Re: Jenna Jameson, Paris Hilton etc
On Jun 9, 2007, at 8:19 AM, Julio Huato wrote:
Conspicuous consumption also establishes hegemony: it displays power, and signals to the dominated and exploited classes their own powerlessness, and consequently reinforces the sense of inferiority and inability at those levels.
Yes. One of Beckert’s themes is that the pre-Civil War elite was
still deeply republican, but as their wealth increased and the
proletariat increased in number from the 1870s onward, they turned
deeply anti-democratic. A grand ball held at the Waldorf-Astoria in
1897 featured 50 women dressed as Marie Antoinette.
Doug