Juice15, 3/17

There were a few interesting points made in the Marx discussion earlier this week. One interesting subject was about the binary oppositions of the American ruling class. Today we believe fast is better than slow. We want faster technology and we want to get things done faster whether it is getting somewhere or finishing up homework. I feel this belief that faster is better has lead to our hyper stimulated sensitivity. The next opposition is how we want new rather than old. Today you can trade your old car for a brand new one and companies are always coming out with new products that are marketed to obviously be better than the last one. The third binary opposition is how we view upward more positive than downward. Nobody wants to move downward because this word has a negative connotation to it, everyone is trying to move up in this world, not down. Hotels don’t put the penthouse suites on the bottom floor. This upward has a sense of being above other people, as if you are more powerful. Another binary opposition is many versus few. The more things you have, cars, houses, basically anything is associated with being wealthy or powerful. The last binary opposition is active and passive. Active I look at as people who are go getters or the entrepreneurs of the world. They know what they want and go get if before everyone else does. I had to read a book in high school for a class about how to be more active and/or proactive in life. I am pretty sure there are not too many books trying to help people become more passive in their lives. Overall, I feel that fast, new, upward, many and active are all related to one another and can lead to avant-garde.