07-02-2011, 09:08 PM
Why Our National Superbowl TV Party Has Become the Last Supper for the US Empire
Never before have so many loose strands of an unraveling empire come together in a single event accessible to those who mourn or cheer America.
Tomdispatch.com / By Robert Lipsyte
http://www.alternet.org/culture/149803/w...us_empire/
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I read the above from within the filter of Emile Durkheim's works on the collective effervesence of the event itself, and within the filter of Elihu Katz' work on media events.
"Collective effervescence (CE) is a perceived energy formed by a gathering of people as might be experienced at a sporting event, a carnival, a rave, or a riot. This perception can cause people to act differently than in their everyday life.
Collective effervescence is the basis for Émile Durkheim's theory of religion as laid out in his 1912 volume Elementary Forms of Religious Life. This book is largely based on studies of Australian aborigines. Durkheim was concerned primarily with how societies could maintain their integrity and coherence in the modern era.
Durkheim argues that the universal religious dichotomy of profane and sacred results from the lives of these tribe members: most of their life is spent performing menial tasks such as hunting and gathering. These tasks are profane. The rare occasions on which the entire tribe gathers together becomes sacred, and the high energy level associated with these events gets directed onto physical objects or people which then become sacred. The force is thus associated with the totem which is the symbol of the clan, mentioned by Durkheim in his study of "elementary forms" of religion in Aboriginal societies. Because it provides the tribes name, the symbol is present during the gathering of the clan. Its presence during these scenes, the totem comes to represent both the scene and the strong emotionals felt, thus becoming a collective representation of the group. [1]
For Durkheim, religion is a fundamentally social phenomenon. The beliefs and practices of the sacred are a method of social organization. This explanation is detailed in Elementary Forms "Book 2/The Elementary Beliefs", chapter 7, "Origins of These Beliefs: Origin of the Idea of the Totemic Principle or Mana". According to Durkheim:
god and society are one of the same…the god of the clan…can be none other than the clan itself, but the clan transfigured and imagined in the physical form of a plant or animal that serves as a totem.[2] The group members experience a feeling of a loss of individuality and unity with the gods and according to Durkheim, thus with the group.[3] ....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_effervescence
"... Katz and Daniel Dayan began assembling a library of those live broadcasts of historic occasions that enthralled a whole nation, or the world. Their 1992 book, Media Events, representing some 15 years of collaboration, is now in print in seven languages. Support for this research came from the Markle Foundation and the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California where Dayan and Katz spent part of each year. Katz subsequently joined the faculty of the Annenberg School at the University of Pennsylvania as Trustee Professor in 1992, and also directed its experimental Scholars program for post-doctoral study. In Jerusalem, he is Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Communication, and former director of the Institute of Applied Social Research. ...."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elihu_Katz
See the Google online book here: http://books.google.com/books?id=Z64eoZiik...p;q&f=false
See also http://msradio.huji.ac.il/nomorewar_nomorepeace.pdf which is Elihu Katz & Tamar Liebes, ' 'No More Peace!': How Disaster, Terror and War Have Upstaged Media Events', International Journal of Communication 1 (2007), 157-166.
"... If ceremonial events may be characterized as "coproductions" of broadcasters and establishments, then disruptive events may be characterized as "co-productions" of broadcasters and anti-establishment agencies, i.e. the perpetrators of disruption...."
Who would prefer a festive combat between padded, steroid-driven super-behemoths over days of real rioting featuring agents provocateur, speeding armored vehicles, machine gunnery, and millions of angry, hungry citizens?
Never before have so many loose strands of an unraveling empire come together in a single event accessible to those who mourn or cheer America.
Tomdispatch.com / By Robert Lipsyte
http://www.alternet.org/culture/149803/w...us_empire/
###
I read the above from within the filter of Emile Durkheim's works on the collective effervesence of the event itself, and within the filter of Elihu Katz' work on media events.
"Collective effervescence (CE) is a perceived energy formed by a gathering of people as might be experienced at a sporting event, a carnival, a rave, or a riot. This perception can cause people to act differently than in their everyday life.
Collective effervescence is the basis for Émile Durkheim's theory of religion as laid out in his 1912 volume Elementary Forms of Religious Life. This book is largely based on studies of Australian aborigines. Durkheim was concerned primarily with how societies could maintain their integrity and coherence in the modern era.
Durkheim argues that the universal religious dichotomy of profane and sacred results from the lives of these tribe members: most of their life is spent performing menial tasks such as hunting and gathering. These tasks are profane. The rare occasions on which the entire tribe gathers together becomes sacred, and the high energy level associated with these events gets directed onto physical objects or people which then become sacred. The force is thus associated with the totem which is the symbol of the clan, mentioned by Durkheim in his study of "elementary forms" of religion in Aboriginal societies. Because it provides the tribes name, the symbol is present during the gathering of the clan. Its presence during these scenes, the totem comes to represent both the scene and the strong emotionals felt, thus becoming a collective representation of the group. [1]
For Durkheim, religion is a fundamentally social phenomenon. The beliefs and practices of the sacred are a method of social organization. This explanation is detailed in Elementary Forms "Book 2/The Elementary Beliefs", chapter 7, "Origins of These Beliefs: Origin of the Idea of the Totemic Principle or Mana". According to Durkheim:
god and society are one of the same…the god of the clan…can be none other than the clan itself, but the clan transfigured and imagined in the physical form of a plant or animal that serves as a totem.[2] The group members experience a feeling of a loss of individuality and unity with the gods and according to Durkheim, thus with the group.[3] ....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_effervescence
"... Katz and Daniel Dayan began assembling a library of those live broadcasts of historic occasions that enthralled a whole nation, or the world. Their 1992 book, Media Events, representing some 15 years of collaboration, is now in print in seven languages. Support for this research came from the Markle Foundation and the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California where Dayan and Katz spent part of each year. Katz subsequently joined the faculty of the Annenberg School at the University of Pennsylvania as Trustee Professor in 1992, and also directed its experimental Scholars program for post-doctoral study. In Jerusalem, he is Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Communication, and former director of the Institute of Applied Social Research. ...."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elihu_Katz
See the Google online book here: http://books.google.com/books?id=Z64eoZiik...p;q&f=false
See also http://msradio.huji.ac.il/nomorewar_nomorepeace.pdf which is Elihu Katz & Tamar Liebes, ' 'No More Peace!': How Disaster, Terror and War Have Upstaged Media Events', International Journal of Communication 1 (2007), 157-166.
"... If ceremonial events may be characterized as "coproductions" of broadcasters and establishments, then disruptive events may be characterized as "co-productions" of broadcasters and anti-establishment agencies, i.e. the perpetrators of disruption...."
Who would prefer a festive combat between padded, steroid-driven super-behemoths over days of real rioting featuring agents provocateur, speeding armored vehicles, machine gunnery, and millions of angry, hungry citizens?
"Where is the intersection between the world's deep hunger and your deep gladness?"