Krista lent me The Rebel Sell which lays out a critique on mass consumerism and counterculture which occurs in our society today. I really enjoyed this book as it touched upon a lot of thoughts I’ve had on society but have never been able to articulate in such a coherent matter.
It took a look at how life has changed since the 60s and how progress has affected our lives. It also takes a look at how culture can’t be jammed as the culture becomes the counterculture. Let me explain if you don’t understand what I’m talking about.
Ever see those funny advertisements that mock an organization? Let’s take the Nike picture posted above which I found on Google. This is an example of culture jamming. Where someone mocks something about our culture and misrepresents the original image of the organization. So I’m assuming that they are either talking about how we are slaves to buying Nike shoes just because of the brand name, or maybe they are talking about sweat shops that are used to create the shoe. I’m really grasping at that one as I don’t really have any information leading to whether or not that’s true. Anyhow, this isn’t the point. I’m trying to show you what culture jamming is.
So if you think about the original culture jammers, we’re looking at the hippies. They were against the way the world was. They wished to rebel. They grew their hair long (gasp!) and listened to awesome music. Let’s fast forward to the punk movement – wild hair, piercings here and there, mish-mash of clothing. This was the way to counter the culture which was upon us.
Thing is, culture then catches onto this underground movement and commodifies it. Instead of buying safety pins from your local pharmacy store which has been done since they were created, you can now buy a box of ‘PUNK STYLE SAFETY PINS!!!” or something to that effect. The punk style can now be bought at your local Wal-Mart. The concept of counter-culture has been turned on its head and now the counter-culture movement has to move elsewhere.
This is what Kurt Cobain had a problem with (amongst other things). Here was the underground alternative movement. We were tired of the glam which was the 80s. We wished for a simpler time where we could just haul on a pair of jeans and a plaid shirt over a t-shirt and that’s that. No glam, no fuss. Grow our hair long and that’s that. But then out of nowhere – whammo! It became popular culture. What the heck? How did that happen? Somehow in the middle of this, he (unfortunately) became the figurehead of a movement. The alternative movement. It killed him. It tore him up inside. He didn’t want to be this person that people looked up to. He just wanted to make music and have fun. Look at the album In Utero. Let’s all be honest…is this not a cry against the masses who loved Nevermind? I digress…
So there you have it. There’s a lot more to this book than just the counterculture movement. They have some fascinating looks at consumerism. Let’s take the free-range chickens. They are more expensive to buy but you get the peace of mind knowing that they had vast fields to roam inside of instead of being kept in cages. It was interesting to point out that on a nice warm day they would rather stay in the shade in a corner of the barn anyhow. So, why do we pay more? For peace of mind? Come on. So they take a look at a lot of these examples and infuse the book with amusing anecdotes about child life and good thought-provoking theories. I think Uncle Gerry would enjoy this book (if you’re reading this entry right now, pick up this book!)
I would highly recommend this book to anyone. It definitely is a thinking book and not your average Star Wars novel. There were a few chapters where I had to really hunker down to get through, but for the most part, it was a fascinating look at how we live our lives today and how we feed the machine which is our society.