Yauheniya Chuyashova-Hybrid Assignment 08
In her essay “Whatever Blogging,” Jodi Dean (2013:169) articulates the “new modes of community and new forms of personality anticipated by the dissolution of inscriptions of identity through citizenship, ethnicity, and other modern markers of belonging.” There are a few examples given by Dean that elaborate on her notion of the “whatever being” throughout the article. One prime example is the use of the word whatever. The word whatever in English and in the United States is used as a way of dismissing ones feelings and words spoken as seen in the article “I’m George W. Bush, leader of the free world. I want to bomb Iraq. And when the says, “no!” I say, “whatever!” Saddam has started to meet our demands. Yeah, Whatever.” In the current state of our society we feel confortable to shove aside even the direst of situations with simple puns and words as if to belittle them in order to diminish the affect of important current events. From small children, to adults, to those holding important positions within our nations capital, we have all accepted the evasive meaning of the word whatever “ it acknowledges communicativity through deflection of the communicative effort.” There are many words and phrases used in the English language mainly in the U.S that are used as a form of control for the masses. There are also many mainstream forms of consumption that have altered the advancement of certain minority groups within our society. As Dean explains in the article, one major way of controlling and selling dreams to the masses has been the cinemas and the movies and dreams that they have sold through imagery “Monumental stars, awesome production numbers (Busby Berkeley) and special effects (King Kong), and luxurious lifestyles captivated Depression-era audiences and attempted to channel their desire toward fantasies of consumption.” Hollywood has used the media to try and change the face and meaning of many different aspects of our culture. Using movies to in an attempt to brighten and make light of the struggle of the everyday person and worker. Media consumption has been in heavy use in our country to make certain individuals forget about important current events. Take for example our current problem with police brutality and gun control. Important current events currently thrown into the “whatever being” state of mind with downplayed words coming from the media. It is not only the news channels but also every other form of media thrown in the mix in an attempt to dilute a main agenda.
