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Cynthia Cruz Biography

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“Neoliberalism insists that if we work hard enough, we can earn as much money as anyone else. Of course, the concept of meritocracy is integral to neoliberalism and erases the reality of capital itself, that capitalism is not just material capital but also, importantly, social and cultural capital. Without these forms of capital, (p. 77) one cannot, in fact, “succeed” in a capitalist culture. One obvious example is the art world, where one can only have their work shown in a gallery if they have connections to that gallery (galleries do not, for the most part, accept unsolicited submissions). All the cash in the world can’t create the generations of social connections of a middle-class family, whose circle might include art collectors, gallerists, critics, and artists. It is also the values and unspoken rules of the ruling class that distinguish who is allowed in and who is not.”

ValuesWorkMiddle ClassCapitalistWorking ClassCapitalNeoliberalismMeritocracy
Book:The Melancholia of Class: A Manifesto for the Working Class
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“The society I grew up in, ruled by the middle class, was and remains entirely middle-class. When I look in magazines or books, watch films or TV shows, when I talk to my colleagues and other writers and my students, there always seems to be the same handful of middle-class writers referenced. These books are referenced by the middle-class writer they read about in literary journals. And these middle-class writers write from a middle-class point of view, which is to say from a distance and, for the most part, this means not about the concrete, real world in which the majority of people live. This massive deployment of values and beliefs, aesthetics and desires, is a form of indoctrination, one we remain for the most part, unaware of. Rather than confronting the working class with their values and aesthetics, insisting we adhere to them, the middle class simply present their beliefs and aesthetics as natural, as the world.”

CultureSocietyTasteMiddle ClassWorking ClassAesthetics
Book:The Melancholia of Class: A Manifesto for the Working Class
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“Proprio come assumere alcol o droghe oppure fumare, spendere soldi che non si hanno per un qualcosa che ci darà solo un giorno di evasione non ha un senso logico. Eppure spesso è l'unico mezzo di fuga, per quanto temporanea, dall'aggressione violenta e incessante del mondo. Tali azioni (spendere soldi che non si hanno, bere o fare uso di droghe, fumare) sono forme di pulsione di morte, ovvero di un desiderio inconscio di distruggere tutto per poter ricominciare daccapo. Azioni simili, con i rischi che comportano, fungono solo da fuga momentanea dalla condizione di morti viventi in cui ci si trova a causa della melanconia.”

MorteClasse SocialePulsione Di Morte
Book:The Melancholia of Class: A Manifesto for the Working Class
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