SEELANGS Digest - 7 Mar 2013 (#2013-112)

[Elena Gapova]

I do not think my point is taken at all, as the argument with "Russian
intelligentsia" is used. It is a "leftist" one, I believe (while "Russian
intelligentsia" belongs with liberal discourse).

The initial point was made from a very different perspective. It was about
"global intellectuals" living off the capitalist market (and it is in this
regard that Abramovich, whose money partially pays for "Bol'shaya kniga" is
brought up), often producing those very "brainwashing products" both for
the regime's and independent enetrtainment media, making the viewers of
these products (coming from "villages and provinces") the laughing stock of
intellectual sarcasm (I am talking the case of "Sveta is Ivanova" and many
others), often evading taxes (which is justified as "I don't want to pay
taxes to this corrupt state") and demanding "chestnye vybory" at the same
time (having the "freedom" to demand them, as one's livelihood is sustained
by the global marjet... start again).

It just seems that the situation in Russia is SO different from the one
where liberal and moral Russian intelleigentsia stood up for freedom and
against tyrants. It is a much more complex  knot of professional
opportunities,vested interests, dis/honesty, self-promotion, sexualization
of everything, ideology etc. It seems that beeing honest in this situation
is just not possible (for the reasons explained by Marcuse in 1968). Like
buying "stuff" produced in the third world because it is cheap and being
outraged by sweatshops. Is it just a post-modern situation?
e.g.

2013/3/8 Ainsley Morse <ainsler at gmail.com>

> Elena, your point is well taken -- history certainly shows the Russian
> intelligentsia of yore (and today's "creative class") using political
> opinion and/or action as a commodity, and I am sure Shishkin is no
> exception. I think the reason we should nevertheless support gestures like
> his is in the hope that they might have an impact on public opinion outside
> of that liberally-minded intellectual community of the two capital cities.
>
> Worst-case scenario: if taking a stand on political principles has become
> something that increases one's sales and popularity in the capitals and
> abroad, maybe it will start to seem more attractive/fashionable/**feasible
> to defend political rights in the provinces and villages?
>
> On 08.03.2013., at 01.01, SEELANGS automatic digest system wrote:
>
>
>> Date:    Thu, 7 Mar 2013 23:06:50 -0500
>> From:    Elena Gapova <e.gapova at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject: Re: Mikhail Shishkin refuses to represent 'criminal' Russian
>> regime (6)
>>
>> Politkovskaya does not belong with this discussion: she was directly
>> involved with politics in her professional life and made her position
>> clear
>> at all times, while this conversation, I believe, focuses on a kind of
>> "intellectual privilege" specific to (some) artists, writers, producers,
>> directors etc.
>>
>> I constantly see anti-Putin intellectuals taking a political stand
>> regarding the "regime" and its "brainwashing propagandistic media"
>> (esp. TV) and, at the same time, living off the projects they do for these
>> very media (TV series, entertainment shows, even their own "авторские
>> программы"). This "delineation" between one's "political position" and
>> "professional moneymaking" seems a real moral problem to me (not that I
>> condemn anyone; my observations are of a general kind and were just
>> spurred
>> by Mikhail Shishkin's statement). A political position, in this case, is a
>> very useful commodity: it exists "separetely" of one's real life and can
>> be
>> applied according to one's needs.
>>
>> e.g.
>>
>>

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