Nietzsche
and popular culture P op is n ’ t t h e ep h emeral c u lt u ral e x perie n c e yo u t h i n k it to be , it ’ s a refle c tio n of o u r deepest moral a n d politi c al v al u es
Art work Darian Parker TEX T Richard Trist Pop culture is a rather difficult term to define, at first you might think that the Pop part of a culture is that which is most popular or has the broadest reach over society; however this appears to be begging the question e.g. a certain aspect of a culture is popular by virtue of the fact that it is popular. If we take the paradigm of British culture and ask what are the most universal and general parts of our culture then we end up with general statics like toast, driving licences, going to school, and getting married. The whole attempt at a definition gets even more general and pointless if we were to try and understand the whole of Western popular culture. Personally I don’t believe this description is what we really mean when we describe Pop culture, speaking for myself I tend to conceptualise pop though the literal metaphor of a fizzy drink. The contents of which provide immediate effervescence with much animation and energy; however this effect does not last. What was once visibly bursting with vitality now has all the charisma and allure of a cold cup of tea. Not to fear though, the forces behind Pop culture are on hand with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of carbon dioxide with which to reanimate the now sparking beverage. The drink itself is generally aimed at younger generations however the manufactures know that once hooked they are likely to remain loyal customers for life. Drinks come in a variety of different flavours but all contain the same basic formula, bright colours + lots of fizz + lots of sugar =
more pop sold. Older generations generally refrain from such drinks, considering themselves to have rather more discerning pallets; don’t be fooled, had they been born 30 years later they would be quaffing pints of the stuff.
Enough of the metaphors. It seems that our conception of popular is located in aspects of the world that have material presence, objects, persons, music, consumables if you will, however if we understand popular to include the values of a culture then we have a rather different picture. If we take a fairly standard moral concept for example ‘stealing is wrong’ and ask if the majority of the population would agree, then we would find that they would. And their support for such a value would be far more general and unanimous that any one individual or product that might peculate the general consciousness. For Nietzsche popular culture is the values held by the society. But where have these values come from? “Christianity!”, Nietzsche would growl behind a formidable set of whiskers, “It has made you into slaves, turned life against life, you are strangers to yourselves”. Perhaps I should quantify this bold statement; Nietzsche believes that Christianity was invented so that the weak
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