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Novice
Total Posts 2
Joined 2006-05-30
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This is a theme for Cowen, that we should celebrate the commercialization of culture because it makes art, even the “classics” favored by stuffy anti-commercial types, more plentiful and affordable. There’s something to that, but what he neglects, I think because he is an economist and therefore is bound by the sacred rites of that cult to treat preferences as exogenously given, is that sometimes commercialization breeds uniformity, and facilitates social and individual debasement. Yes, Cowen is right that commercialization makes a fine recording of the Messiah more affordable and obtainable. But it also facilitates the rise of a Britney Spears. He tells himself individual preferences for one or the other arise independent of the system that makes them available. I think what we know of social networks and cognitive psychology, not to mention the sad state of parenting and American education, makes the commercial system more than a neutral arbiter of preferences.
With that said, I’m a fan of commercialization, for all the reasons Cowen mentions. And what we see across industries is that as technology and markets mature, early trends toward uniformity are often subdued in favor of trends that faciliate individuality. The question is, what forces in American culture promote reading good books? The commercial trend cares not for what people want to consume; it merely needs for them to consume, and in large quantities. In that sense it isn’t neutral; it will serve up whatever product or service in whatever form most drives our consumption. It will appeal, then, to the base in us perhaps more readily than to the noble. What ignites a passion for the noble that overcomes our lust for the ignoble?
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