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Tom Johnston's avatar

I think that culture is a reflection of the psychological changes and the reality of everyone's situation. Culture is always chasing the reality of what it glamorizes. The Hollywood gangster movies of the 40's and 50's were parables of the deadly consequences of pursuing evil. The reality of the United States then was an extremely religious society and a cultural and even intellectual embracement of the virtues of patriotism. The corruption and immoral actions of our political class then could never be publicized in the media which comprised radio and basically two national television channels in the mid to late 1950's. The emerging dark underbelly of US society could only be found in the pulp crime novels and magazines like True Detective which were relegated to the hidden corners of a book store where the nudity magazines were guarded by the employees of the stores.

Everything changed in the 60's in the United States and worldwide. Revolutions against colonialism, frustrated with the Western promises of liberation if the colonial countries rebelled against Fascism and Nazism and the dream to be like the United States, broke out all over the globe. Vietnam was the real reality for America and the ethical and moral behavior of the government stripped to the bone in public. Technology had changed. Television had expanded, FM radio came into existence which provided the source of alternative news, music and history and the expansion of underground newspapers which started out as a new type of nude, sexual awareness also contain political and historical analysis still amazingly accurate to this day. Music became the anthems of rebellion. Long hair became the symbol of intolerance for society. The mantra of "America Love it or Leave it" became "America Change it or Lose it". Films became more violent, nihilistic to the point of trying to destroy the good and evil construct of American society in the past. Again culture was always reacting to the changing political landscape of the time. This new emerging culture was always viciously attacked, condemned as a real threat to society, censored, persecuted by law enforcement including assassinations. The attacks and censorship did not work and that could be one of the reasons why Narco Culture is tolerated. It really does not affect the real mechanisms of power, political corruption and economic control. Now of course, if there is a cultural development that is threatening to the continuing economic and military expenditures to the Ukraine and Israel, as a government you have to try and ban, censor and suppress it like the banning of TikTok in the United States and Europe. Complaints about Narco Culture maybe a nice diversion from the real corruptors of society, our governments and their economic and political partners.

Culture that is crafted into a symbol of political aspirations is propaganda which could be true or false but it represents the hidden emotions of those it tries to convince if it is successful. Many people do not realize that after World War 1, the Communist Party of Germany became a huge party far outnumbering the Nazis later in the battle for the minds of Germany. The propaganda battle was key. Nazi propaganda was extremely colorful full of young, energized men and women symbols of a new strength and purpose. Communist propaganda was extremely dour, extolling the misery of your current life and no color except for brown in their poster and pamphlets. The Communist party was crushed. Manipulating culture to promote new visions of a society is still very valuable and the goal would be to create your own cultural propaganda to counter what you think is immoral, unethical and dangerous.

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Carlos Maza's avatar

Thanks Ioan. Very acute reflections on this "peliagudo" topic. Is very intertesting how music production in Peso Pluma and the like "corridos tumbados" is very professional, they are tremendous musicians. The re-assessment of corrido with these trap and hip hop influences is doing very good, I think, to a traditional genre that is still transforming: the corrido. To fight back ideology, particularly the powerful misoginy present in lyrics and videos, feminist artists have been using the rythms and turning them into concioussness... Like you, I wouldn't like censorship to limit these developments, but we have to be aware of the negative influences...

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