The Invisible Hand In Popular Culture

Author : Paul A. Cantor
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
Page : 430 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2012-11-30
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780813140834

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The Invisible Hand in Popular Culture by Paul A. Cantor Pdf

“Analyzes how ideas about economics and political philosophy find their way into everything from Star Trek to Malcolm in the Middle.” —Wall Street Journal Popular culture often champions freedom as the fundamentally American way of life and celebrates the virtues of independence and self-reliance. But film and television have also explored the tension between freedom and other core values, such as order and political stability. What may look like healthy, productive, and creative freedom from one point of view may look like chaos, anarchy, and a source of destructive conflict from another. Film and television continually pose the question: Can Americans deal with their problems on their own, or must they rely on political elites to manage their lives? In this groundbreaking work, Paul A. Cantor—whose previous book, Gilligan Unbound, was named one of the best nonfiction books of the year by the Los Angeles Times—explores the ways in which television shows such as Star Trek, The X-Files, South Park, and Deadwood and films such as The Aviator and Mars Attacks! have portrayed both top-down and bottom-up models of order. Drawing on the works of John Locke, Adam Smith, Alexis de Tocqueville, and other proponents of freedom, Cantor contrasts the classical liberal vision of America?particularly its emphasis on the virtues of spontaneous order?with the Marxist understanding of the “culture industry” and the Hobbesian model of absolute state control. The Invisible Hand in Popular Culture concludes with a discussion of the impact of 9/11 on film and television, and the new anxieties emerging in contemporary alien-invasion narratives: the fear of a global technocracy that seeks to destroy the nuclear family, religious faith, local government, and other traditional bulwarks against the absolute state.

Author : Paul Arthur Cantor
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
Page : 490 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2012-11-05
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780813140827

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The Invisible Hand in Popular Culture by Paul Arthur Cantor Pdf

Popular culture often champions freedom as the fundamentally American way of life and celebrates the virtues of independence and self-reliance. But film and television have also explored the tension between freedom and other core values, such as order and political stability. What may look like healthy, productive, and creative freedom from one point of view may look like chaos, anarchy, and a source of destructive conflict from another. Film and television continually pose the question: Can Americans deal with their problems on their own, or must they rely on political elites to manage their lives? In this groundbreaking work, Paul A. Cantor explores the ways in which television shows such as Star Trek, The X-Files, South Park, and Deadwood and films such as The Aviator and Mars Attacks! have portrayed both top-down and bottom-up models of order. Drawing on the works of John Locke, Adam Smith, Alexis de Tocqueville, and other proponents of freedom, Cantor contrasts the classical liberal vision of America -- particularly its emphasis on the virtues of spontaneous order -- with the Marxist understanding of the "culture industry" and the Hobbesian model of absolute state control. The Invisible Hand in Popular Culture concludes with a discussion of the impact of 9/11 on film and television, and the new anxieties emerging in contemporary alien-invasion narratives: the fear of a global technocracy that seeks to destroy the nuclear family, religious faith, local government, and other traditional bulwarks against the absolute state.

Author : Paul A. Cantor
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
Page : 211 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2019-05-17
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780813177335

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Pop Culture and the Dark Side of the American Dream by Paul A. Cantor Pdf

The many con men, gangsters, and drug lords portrayed in popular culture are examples of the dark side of the American dream. Viewers are fascinated by these twisted versions of heroic American archetypes, like the self-made man and the entrepreneur. Applying the critical skills he developed as a Shakespeare scholar, Paul A. Cantor finds new depth in familiar landmarks of popular culture. He invokes Shakespearean models to show that the concept of the tragic hero can help us understand why we are both repelled by and drawn to figures such as Vito and Michael Corleone or Walter White. Beginning with Huckleberry Finn and ending with The Walking Dead, Cantor also uncovers the link between the American dream and frontier life. In imaginative variants of a Wild West setting, popular culture has served up disturbing—and yet strangely compelling—images of what happens when people move beyond the borders of law and order. Cantor demonstrates that, at its best, popular culture raises thoughtful questions about the validity and viability of the American dream, thus deepening our understanding of America itself.

