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Entertainment in Communist Society May 23, 2003 by RedStar2000 |
I can still remember all the capitalist media descriptions of communist societies that I heard and saw over the last 50 years: "communist countries are so dull, so boring!" The two months that I spent in Cuba back in 1964 didn't seem boring to me, but what do I know?
Like children on a rainy afternoon, people under capitalism have been semi-infantilized; have been taught that there are only three important things in life: work, sleep, and being endlessly distracted by "entertainment". Never mind all that thinking crap; that just gets you into trouble.
It may well be that the worst aspect of entertainment as it exists today is its utter passivity. We don't play games; we watch other people play games. We don't make music; we listen and watch others make music. If our lives lack drama and excitement (and do they ever!), we watch and listen to other "lives" that supposedly possess these qualities. I can't help but believe that there is something kind of sick about all this.
Certain historical personages to the contrary nothwithstanding, we communists are not puritans. If people really want diversion, then perforce we must supply it or arrange matters so that people can supply it themselves. Perhaps we can offer some alternatives as well as structure the industry somewhat differently than is presently the case.
Consider the big money-makers: movies and television, music, professional sports. The people who actually do the entertaining make only a small part (usually) of the enormous revenues that people are willing to pay to support them. The remainder is wasted on corporate profits; perhaps it could be used instead as a substitute for taxation.
We would need to structure matters in such a way that a small partnership could secure a public loan to make a movie or tv show, cut a cd, or organize a professional sports team/league. Depending on how many people are actually needed to accomplish one of these goals, the partnership could grow quite large. (In line with our communist principles, of course, each partner would receive an equal share in the proceeds.) The revenues generated by the product would be used to pay back the loan, compensate all who were involved in creating the product, and the rest would go into the public treasury.
What we must keep from happening, obviously, is the creation of super-rich (or even rich) entertainers. They can be far more famous than the rest of us, but their compensation is just about the same as the rest of us and so is their standard-of-living. The ability to sing a song or hit a curveball does not confer "semi-divine" status in a communist society.
The difficulties multiply: is wrestling a sport? How about auto racing? Nude dancing is obviously entertaining; can't the same really be said for prostitution? We could, I think, arrange matters in such a way that musicians could only make money by public performances while recorded music would always be freely available without charge on the web; but are enormous stadium concerts really necessary?
We communists face a dilemma that I think goes all the way back to the days of Aristotle. We want to raise the cultural level of the human race because that's one of the key aspects of a good society; but too heavy a hand not only risks boring people but, worse, pissing them off.
I'm not really satisfied with this answer (so I can hardly expect you to be): get rid of the worst crap--no dog racing, chicken fighting, auto racing, boxing or other trash sports; minimal loans for mediocre stuff; generous loans for good stuff as best we can perceive what the good stuff is; adjust our priorities according to public preferences and probably grumble a lot!
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Entertainment has always been crucial to sustaining the power of ruling classes.
It might be argued that something more than that is at work today. The capitalist strategy appears to be one of offering people entire surrogate lives to distract them from the lives they actually live.
If anywhere from three to five hours every day is spent as a "lawyer", a "cop", a "football star", etc., perhaps you won't mind so much working a shit job for lousy pay. For the time being, it seems to be working for them pretty well.
This suggests a practical slogan for communists: Throw Away Your Dummyvision Set!
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First posted at Che-Lives on April 25, 2003
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Analogies and metaphors are slippery and confuse as often as they enlighten.
For example, I said once in another post: Think of that new $280 million cathedral in Los Angeles as a blockbuster movie.
I was suggesting that the entertainment value of religious ostentation was very much like a major motion picture.
But few people really "worship" celebrities...instead, they identify with them and live their "exciting" lives "by proxy". To be "like" Starname is, in a sense, to be Starname.
People don't look to celebrities for "the meaning of life"...what they look to them for is a life.
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First posted at Che-Lives on April 27, 2003
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April 24, 2004: The reader will note the "odd" perspective on communist society -- the presumption that money will still exist. A few of my early collections express that view...reflecting my own lack of theoretical clarity just one short year ago.
We all still have much to learn...including me!
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