This is abstractly amusing, as much Saturday Night Live humor is, detached from its connection to social reality. But connected to social reality most of SNL’s political humor has come a long way from the days when such humor had cutting-edge insight or challenged the paradigms of political discourse in a way that creatively served any anti-establishment agenda. Because really, now, so called popular culture has deep contempt for anyone who actually challenges the system and most political humor coming from the ilk of SNL is crap. The commercial machine that is the entertainment industry routinely derides and mocks people who rebel. I don’t think this video was a sophisticated critique of anything at all: frankly, I think anyone who believes in rebellion is the intended butt of this joke. I don’t see how any leftist could look at this video and not see how we are all being caricatured here. This video is meant to appeal to those who think it is funny to yell “get a job” at Occupy protesters.
Of course it is right to rebel but some forms of rebellion are counterproductive. For example, when the Narodniks assassinated Czarist officials. Or the SDS “Days of Rage”. Or spray-painting a Whole Foods window. All of these things are so-called propaganda of the deed favored by anarchists. Marxism involves mass action, something that incorporates mass violence. The emphasis is on the word mass, of course.
Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist
This is abstractly amusing, as much Saturday Night Live humor is, detached from its connection to social reality. But connected to social reality most of SNL’s political humor has come a long way from the days when such humor had cutting-edge insight or challenged the paradigms of political discourse in a way that creatively served any anti-establishment agenda. Because really, now, so called popular culture has deep contempt for anyone who actually challenges the system and most political humor coming from the ilk of SNL is crap. The commercial machine that is the entertainment industry routinely derides and mocks people who rebel. I don’t think this video was a sophisticated critique of anything at all: frankly, I think anyone who believes in rebellion is the intended butt of this joke. I don’t see how any leftist could look at this video and not see how we are all being caricatured here. This video is meant to appeal to those who think it is funny to yell “get a job” at Occupy protesters.
It’s right to rebel.
Comment by ish — October 21, 2012 @ 2:09 pm
It’s right to rebel.
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Of course it is right to rebel but some forms of rebellion are counterproductive. For example, when the Narodniks assassinated Czarist officials. Or the SDS “Days of Rage”. Or spray-painting a Whole Foods window. All of these things are so-called propaganda of the deed favored by anarchists. Marxism involves mass action, something that incorporates mass violence. The emphasis is on the word mass, of course.
Comment by louisproyect — October 21, 2012 @ 2:24 pm
why does the video have nothing to do with the title of the blog post? o.O
Comment by mustafa ahmed — October 29, 2012 @ 4:10 pm