Tinatin Japaridze

Capitalism, along with a novel concept of mass-consumerism, was readily accepted as the answer to our nation’s decades-long prayer for a democratic Russia. In our collective pursuit of the American dream, we swapped the worn-out socialist system for a glossy capitalist alternative, thus unknowingly replacing one ideological “ism” for another. Little did we realize at the time that these “isms” are potentially capable of producing side-effects of their own, including consumerist “-manias” that can boast uncanny resemblance to societal repercussions experienced under Soviet mass-authoritarianism. In “Pottermania: Good, Clean Fun or Cultural Hegemony?” Tammy Turner-Vorbeck employs the viewpoint of one of the ultimate critics of Capitalism, Karl Marx, setting forth the Marxist-Socialist belief that Capitalism is the exploitative evil that deprives the individual of the right to introduce alternative ideas through its idealogical control system. She attempts to analyze a global capitalist phenomenon of Pottermania that has taken the world (including the former USSR) by storm through a Neo-Marxist lens. As part of her tri-fold project, the author incorporates theories of Neo-Marxism and Capitalism into her academic analysis seen through a “maternal” lens vividly reflected in her subjectively-driven point of view.

Western newspaper headlines tirelessly warn their readers that anti-Americanism in Russia is exploding. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the fluctuating attitudes of Russians toward the United States have been monitored on a regular basis by the Levada Center, Russia's leading independent pollster. The latest Levada poll results confirm that just over 80 percent of Russians view the U.S. in a negative light. It is worth noting that this is the highest negative rating for the U.S. since the center first began tracking the views of Russians on the other superpower in 1988. While Russia's growing anti-American sentiment is no longer a secret, is the reverse also true for Americans? Although cultural stereotypes about Russia in the West are gradually fading into the Cold War past of the Soviet era, Russophobia in the U.S. is also on the rise.

Capitalism, along with a novel concept of mass-consumerism, was readily accepted as the answer to our nation’s decades-long prayer for a democratic Russia. In our collective pursuit of the American dream, we swapped the worn-out socialist system for a glossy capitalist alternative, thus unknowingly replacing one ideological “ism” for another. Little did we realize at the time that these “isms” are potentially capable of producing side-effects of their own, including consumerist “-manias” that can boast uncanny resemblance to societal repercussions experienced under Soviet mass-authoritarianism.

In “Pottermania: Good, Clean Fun or Cultural Hegemony?” Tammy Turner-Vorbeck employs the viewpoint of one of the ultimate critics of Capitalism, Karl Marx, setting forth the Marxist-Socialist belief that Capitalism is the exploitative evil that deprives the individual of the right to introduce alternative ideas through its idealogical control system. She attempts to analyze a global capitalist phenomenon of Pottermania that has taken the world (including the former USSR) by storm through a Neo-Marxist lens. As part of her tri-fold project, the author incorporates theories of Neo-Marxism and Capitalism into her academic analysis seen through a “maternal” lens vividly reflected in her subjectively-driven point of view.

The Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), little known in the United States, is the Olympics of songwriting, encompassing all of Europe and beyond to geographic and cultural outsiders such as Israel, Jordan, Morocco, and the newcomer of 2015—Australia. Inspired by the popular Italian Sanremo Festival, the Eurovision Song Contest (originally titled The Eurovision Grand Prix) first started in 1956 in the aftermath of World War II as a cultural move towards European unity and peace (Mark Lawson, New Statesman). While over the past decades, the contest has acquired a reputation (particularly in the Western music industry) of a kitsch entertainment show with little musical value, it is worth noting that the ESC has served as a successful platform for international artist debuts, producing the likes of  Celine Dion, Julio Iglesias and ABBA. Even though the European Broadcast Union (EBU), the official operator of the ESC, has long adopted a law that bans songs of protest and propaganda, this has not stopped artists and songwriters from using this same platform to get their political messages of judgement across to the global audience of millions (Milana Knezevic, Index of Censorship).