Recovering public memory: politics, aesthetics and contempt

Musgrove, Brian Michael (2008) Recovering public memory: politics, aesthetics and contempt. M/C Journal, 11 (6). pp. 1-9. ISSN 1441-2616

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Abstract

It's the weekend – leisure time. It's the interlude when, Guy Debord contends, the proletarian is briefly free of the 'total contempt so clearly built into every aspect of the
organization and management of production' in commodity capitalism; when workers are temporarily 'treated like grown-ups, with a great show of solicitude and politeness,
in their new role as consumers.' But this patronising show turns out to be another form of subjection to the diktats of 'political economy': 'the totality of human existence falls under the regime of the 'perfected denial of man'.' (30). As Debord suggests, even the creation of leisure time and space is predicated upon a form of contempt: the 'perfected denial' of who we, as living people, really are in the eyes of those who presume the power to legislate our
working practices and private identities.

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Item Type:	Article (Commonwealth Reporting Category C)
Refereed:	Yes
Item Status:	Live Archive
Additional Information:	This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial - No Derivatives 3.0 License.
Faculty/School / Institute/Centre:	Historic - Faculty of Arts - Department of Humanities and International Studies (Up to 31 March 2011)
Faculty/School / Institute/Centre:	Historic - Faculty of Arts - Department of Humanities and International Studies (Up to 31 March 2011)
Date Deposited:	27 Apr 2009 15:14
Last Modified:	20 Oct 2014 05:30
Uncontrolled Keywords:	conspiracy theories; Guy Debord; capitalism; human condition; workers;
Fields of Research :	22 Philosophy and Religious Studies > 2201 Applied Ethics > 220104 Human Rights and Justice Issues 22 Philosophy and Religious Studies > 2203 Philosophy > 220319 Social Philosophy 16 Studies in Human Society > 1606 Political Science > 160609 Political Theory and Political Philosophy
Socio-Economic Objective:	C Society > 95 Cultural Understanding > 9504 Religion and Ethics > 950407 Social Ethics
URI:	http://eprints.usq.edu.au/id/eprint/15824

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