WEEKLY REFLECTION 10:

Dear Popular Culture Theorists, This week's readings on the theme of "Old World Order/New World Disorder" are among our most important. You also have chapters on orientalism and fast food appropriation of Chinese culture--"Chineseness"--that can help you better recognize the scope of neoliberal globalization. Much reading indeed! But why is this week so important for us? This week joins the rather abstract critical theory that began our course with more palpable and demonstrable socioeconomic and historical analysis of the material realities that shape popular culture as well as our lives. Find time to read (or skim carefully) our textsBarker. Chapter 5: "A New World Disorder?"; David Harvey. Brief History of Neoliberalism, Ch. 3: "The Neoliberal State" (Canvas) and Ch. 5: "Neoliberalism with Chinese Characteristics." So . . . with all of the above in mind, this weekly reflection asks that you reflect casually on a comparison between the following film clips from our SLIDESHOW: NEW WORLD DISORDER in the context of the theory presented in our texts: Modern Times (1936), Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). Your weekly reflection might consider the similarities and differences in the clips' depiction of labor, management, commodity, service, value, wealth, power, and setting (e.g., factory vs. office). Once again, this reflection is not a test, but rather more of a diary entry (in conversation with your classmates' entries) that I get to enjoy from afar.