Author Thomas Sheridan on his latest book The Anvil of the Psyche.

This is a two part interview. Part one is here.

Ask yourself: what is popular culture? How does it come into existence? How do universally accepted ideas of art and creativity, mass media, publishing and financial constructs, and political and social doctrines arise? Are mass social and cultural movements – coupled with one’s personal and social identity – always a natural flow of social, economic, philosophical, spiritual and artistic threads of the collective human experience? Do they organically emerge from the underground to gradually become mainstream cultural and social consensus? And from these options and opinions, do we pick and choose objectively? Do we, as the consumer, the investor, the voter make our individual decisions, affiliations, allegiances and even our emotional attachments, determined exclusively by our own choices? The answer to all these questions is NO!

In The Anvil of the Psyche, Thomas Sheridan seeks to show us how controlled we really are, the often detrimental effects this has upon us, and what we can do to build a firewall for our minds. Topics discussed include politics, sport, advertising, mainstream media, personal identity and perception, magic and symbolism, conceptual and modern art, Hollywood, and popular music including The Beatles, Lady Gaga and U2.

www.thomassheridanarts.com

Bumper music: Cliff Martinez ‘Traffic OST’