Author : M. T. Anderson
Publisher : Candlewick Press
Page : 160 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2017-09-12
Category : Young Adult Fiction
ISBN : 9780763697235

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Landscape with Invisible Hand by M. T. Anderson Pdf

National Book Award winner M. T. Anderson returns to future Earth in a sharply wrought satire of art and truth in the midst of colonization. When the vuvv first landed, it came as a surprise to aspiring artist Adam and the rest of planet Earth — but not necessarily an unwelcome one. Can it really be called an invasion when the vuvv generously offered free advanced technology and cures for every illness imaginable? As it turns out, yes. With his parents’ jobs replaced by alien tech and no money for food, clean water, or the vuvv’s miraculous medicine, Adam and his girlfriend, Chloe, have to get creative to survive. And since the vuvv crave anything they deem classic Earth culture (doo-wop music, still life paintings of fruit, true love), recording 1950s-style dates for the vuvv to watch in a pay-per-minute format seems like a brilliant idea. But it’s hard for Adam and Chloe to sell true love when they hate each other more with every passing episode. Soon enough, Adam must decide how far he’s willing to go — and what he’s willing to sacrifice — to give the vuvv what they want.

Author : George Wilton
Publisher : Az Boek
Page : 50 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2024-04-27
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9786256315587

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The invisible hand: market forces and modern economics by George Wilton Pdf

Author : Pramila Bennett
Publisher : Daimon
Page : 1797 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2012
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9783856307448

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Montreal 2010 - Facing Multiplicity: Psyche, Nature, Culture by Pramila Bennett Pdf

Jungian analysts from all over the world gathered in Montreal from August 22 to 27, 2010. The 11 plenary presentations and the 100 break-out sessions attest to the complex dynamics and dilemmas facing the community in present-day culture. The Pre-Congress Workshop on Movement as Active Imagination papers are also recorded. There is a foreword by Tom Kelly with the opening address of Joe Cambray and the farewell address of Hester Solomon. From the Contents: Jacques Languirand: From Einstein’s God to the God of the Amerindians John Hill: One Home, Many Homes: Translating Heritages of Containment Denise Ramos: Cultural Complex and the Elaboration of Trauma from Slavery Christian Roesler: A Revision of Jung’s Theory of Archetypes in light of Contemporary Research: Neurosciences, Genetics and Cultural Theory - A Reformulation Margaret Wilkinson, Ruth Lanius: Working with Multiplicity. Jung, Trauma, Neurobiology and the Healing Process: a Clinical Perspective Beverley Zabriskie: Emotion: The Essential Force in Nature, Psyche and Culture Guy Corneau: Cancer: Facing Multiplicity within Oneself Marta Tibaldi: Clouds in the Sky Still Allow a Glimpse of the Moon: Cancer Resilience and Creativity Astrid Berg, Tristan Troudart, Tawiq Salman: What could be Jungian About Human Rights Work? Bou-Yong Rhi: Like Lao Zi’s Stream of Water: Implications for Therapeutic Attitudes Linda Carter, Jean Knox, Marcus West, Joseph McFadden: The Alchemy of Attachment: Trauma, Fragmentation and Transformation in the Analytic Relationship Sonu Shamdasani, Nancy Furlotti, Judith Harris & John Peck: Jung after The Red Book

Author : William Irwin,David Kyle Johnson
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 436 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2022-04-11
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781119757177

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Introducing Philosophy Through Pop Culture by William Irwin,David Kyle Johnson Pdf

