'Bourgeoisification, the suburbanisation of the soul'

This remarkable interview with author J.G. Ballard has a lot of wonderful and arresting quotes, including:

The destruction of the World Trade Center on 9/11 has not yet been repackaged into something with more consumer appeal, I notice. Another revolutionary event, the assassination of JFK, was rapidly defused by the intense media coverage, the endless replaying of the Zapruder film, and the vast proliferation of conspiracy theories. But Kennedy was himself largely a media construct, with an emotional appeal that was as calculated as any advertising campaign. His life and death were both complete fictions, or very nearly. A real revolution, as 9/11 was in its way, will always come out of some unexpected corner of the sky...

But there is something deeply suffocating about life today in the prosperous west. Bourgeoisification, the suburbanisation of the soul, proceeds at an unnerving pace. Tyranny becomes docile and subservient, and a soft totalitarianism prevails, as obsequious as a wine waiter. Nothing is allowed to distress and unsettle us. The politics of the playgroup rules us all.

Emphasis mine. I thought the last bit about how politicians and the media coddle the masses perfectly fit the current military strategy of minimizing casualties, not of civilians, but of the military itself.

Some good writing can also be found in David Denby's review of Fahrenheit 9/11 in the New Yorker. Worth reading in the run-up to the film's premiere.

Finally, this bizarre story about Britney Spears totally losing it when a car being driven by her mother knocks down a photographer is worth looking at for the pictures alone.