I am going to tell this story to my daughter one day when she is all grown up, as well as to my grandchildren, of course. The story is that in 2020, it was not just a pandemic that ground the world to a halt, it was also Kanye West, the rapper, producer and fashion designer who jumped into the race to the White House.
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I will concede that I found this to be very amusing. Despite what is unfolding around the world, I have yet to lose my sense of humor. But a large portion of the population on this big crystal ball revolving around the sun has actually lost its sense of humor.
The internet was ablaze in the wake of his announcement. Some 24 hours after West's speech, Musk said he would support him (Remember this guy from Tesla?). He was the first to reply, writing: "You have my full support!"
Well, the internet, this "World Wide Web" as it is known, was replete with memes and posts that blamed West for just pretending to run so that he can siphon off votes from Biden and help Trump get reelected.
But now in all seriousness, f-ing Biden? What's so scary about him that no one seems to envision him serving as president? Well, of course, obviously not Trump. But Biden? The man looks like the ultimate candidate to die of natural cause while serving as president. How old is he anyway, 100?
So people are not too thrilled about the fact that politics has become a reality show, but what is the big difference between that and, say, George W. Bush, Bibi or Putin? Just because those three are not sexy such as Kanye doesn't mean they support some ancient Greek definition of democracy, which people keep referencing and mentioning even though none of those experts, supposedly from the educated middle class, have ever read Plato's Republic.
And just to set the record straight: In Ancient Greece, only a very tiny portion of the population was allowed to partake in the political process. Let's not forget that the rest were slaves! Yes, that was the case, they were slaves.
Since we are witnessing the current clash of civilization (I don't want to be a party pooper and end the hysteria, but there have been many like these before, I am sorry to say, in the hundreds), we can now experience big social transformations that the next generations will surely have to write about in unflattering treatises. These are necessary transformations, like any social revolution. Perhaps West is part of this revolution, as president.
Horkheimer and Adorno would have described what has been unfolding in the US over the past 100 years as "culture industry." They claimed that this is the cultural influence of the elites rather than the volkskultur, the culture of the masses. What the heck is volkskultur, kill me if you find out. Because even I, a history major, cannot recall a single instance in history in which there was a culture of the masses. It doesn't matter who creates culture or art, the money always trickles from the top down, from the higher echelons to the lower rungs of society. The current approach, the current strategy, to deny the "culture" is just something that for me appears to be not fully baked
So, let's get back to Kanye for a moment. Kanye, unlike Trump or Biden, is the son of a single mother who was a professor of English literature. He is a self-made man. If you will, he is a man of the people and as such, does not have the slightest clue in politics. Of course, people want to see as president of the US someone like Angela Merkel. But what is clear is that Kanye is better than Trump, Bibi, Putin, Erdogan and Biden.
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