empowering nihilism

I have always believed that empowerment is a positive thing, and part of what makes music such a powerful and personal medium. Empowerment has far reaching and immeasureable effects, which can range from coalition building for human rights to destroying a whole race. So the question I ask is, is empowerment always a positive thing? If after listening to a certain song, speaker, character on a television program or watching the news I feel empowered to the extent that I am going to join a movement of cultural cleansing, is that a good thing?
In regards to the lecture Thursday and specifically to 50 cent, maybe he knew he was an ideological effect and was downright frustrated with that fact, and one day said 'Hey...I am going to make a profit and become ridiculously famous by hyperbolizing the numerous negative stereotypes and discourses that have been put on the African American man by the white man for centuries'. Or perhaps he happened to be discovered and signed by Eminem and the best producer in the business, Dr Dre, who manufactures his beats and promotes him endlessly, making him the next big thing. Maybe it was somewhere in between, either way, it really is irrelavent because at the end of the day the question that keeps coming back to me is: With the amount of conflict and tension in our world today, do we really need more hateful messages spreading, promoting and encouraging sexism, homophobia, rape, addiction and violence?
Perhaps I am trapped inside feminist ideology, but if it is impossible to escape ideology, I feel that the ideological effects that feminism has on me fits who I am and what I believe at this point in my life (or this week anyway). This does not mean that when I am in a social atmosphere I am incapable of enjoying this type of music, yet, it is for the most part on a superficial and often beat-driven level. However in an academic space, especially in a women's studies classroom, I find that my deconstruction and frustration towards 50 Cent is magnified.
Taking into account the historical and cultrual context in which his music is situated, I am glad that instead of being ghettoized, the black under class has a voice of power. I only wish that instead of continuing to promote oppression of others and spreading a self-indulgent and dangerous message to youths of all races and ethnicities, he spoke with a little more social consciousness (like for example, K'naan or K-OS...lyrics found below).

K'NAAN LYRICS

www.thedustyfoot.com
IF RAP GETS JEALOUS
So good things come to those who wait,
Sure, I've waited about pop pop pop pop- thats 4 cousins shot.
I got grudges, lets discuss this
My music needs no touch ups, I've got a long record of fuck ups trust me,
you dont know a past as weird as mine or a life as hard as mine,
i had to hustle, chop, sell drugs, grind whatever you wanna call it is fine
But just listen and dont pre-judge- I dont want anyone dismissin me for another thug or some shit like that,
No sir, if i fall i'm gon' get right back, I got circumstances,
But let me stop dancin around the issue and tell you straight forward, i'm poor
A refugee been imprisoned and survived a war,
I come from the most dangerous city in this universe, ur likely to get shot at birth
So how can rap quench my thirst?
...And if rap gets jealous, cuz i rock heavy It dont worry me, mother fuckas gon' get it
If rap gets jealous, cuz of where i'm headed, I used to be public enemy dont forget it...
Thats what it is, its pain, know what i'm sayin'?
i dunno man its like you spend years developing ur artistry u know what i'm sayin, perfecting ur skill and u cant do shit with it,
thats gotta be fucked up, know what i'm sayin? its gotta be fucked up
just imagine like you build a fucking castle and you can't live in it thats what it is,
you can't live in it! and you got problems you got family to feed, i got family to feed,
moment of truth right?

SMILE
(an integral part of our community, we smily while we bleedin)
...(shot) with my girlfriend (when) when we was younger,
i was scarred yo- but i survived tho,
death, it came easy, the gang needs me, never let em see me down smile whil ur bleedin
Smile, when ur strugglin, Smile, when ur in jail, Smile, when ur dead broke, Smile, and the rents due, Smile, you aint got friends now, Smile, cuz no one knows you, Smile...despite the war, despite the pain yo- never let em see you down, smile while you bleedin...
...i can't blow it- i got judges tellin me my life's key they will throw it, nu uh no sir,
i plan to have a chauffer and it seems to me this choppin crack is really goin nowhere,
therefore i'm resurrectin', they call me with more injection, i infect you with the rhythm...
There are a few things u gotta take into account i'm not an entertainer i've never been a clown,
I was born where mothers give birth while they frown...
I never really thought i'd make it to 14...war is no place for a child- especially if he's rollin with an AK and a smile, he had witnesses- his own mother in a bloody towel but please please never let em see you down, smile while you bleedin'

the ongoing battle with false consciousness...

After reflecting on the lecture on Thursday, at first I was rather idealistic and honestly thought for a second that the pluralism (diversity of thought) and demystification (people no longer being smitten by the commodity) that Adorno and Horkeimer spoke of was a viable option that we, as a culture, could (and would!) reach. Then within seconds my doubt of humanity struck, and I was left with the more postmodern and realistic assertion that complete consciousness raising is nearly impossibe, for culture is not a giant mass of fixed subjects who all move together in perfect unison but rather as Mimi White says is permeated with uneven development. This uneven development (simultaneous traces of social formations past, present and future) causes constant tension and conflict in culture, mostly due to the instability of the subject. I find myself feeling like a hypocrite some days, and other days I embrace the fact that I must negotiate my surroundings differently in order to get by (is a hypocrite still a hypocrite if she knows it??). Of course I feel a sense of satisfaction and smugness in intuitively just 'knowing' what a TV character is going to say or do...is my comfort in standardization of the culture industry always a crime? On the other hand I also find myself completely bored, disgusted and frustrated with white-heterocentric-patriarchal hegemonic discourse that is impossible to escape. It is exhausting but necessary to deconstruct ourselves on a continual basis. We must use our agency to navigate through culture and be aware of the competing discourses and ideological problematics that make our world so complicating and overwhelming, but so engaging and worthwhile at the same time. The fact that false consciousness is finding some resistance, even if it is fleeting and temporal, and has not become completely reifying to us as a culture provides me with a sense of hope.

the vision...oooo...aahhh

My vision for this blog, keeping in mind the article on textuality, is the development of a space for networking ideas, discussion and debate. I see blogs (when used constructively and to their potential) as a safe space for coalition building and as said in the article 'intervening in discourses of the everyday and cultivating rhetorical tactics that make interruption and resistance an important part of any conversation'. While that is a tall order for anyone to take, I think that the the privacty in which blogs can be developed, as well as the anonymity (to an extent), and the opportunity for personal creativity, makes it a strong medium for this type of idea/concept/frustrations sharing. Hopefully throughout the semester all of us will get to know eachother a lot better (for better or worse) and will work together as a group to challenge eachother and everything else we come across!
cheers!