Cultural Studies Perspective and Modern Perceptions of Communism

Christina Cerqueira

Most people consider McCarthyism to be something that happened years ago, something we moved well beyond.  For the most part, this is true; however there are still lingering vestiges of institutionalized political discrimination.  A Political Science professor of mine at Union College, is a member of the Marxist party in Argentina.  Every time she enters the U.S. she is fingerprinted for her political affiliation, which appear on her records at customs. 

While working in a senator’s office last summer, I received many phone calls from concerned constituents who repeatedly confused communism, Marxism, socialism, fascism and Nazism.  At first it was funny to hear people in a huff throwing around these terms with inflated indignation and fear.   But, as I listened to more and more people tear up on the phone to me, terrified for America’s imminent transformation into a communist fascist Nazi regime, my sympathy grew.  How scary to live in a world where your new president is going to completely dismantle everything you believe in and create a totalitarian state, like the ones you read about in history class, compounded with death panels and a radical religious ideology.  It is absolutely terrifying. But how did they come to believe that?  How did these American’s become so scarred and assured that this is actually going to happen?

The cultural studies perspective helps answer this question. This model holds that culture is more important that the informtation itself, and that culture shapes political realities.   The U.S. perception of communism is predominantly one sided.  The fact that this ideology inspired so many people around the world and galvanized them into political action, should speak to its value.  It is illogical to assume that a belief, which was and is supported by so many around the world, could be intrinsically “evil” and devoid of reason or merit, as many Americans believe.

Yet, popular culture, shaped by the 1950s, leads American's to distrust communism as the enemy of the beloved way of life.  With McCarthyism, the House Committee on Un-American Activity and the Hollywood Black list, the government had a pretty direct hand in shaping cultural opinions.  But in the last few decade the perception of communists have been purported more by the general media.  As Thussu points out, although “media in the west are notionally free from direct government control, they nevertheless act as agents to legitimize the dominant ideology.”  Cultural perceptios of communism and other political demons, perpetuated through TV, news reporting, books, history lessons, movies, etc. shape the political realities of many American today.