Can Wonder Woman help us understand feminist philosophy? How Does Wakandan technology transcend anti-Blackness? What can Star Trek teach us about the true nature of reality? Introducing Philosophy Through Pop Culture makes important philosophical concepts and the work of major philosophers relevant, fun, and exciting. Using engaging examples from film and television, this easy-to-read book covers everything from basic metaphysics and epistemology to abstract and complex philosophical ideas about ethics and the meaning of life. You don’t have to be a pop culture expert to benefit from this book—even a general awareness of cultural icons like Superman or Harry Potter will be more than enough for you to learn about a wide range of philosophical notions, thinkers, and movements. The expanded second edition offers timely coverage of important topics such as race, gender, personal identity, social justice, and environmental ethics. New essays explore the philosophical underpinnings of The Good Place, Game of Thrones, Black Panther, Star Wars, The Avengers, South Park, The Lego Movie, The Big Bang Theory, and more. This edition is supported by a new website with links to primary philosophical texts, information about all the popular culture discussed, and additional resources for teachers, students, and general readers alike. Features a selection of key essays from the bestselling Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series Draws on examples from popular media including The Matrix, Lost, Doctor Strange, The Hobbit, Westworld, and Star Trek Explains philosophical concepts such as relativism, skepticism, existentialist ethics, logic, social contract theory, utilitarianism, and mind-body dualism Discusses the ideas of Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, Descartes, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Marx, Mill, Kierkegaard, and other important thinkers Introducing Philosophy Through Pop Culture is an excellent supplementary textbook for introductory philos for introductory philosophy courses and a valuable resource for general readers wanting to learn about philosophy and its connections with pop culture.

Author : Michael Lechuga
Publisher : Univ. Press of Mississippi
Page : 136 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2023-03-02
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781496844071

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Visions of Invasion by Michael Lechuga Pdf

Visions of Invasion: Alien Affects, Cinema, and Citizenship in Settler Colonies explores how the US government mobilizes media and surveillance technologies to operate a highly networked, multidimensional system for controlling migrants. Author Michael Lechuga focuses on three arenas where a citizenship control assemblage manufactures alienhood: Hollywood extraterrestrial invasion film, federal antimigration and border security legislation, and various immigration enforcement protocols implemented along the Mexico–United States border. Building on rhetorical studies, settler colonial studies, and media studies, Visions of Invasion offers a glimpse at how the processes of alien-making contribute to an ongoing settler colonial project in the US. Lechuga demonstrates that popular films—The War of the Worlds, Predator, Men in Black, and more—participate in the production of migrants as subjective terrorists, felons, and other noncitizen personae vilified in public discourse. Beyond just tracing how alien invasion narratives circulate in popular media, Lechuga describes how the logics motivating early US colonists materialize in both the US’s citizenship control policy and in some of the country’s most popular texts. Beneath each of the film franchises and antimigrant political expressions described in Visions of Invasion lies an anxious colonial logic in which the settler way of life is seemingly threated by false narratives of imminent invasion from abroad. The volume offers a deep dive into how the rhetorical figure of the alien has been manufactured as a political subjectivity, one that plays out the anxieties, guilts, and fears of colonialism in today’s science fiction landscape.

Author : Michael Vannoy Adams
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 257 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2013-09-11
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9781135009854

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For Love of the Imagination by Michael Vannoy Adams Pdf

"I have entitled this book For Love of the Imagination. Long ago, I fell in love with the imagination. It was love at first sight. I have had a lifelong love affair with the imagination. I would love for others, through this book, to fall in love, as I once did, with the imagination." Michael Vannoy Adams, from the Preface. For Love of the Imagination is a book about the imagination – about what and how images mean. Jungian psychoanalysis is an imaginal psychology – or what Michael Vannoy Adams calls "imaginology," the study of the imagination. What is so distinctive – and so valuable – about Jungian psychoanalysis is that it emphasizes images. For Love of the Imagination is also a book about interdisciplinary applications of Jungian psychoanalysis. What enables these applications is that all disciplines include images of which they are more or less unconscious. Jungian psychoanalysis is in an enviable position to render these images conscious, to specify what and how they mean. On the contemporary scene, as a result of the digital revolution, there is no trendier word than "applications" – except, perhaps, the abbreviation "apps." In psychoanalysis, there is a "Freudian app" and a "Jungian app." The "Jungian app" is a technology of the imagination. This book applies Jungian psychoanalysis to images in a variety of disciplines. For Love of the Imagination also includes the 2011 Moscow lectures on Jungian psychoanalysis. It will be essential reading for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, students, and those with an interest in Jung.

