Poshlost ja poliittinen arviointikyky : Olavi Paavolainen poliittisen poshlostin kriitikkona

Authors

• Jouni Tilli
• Lauri Paltemaa

Abstract

Poshlost can be described as a certain kind of ”smug philistinism”. Philistinism is a mentality based on materialism, stock ideas and conventionalism. A philistine is a conformist who aspires to be intelligent, authentic and sophisticated, but the seed of failure is inbuilt in the very endeav­our. Poshlost is not only apparently tacky but essentially the falsely important, falsely clever, falsely beautiful and falsely attractive. The genuine and authentic is never poshlost. Poshlism is thus an aesthetic judgment as well as a moral indictment. Ishall make a political reading of the concept and interpret it as the absence of the ability to judge politically. In political poshlost one’s ability to think by herself and for herself is clouded, for example, by an ideology. Ibring into play Olavi Paavolainen’s criticism (and critique!) of the unwillingness to judge for oneself. Paavolainen was adamant on making his own judgements.