10-30-2019, 09:09 AM
(10-30-2019, 07:57 AM)Hintergrund Wrote: Ah, Paul Fussell. He also wrote that it's custom in the American middle class not to have any books lying around which have too challenging topics... if that's true, pretty pathetic for the middle "class".
Fussell is dead, and his contemporary commentary can get increasingly obsolete.
The middle class became infamous for cultural blandness, which could change as different ethnic groups enter the middle class.
The 'proles', as Fussell called them, seem more likely to have books proudly displayed, especially if those extol the ideology of the prole. Such books are icons of ideology penned or ghost-written by right-wing clergy and right-wing ideologues.
At one time the middle class may have been scared to assert controversial ideas... but American political life has changed. Note well that the TV has often become a substitute for newspapers and books, and when the TV goes dark or is used for pure entertainment, in which time the controversy abates.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.