Author : Barbara Kellerman
Publisher : Stanford University Press
Page : 382 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2014-10-15
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780804793018

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Hard Times by Barbara Kellerman Pdf

A “highly perceptive” analysis of the crisis of leadership in 21st-century America, written in “an exhilaratingly readable style” (Archie Brown, Oxford University, author of The Myth of the Strong Leader). Selected by Choice as an Outstanding Academic Book Leadership has never played a more prominent role in America’s national discourse, and yet our opinions of leaders are at all-time lows. Private sector leaders are widely seen as greedy to the point of being corrupt. Public sector leaders are viewed as incompetent to the point of being inept. And levels of trust in government have plummeted. As the title of this book conveys, leaders in America are experiencing hard times. Barbara Kellerman argues that we focus on leaders, and even on followers, while ignoring an essential element of leadership: context. This book is a corrective. It enables leaders to track the terrain that they must navigate in order to create change. Rather than a handy-dandy manual on what to do and how to do it, Hard Times is structured as a checklist. Twenty-four brief sections cover key aspects of the American landscape. They trace evolutions and revolutions that have revised our norms, transformed our populations and institutions, and shifted our culture. Kellerman’s crash course on context reveals how significant it is to leadership. Clearer still is the fact that leadership is more difficult than it has ever been. It is context that explains why leadership is so fraught with frustration. And it is context that makes evident why leadership will be better exercised if it is better understood. Calling out patterns that emerge from the checklist, Kellerman challenges leaders to do better. This fascinating read will change the way that all of us think about leadership, while compelling us to consider what it means for our future. “Finally a book that explains why leadership is so hard…thought-provoking examples taken from business and government alike.” —Sydney Finkelstein, Tuck School of Business, author of Why Smart Executives Fail

Author : Ted Gournelos
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 300 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2009
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 0739137212

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Popular Culture and the Future of Politics by Ted Gournelos Pdf

Popular Culture and the Future of Politics: Cultural Studies and the Tao of South Park argues that progressives should perceive the connections among media, policy, and culture beyond the limits of "politics" and "news". With sustained analyses of groundbreaking contemporary examples of what has become known as "convergence culture," Ted Gournelos brings together a wide range of media without sacrificing depth. His examples, such as South Park, The Simpsons, The Onion, The Daily Show, Chappelle's show and The Boondocks, are chosen for their political scope and social impact and demonstrate the ways in which what we know as "politics" is rapidly changing. The book's forays into established fields like feminist, race, and queer theory are combined with perspectives drawn from political economy and rhetoric to demonstrate the power of irony, humor, and cultural dissonance in modern approaches to dissonant cultural politics. Popular Culture and the Future of Politics approaches popular culture's treatment of events, social norms, and political shifts through three techniques by which political discourse can be reframed, negotiated, or opposed. It incorporates discussions of contemporary U.S. media policy, the structural changes incurred through the emergence of the internet, and political developments over the past decade, and suggests that contemporary popular media can combine with a self-consciously oppositional branding strategy to allow and encourage new types of activism. Book jacket.

Author : Erik Trump,Jake Parcell
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 267 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2023-09-05
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781666908213

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The Architecture of Survival by Erik Trump,Jake Parcell Pdf

The Architecture of Survival: Setting and Politics in Apocalypse Films offers a compelling exploration of how popular films and TV series from the past two decades use architectural spaces to comment on socio-political issues. The authors harness varied theoretical perspectives to demonstrate how, through set design, these works suggest that certain kinds of architecture support human development, community, and freedom, while other kinds separate us from our fellow humans and make democratic politics impossible. The clean lines of modernist design serve in films such as Contagion and Ex Machina as a metaphor for the sanitized, sterile politics that drive disaster. In The Walking Dead apocalypse survivors favor traditional architectural styles when rebuilding society, a choice that symbolically affirms their democratic principles. The massive walls and super-gentrification as seen in Elysium and Army of the Dead divide humanity, with those on one side wielding illegitimate power. Empty streetscapes intensify loneliness, alienation, and the destruction of civil norms. "Smart cities," offering a blend of high-tech surveillance and big data, erode social capital and community in Her and Transcendence. The book concludes with a somewhat hopeful glimpse into architecture’s potential to mitigate the catastrophic adverse effects of climate change, as seen in films like Zootopia.

