There you go again, denying us the pearls of your wit and wisdom!
But, ha! I can foil you. What you wrote was:
‘I shall consider buying the book as @JonathanE seems an interesting guy to discuss it with.
Wikipedia describes false consciousness thus:
“In Marxist theory, false consciousness is a term describing the ways in which material, ideological, and institutional processes are said to mislead members of the proletariat and other class actors within capitalist societies, concealing the exploitation intrinsic to the social relations between classes.”’
Firstly, thank you for the compliment.
Secondly, I fear I am no great Marxist although I think he and his ideas, particularly about history, are substantially correct. They’ve never been given a proper trial ‘cos bloody humans are such shits.
In the case of this quote and bearing in mind something else I think you said about clubbing - can’t quite remember your precise wording right now but it was to the effect that clubbing is not a revolutionary activity, please forgive me if I misinterpreted your point - I have been thinking about the solidarity issue overnight. My simple conclusion is that a lot of it depends on the purpose or the intention behind the particular activity.
On the one hand, Marx’s quote is to the point because a lot of clubbing and dancing, etc. is basically a matter of bread and circuses, the punters are just getting messed up and out of it because they need a break from their work-a-day lives. I am old enough to remember when getting out of it itself was considered a revolutionary activity - and I have sympathy for that view although I think times have changed enough, and more importantly the success of that “revolution” is dubious, that one should certainly question it.
Obviously, what Marx is referring to is that the kind of individual revolution of just changing/expanding your mind is “false consciousness” because it doesn’t change the conditions and relations of society between the different economic classes. Yet, one might argue that the long-term results of the various psychedelic experiments of the past seventy (or more) years have indeed changed society. Not as much as we might wish I agree, but since my childhood there have been many improvements. Not as many as I wish and there have been reversals. The process is not yet over, although I am not optimistic.
However, I do not think it quite fair to deny Emma Watson her own experience. If she finds that dance has all these positive effects, who are you to say she is wrong? I think it pretty undeniable that group activity that produces empathic effects, such as dancing, is a good thing. Sure, it’s not an immediate revolution and it can easily be distorted, but perhaps it’s a step on the path.
In my own experience with music and culture I have often been frustrated. All those peace songs and what changed? We’ve had bloody war after bloody war. For all the countercultural earth love, we’re still poisoning the planet and flooding the atmosphere with crap of all kinds. I understand that there’s an argument for false consciousness. Yet, Bob Marley, for example, has raised consciousness. Fela Kuti and Thomas Mapfumo also. They advanced the cause and I can’t see it as being accurate to think of them as merely pawns of the system.
And I think the more positive approach to Emma Watson’s experience is to accept it and take her at her word. Trust is a valuable thing to have.
I’m sorry I’ve got to go. No time to read what I’ve written, edit it, clean up the inane bits. But it’s more or less what I think and how I’ve lived my life. I hope you found it interesting. If I have to, I’ll polish it up tomorrow.
Peace and love, man!
EDIT: I’ve just realised that I wrote “ Emma Watson” repeatedly instead of “Emma Warren.” Please forgive me. Not up to correcting every instance at this moment.
