I have to admit, I am totally interested in this concept of ‘discursive practices,’ ‘hegemony’ and ‘interpellation’ as “the way power is internalized by those whom it disempowers, so that it does not have to be constantly enforced externally” (170). In the business world, the need to motivate a select populous through cultural means is ubiquitous. I deal with the concept almost every day and it comes up in conversations with other management routinely. Then, when I sit down and start to read theory and about this idea of creating a kind of internal motivation that “tricks” the individual into believing that something is a choice when it is merely a decision already made by the social construct (as in interpellation) – well, I can’t help but be interested in how that mechanism actually works in practice. There is a sadistic kind of pleasure in trying to understand how to create cultures that motivate without having “to be constantly enforced externally.” In fact, I cannot imagine that a teacher does not think of the same things – and yet we look at the idea in a mostly negative light when we feel like something is possibly “manipulating” us. Therefore, if the aim of looking through the lens of theory is, in part, to enlighten our understandings to these principles in action in our lives, what can we do about them except see them?
I apologize if my interpretation of the theory is incorrect, but I’m taking a stab nonetheless.
I would like to briefly look at an article written by Jere Longman for “The New York Times” dating Saturday, July 14, 2001 entitled, “OLYMPICS; Beijing Wins Bid for 2008 Olympic Games.” Specifically, I am interested in the discussion the article talks about regarding “human rights” in China:
Amnesty International reported last week that China has executed 1,791 citizens since April in a renewed anticrime campaign. Some recent executions took place after those sentenced to death were first taken to sports stadiums and jeered in ritual public humiliation, the rights group said today.
Without question, a large concern for all those who are citizens or refugees from China is the mass executions going on there and the violation of human decency in “ritual public humiliation.” It stands to reason that many have previously tried to boycott China’s bids for acceptance by the International Olympic Committee.
In an indication that the failed boycotts of the 1970's and 1980's would not be repeated in a post-cold-war era, Mr. Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, said, ''What we do know is that American athletes are going to go there, and they're going to compete and hopefully compete very well and bring home lots of gold medals.''
Obviously, Americans care about, in reference to their commercialism and media content, the idea of winnings, above all other things. Previous to the above statement, the White House spokesman, Ari Fleisher is quoted as having said, “The president does not view this as a political matter.”
In the BMW short-film, Chosen (2001), there is the interesting idea that Tibetan monks, refugees from China, are life-threateningly attacked by nameless and politically anonymous assailants, which are violently fought against and finally, in much the same American sense as Condoleezza Rice’s statement, beaten and lose against the competition of a superior “athlete,” both in the physical and in the driving sense. The expectation of the time was not necessarily that anything would change regarding China’s violence against its own people but that in small ways (bringing home lots of gold medals) American ability would show its superiority. This was not a “political matter” but one of innate dominance of the American people for their capitalistic competitiveness: they would out-race, out maneuver, and out fight in the small battles of the Olympic fields, just as the Hire does in the film.
3 comments:
Thanks for posting that quote. I didn't really put much thought into it the first time I read it. Creating an environment in which expectations are understood without constant external reenforcement seems like a fine goal to me.
You're totally right about the teacher thing--I try to trick my students into learning stuff all the time.
Let me make sure I understand you clearly--are you saying that Chosen is arguing that perhaps American intervention in Tibet can solve things? Or at least that's what Ang Lee is asserting? If so, that's really interesting. If not, it's still probably interesting but I'm not entirely sure what your conclusions are.
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