Date: Sat, 3 Jan 1998 19:26:04 -0500 (EST)
From: David Langston <dlangsto-AT-mcla.mass.edu>
Subject: Re: PLC: Global Monoculture



On Fri, 2 Jan 1998, George Trail wrote:

> My example is Disneyworld, outside Paris. I rest my case forever. 

The case only holds water, however, as long (forever?) as we agree that
the Disney corporation = capitalism....and I'm pretty sure it does not. 
Disneyland may make over history, sex, food, country, etc. into
commodities stamped with the Disney corporate logo, but there are other,
competing, ways to make commodities out of those same elements. 

If those who say that capitalism is marked by the relentless drive to make
everything into a commodity -- including the wish to escape from endless
commodification -- are correct, then capitalism will not only cough up the
Disney corporation, but it will also require room for other competing
commodities.  Like the mythical shark which never stops swimming,
capitalism, on this model, will always be generating differences, not
homogenized totalities like Disneyland.  (Should we be re-reading
_Spectres of Marx_ with an eye on Derrida as an apologist for capitalism
rather than its critic?)

                            David Langston
                            Mass. College of Liberal Arts
                            dlangsto-AT-mcla.mass.edu


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