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Year's Best Movie Criticism: Cornel West

Cornel West Isn't Crazy About MLK Statue, or Hollywood

Cornel West wrote an amazing op-ed for the Times last week, essentially arguing that MLK would have disliked his new statue -- "he never confused substance with symbolism" -- and would preferred to be remembered via an ongoing struggle for social change.

Within the piece is a withering takedown of contemporary pop culture, worth considering: "Materialism is a spiritual catastrophe, promoted by a corporate media multiplex and a culture industry that have hardened the hearts of hard-core consumers and coarsened the consiences of would-be citizens. Clever gimmicks of mass distraction yield a cheap soulcraft of addicted and self-medicated narcissists."

Wow. Sounds like somebody's seen "Sex and the City 2."