CMC300student, Lyotard

“Capitalism inherently possesses the power to defamiliarize familiar objects, social roles, and institutions to such a degree that the so-called realistic representations can no longer evoke reality except as nostalgia.” When I read this it reminded me of what I learned taking CMC 100, when you erase the history of something and replace it with a myth, that the hegemonic wants you to believe. For example, in class we took a look at an Indian moccasin, capitalism has taken this moccasin and made it unfamiliar in the sense that they are foreign to us. These shoes can be made cheaply in other counties, and are seen the comfortable shoe that can be worn universally. Our nostalgia says that these are the traditional shoes of a far away land, making them rare and unique, thus making Americans want to buy them. In India you may buy the same pair of moccasins for $3, and in the states $80+. Often our nostalgia of things is glorified by the media like as in the moccasin case. We also become defamiliarized with things such as jails, and our knowledge becomes what is presented or mocked on movies like Harold and Kumar: Guantanamo Bay.

In our last reading Benjamin said “the technique of reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition.” This also applies to what I was talking about above. When things become mass produced they loose their uniqueness and historical background. I feel like since most everything in America is mass produced, companies have to come up with myths, because their products really have no tradition except what they make for it. In a capitalistic world, we now have to buy mythological tradition, to create a false uniqueness.