Why then do we not celebrate friendship with the same frantic energy with which our culture has celebrated love? The global consensus against friendship has to do with the fact that friendship does not have the histrionics of jealousy, the anxious waiting of desire, the burning disappointment of longing. Friendship does not make us suffer and thus is not the stuff of tragedies, comedies and dramas. If it is not the stuff of stories, it cannot feed the voracious economic engines of the culture industries.
Friendship does not make us suffer or look ridiculous, and thus cannot
be “translated” into cinema, television, advertising, soap operas, talk
shows, romance novels. Love, on the other hand, is a source of
never-ending opportunities for consumption – not only of stories,
experiences, advice, objects, but also endless activites of consumption:
lavish weddings; dates in restaurants, movies, discotheques or operas;
vacations in far-away or close touristic sites; gifts and surprises on
any day of the year; the need to remain attractive and sexy by means of
fashionable clothes, make-up, perfume and jewelry; the use of the
multi-billion-dollar industries of pornography or Internet dating.
All of these components of sexual-romantic encounters are a central, essential axis of consumer culture. Take love and sex out of our culture, and the economy collapses, wiping out in a second the fashion-cosmetics industry, the leisure industry, the tourist industry, the cosmetic-surgery industry, the entertainment industry, the pornography and sex industry, the sex-marriage-intimacy advice-therapy industry – and last but not least, the multi-million-dollar Valentine’s Day industry, which has become an international consumer day. Love is the invisible oil that endlessly fuels the engines of the consumer market.
On Valentine’s Day, and on all other days of the year, let us celebrate, without fancy restaurants or extravagant gifts, the sublime bond of friendship.
Eva Illouz - Why we don't celebrate friendship with the same fervor as love
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/culture/.premium-1.702731
All of these components of sexual-romantic encounters are a central, essential axis of consumer culture. Take love and sex out of our culture, and the economy collapses, wiping out in a second the fashion-cosmetics industry, the leisure industry, the tourist industry, the cosmetic-surgery industry, the entertainment industry, the pornography and sex industry, the sex-marriage-intimacy advice-therapy industry – and last but not least, the multi-million-dollar Valentine’s Day industry, which has become an international consumer day. Love is the invisible oil that endlessly fuels the engines of the consumer market.
On Valentine’s Day, and on all other days of the year, let us celebrate, without fancy restaurants or extravagant gifts, the sublime bond of friendship.
Eva Illouz - Why we don't celebrate friendship with the same fervor as love
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/culture/.premium-1.702731
un fragment dintr-un articol mai lung al Evei Illouz, postat ieri si descoperit de mine intamplator. a fost valentine's day, nebunie mare in jur, cumva am scapat de asta fugind in lume putin, desi a fost greu sa gasim ceva liber totcmai pentru ca era ziua asta din an plus inca sezon de ski.
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wow - eu acum am gasit postarea ta, nu am fost pe faza cand ai postat si mi-a scapat - da, total de acord. tot timpul am spus ca pentru mine prieteniile indragostite sunt esenta in viata :-)
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