Karl Marx Muses Over the Kardashians & Instafame

notes on ?-based language

On Jerry Saltz

VANITAS EST NOBIS

Doch die Friedhofsruhe, die jetzt andächtig um Kiefers Werk verbreitet wird, ist aus dem gleichen Stoff, wie die hysterischen Abgrenzungsversuche, weil beides dem Werk äußerlich bleibt und aus deutschen Projektionen besteht.

The perfect dictatorship begins when the regime turns people spying on themselves, vigilant, infamous. Anytime, anywhere, the other is not a we.

One last thing about Kim Kardashian’s instafame: are you surprised that she gets hundreds of thousands of dollars for one sponsored post she uploads? KM: The increase in value of the world of things is directly proportional to the decrease in value of the human world.

Radicalism itself may not be revolutionary anymore, but gratuitous.
 As sex in television.


Tracing the limits of criticism is not only a question of truth but also a matter of decision.

Isn’t pleasure an important form of knowledge? Is vanity a devil in these practices? Vanity is built-in to all of us. It is a feature; not a bug. Self-preservation.

The quest of an artist is to release dialectics between the practice and its time.