Author : Tyler Cowen
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2019-04-09
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781250110558

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Big Business by Tyler Cowen Pdf

An against-the-grain polemic on American capitalism from New York Times bestselling author Tyler Cowen. We love to hate the 800-pound gorilla. Walmart and Amazon destroy communities and small businesses. Facebook turns us into addicts while putting our personal data at risk. From skeptical politicians like Bernie Sanders who, at a 2016 presidential campaign rally said, “If a bank is too big to fail, it is too big to exist,” to millennials, only 42 percent of whom support capitalism, belief in big business is at an all-time low. But are big companies inherently evil? If business is so bad, why does it remain so integral to the basic functioning of America? Economist and bestselling author Tyler Cowen says our biggest problem is that we don’t love business enough. In Big Business, Cowen puts forth an impassioned defense of corporations and their essential role in a balanced, productive, and progressive society. He dismantles common misconceptions and untangles conflicting intuitions. According to a 2016 Gallup survey, only 12 percent of Americans trust big business “quite a lot,” and only 6 percent trust it “a great deal.” Yet Americans as a group are remarkably willing to trust businesses, whether in the form of buying a new phone on the day of its release or simply showing up to work in the expectation they will be paid. Cowen illuminates the crucial role businesses play in spurring innovation, rewarding talent and hard work, and creating the bounty on which we’ve all come to depend.

Author : Todd Boyd
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 834 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2008-10-30
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780313064081

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African Americans and Popular Culture by Todd Boyd Pdf

The African American influence on popular culture is among the most sweeping and lasting this country has seen. Despite a history of institutionalized racism, black artists, entertainers, and entrepreneurs have had enormous impact on American popular culture. Pioneers such as Oscar Michaeux, Paul Robeson, Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Langston Hughes, Bill Bojangles Robinson, and Bessie Smith paved the way for Jackie Robinson, Nina Simone, James Baldwin, Bill Russell, Muhammad Ali, Sidney Poitier, and Bill Cosby, who in turn opened the door for Spike Lee, Dave Chappelle, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z, Tiger Woods, and Michael Jordan. Today, hip hop is the most powerful element of youth culture; white teenagers outnumber blacks as purchasers of rap music; black-themed movies are regularly successful at the box office, and black writers have been anthologized and canonized right alongside white ones. Though there are still many more miles to travel and much to overcome, this three-volume set considers the multifaceted influence of African Americans on popular culture, and sheds new light on the ways in which African American culture has come to be a fundamental and lasting part of America itself. To articulate the momentous impact African American popular culture has had upon the fabric of American society, these three volumes provide analyses from academics and experts across the country. They provide the most reliable, accurate, up-to-date, and comprehensive treatment of key topics, works, and themes in African American popular culture for a new generation of readers. The scope of the project is vast, including: popular historical movements like the Harlem Renaissance; the legacy of African American comedy; African Americans and the Olympics; African Americans and rock 'n roll; more contemporary articulations such as hip hop culture and black urban cinema; and much more. One goal of the project is to recuperate histories that have been perhaps forgotten or obscured to mainstream audiences and to demonstrate how African Americans are not only integral to American culture, but how they have always been purveyors of popular culture.

Author : Paul Bowman
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 248 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2017-09-16
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780230229242

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Deconstructing Popular Culture by Paul Bowman Pdf

Popular culture permeates every aspect of our lives: from the music we listen to, the films and television shows we watch and the books we read. But who decides what counts as popular culture? Why is it so important? And how do we go about studying it? This book provides a comprehensive introduction to popular culture and examines the problems and possibilities of studying this fast changing field. Employing a unique approach, Bowman uses techniques of deconstruction to unpick, analyse and deconstruct contemporary examples of popular culture. The book looks at music, Hollywood film and the self-help movement to question claims behind the importance of popular culture and encourage readers to form their own interpretations of the culture they experience every day. With theory interwoven throughout, but in a way that is barely noticeable to the reader, the book provides covers the important theoretical work in the field, whilst directing the reader through ways to avoid common pitfalls in studying theory. An innovative user guide and glossary explain essential terms and ideas, making difficult concepts relevant, accessible and interesting. This witty, thought-provoking book provides a clear, novel introduction to popular culture for all students of cultural studies, media studies and sociology.