to be effective at being 'green' they would take their resources and re-distribute it to building an infrastructure of greenness rather than erecting a monument to their own political-correctness...not that what they are doing is 'wrong' per se but that is another discussion and I am digressing...the point being that privilege creates a state of being made politically unaware and isolated by the very act of consumption...


sorry for the fragmented scattered thoughts but still nursing my first cup of French roast! :)


However, for
anyone who owns a computer to take someone to task for a position they see
as bourgeois is beyond rich, in my opinion.
you are misreading the term bourgeois...I mean it as more of a mind-set and less of a power to consume afforded to particular class structure...


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