Another Interesting New Expression

Yesterday I introduced you to the wonderful new word anecdoche, referring to "a conversation in which everyone is talking and no one is listening," and to my neologism anecdouche, referring to a person who takes part in an anecdoche. I love words.

Today I'd like to share another new word ... expression, actually, that I found in an article by George Dvorsky titled 20 Crucial Terms Every 21st Century Futurist Should Know:

Repressive Desublimation

The concept of repressive desublimation was first developed by political philosopher Herbert Marcuse, and described by author Annalee Newitz this way - 

"It refers to the kind of soft authoritarianism preferred by wealthy, consumer culture societies that want to repress political dissent. In such societies, pop culture encourages people to desublimate or express their desires, whether those are for sex, drugs or violent video games. At the same time, they’re discouraged from questioning corporate and government authorities. As a result, people feel as if they live in a free society even though they may be under constant surveillance and forced to work at mind-numbing jobs. Basically, consumerism and so-called liberal values distract people from social repression."

Wow.

Are we being repressively desublimated by living in a modern consumer society that discourages questioning corporate and government authorities? Hmmm ... I wonder if we prove the existence of repressive desublimation each time we unthinkingly give up our phone numbers or e-mail addresses when the checkout clerk at the store asks for them, or when we look at obvious government-sponsored vote fraud such as we saw last week in Arizona and still support egregiously stupid voter ID laws.

What do you think? You do still think, don't you?

Have a good day. Come back tomorrow for more Great Moments in Editing ... less intellectually challenging, but more fun. More thoughts then.

Bilbo