Quotes about the Eighties III

Who would have thought the right-on jargon of the early 1980s could have become so quaint so fast, or the ideals behind it abandoned so swiftly? (Novelist Patrick Gale, The Week March 2012)

When I was at university in the 1980s, the pendulum had swung so far… that it sometimes felt as if we were living in a theocratic state, where even the most innocuous remarks could be branded as sexist and offensive. (Steerforth at the Age of Uncertainty blog, Sept 4 12) 


Underlying all Theodor Adorno’s work in the area was his contention that "popular art becomes the mere exponent of society, rather than a catalyst for change in society." He believed American authoritarianism had a different façade than the typical European forms. Instead, it was characterized by a disguised and gentle conformist enforcement rather than blatant terrorist coercion. The American totalitarianism was spread by the culture industry which Adorno saw as undemocratic, reified and phony… (moyak.com) 



This was the kind of utopian thinking that made fringe candidates permanently fringe. (good.is) 


The concept of proof which you invoke is part of the hegemonic apparatus 
by which the dominant patriarcho-capitalist paradigm of "science" seeks
 to delegitimize alternatives that are disruptive to it. Western
 scientific "knowledge" is, like all knowledge, the product of discourse 
and as such, is culturally determined, as can be seen from its reliance
 on concepts such as "force" and "rigour" (i.e. stiffness), both of which
 are reflective of the masculine sexuality and violence that underlie and
 sustain it. ... sorry, I am not very good at this. But the key point is that 
scientific "knowledge" is culturally determined and so has no right to
 claim any kind of universal correctness. (JP)

The assumption that ordinary people’s lives could be controlled and limited by what entertained them was always too condescending to be anything but fatuous. (Clive James on Princess Daisy, 1980)

At the child guidance clinic I was struck by [the] indifference to outcome. Eventually I became concerned that I could see little evidence that the children and families who attended received any benefit; in fact, the majority defaulted on their attendance after a few appointments, usually one or two. It seemed to me that the people working there should have been questioning the validity and utility of the theory and practices to which they adhered. (Michael Heap, The Skeptic, June 2012)

Its neo-Marxist, Frankfurt-school inspired vision of the poor, down­trodden masses manipulated by the ruling classes via the media is rather dated. (Cosmo Landesman on Hunger Games, March 2012)

I love the idea of workers' co-operatives, I really love it. But… I used to work for one, and actually, it was a bit of a nightmare. The offices of City Limits magazine, a London listings title set up in 1981 in opposition to Time Out, seethed with victimhood, resentment, factionalism, incompetence and silliness. [In one meeting they put to the vote the proposition that the mag needed “better writing”.] Oddly enough, the co-op did not stagger on for too long after that ludicrous, comedy gathering. (Deborah Orr, The Guardian, 31 March 2012)

More here, and links to the rest.