Arguing powerfully against the privatization of public goods, Brad Evans and Henry A. Giroux detail how our enjoyment of mediated violence trivializes human life. Foregrounding the corporatism of politics—as Benito Mussolini described fascism—allows them to do more than call into question the transfer of power from the state to private institutions. They also examine the fascism of the mind, how we may be said to love our oppression and how this love compounds in the spectacle of violence. Evans and Giroux call us to account for our enjoyment of violence in movies, television programs, and video games, even as they ask us to direct attention to the everyday forms of racial violence and economic oppression that deprive many of life. Our taste for violent entertainment has never been more refined, yet our attention to the violence around us remains distracted. Relying on the work of critical scholars such as Guy Debord and Michael J. Shapiro, Evans and Giroux explore how the spectacle of violence captures and orders our bodily senses yet contributes to our neglect of the massive systems of violence that oppress and destroy lives on a daily basis. This approach allows them to link the violent racist killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner in 2014 with the increased militarization of the police; it also helps them explain why there is so little public concern about either problem.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
A 2016 study studied this question.