The Rights of Man

"Mainstream western 'culture' is laughably stupid."
"You can't say that. You must say, "In my opinion, mainstream western 'culture' is laughably stupid."
"I'm not a democracy. Mainstream western 'culture' is laughably stupid."

Though perhaps he should have said I am not a totalitarian democracy. The above case of having to prefix one's inner world with the admission that it is but one opinion in a field of equally valid opinions a movement from the real- ie one's actual consciousness, to an unreal, abstract public sphere, which naturally is not possessed of consciousness, it being non-existent. Perhaps this is why concepts of art like The Great American Novel are guaranteed to produce anything but great novels. An excessive concern with a public sphere, rather than this collective aspect of existence emerging of its own accord through the faithfulness to the individual consciousness. Thus the spiritual and artistic poverty of current American film compared to 'world cinema' like Vodka Lemon, and The Return. Compare with the Big Subject tedium of Martin Scorcese's evolving career.