Mike Watson is a media and art theorist and educator, born in the United Kingdom and based in Finland. His latest book is Hungry Ghosts in the Machine: Digital Capitalism and the Search for Self.
In a land of 5.5 million people, Finnish-language culture is vulnerable to the overwhelming dominance of English. The right-wing government’s plans to slash arts spending risk further stifling Finland’s distinct culture.
The Frankfurt School, a group of theorists who grappled with the defeat of Europe’s revolutionary left, are often misunderstood. Critics charge them with obscurantism and elitism. They argued that, on the contrary, it was capitalism that obfuscated reality.
For journalist Matt Taibbi, Herbert Marcuse is a pseudo-intellectual at fault for much of what ails the contemporary left. But the real Marcuse was a serious thinker who remained committed to socialism and working-class struggle. In our moment of political defeat, his works like One-Dimensional Man are well worth revisiting.
Successive UK governments have been slashing arts funding for decades. Labour is promising to reinvest.