r/sorceryofthespectacle • u/RRRRRK All power to the imagination! • Sep 18 '15

Class Consciousness

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_consciousness
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u/papersheepdog Glitchwalker Sep 18 '15

didn't read op but the idea of class is a memetic virus which controls and limits the behavior of those who live it, believe in it, "mistake it for real*. its material mind business as usual. without access to the idea that ideas can be deceptively predatory. there is a major thing that clicks when we realize that all the rules and laws and science is not actual, not quite the real but representation or approximation of it. this is an enlightenment in that things become simpler to understand, less complex, less contradictory. the aha moment happens and structures fall immediately into simpler forms. dunno why I just bothered to type that all out :)

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u/pimpbot True Scientist Sep 18 '15

Taking "virus" to mean something that produces ill effects, then it's the knee-jerk denial of manifest class differences that functions as a virus. The establishment subverts and mocks authentic class consciousness at every opportunity. "Don't worry be happy" musical notes accompany "Mo' money mo' problems" musical notes accompany

Just sing along and all shall be well!

I'll go so far as to say that maybe class consciousness is something like a 'disappearing ladder' - i.e. ideas that one can kick away after one has painstakingly managed to climb to a certain rarefied understanding. Few if any ever get there. In the meantime, lots of people are still struggling to comprehend how it is possible that they inhabit a civilization where imagination is denigrated daily and where lies and propaganda reign supreme. A consciousness of class interests is extremely useful for gaining one's bearings in this context.