The Things You Carry

YES, YES, YES!

And also NO, NO, NO!

I recently read this article from This Magazine (that’s its name) and it’s awesome. Basically, it’s about an upcoming book called “The Rebel Sell” about how anticonsumerism ends up propping up the consumer society it tries so hard to tear down.Quoth the article:

“This isn’t because the authors, directors or editors are hypocrites. It’s because they’ve failed to understand the true nature of consumer society.”

I mean, you can buy Adbusters at a store. That’s one of the article’s examples. Of course, being Canadian, the article authors called it your “neighbourhood” store. Damn excessive U usage.

Anyway, to the point. People market anticonsumerism and rebellion. They sell “Fight Club” on special edition DVD for the love of God. Simple. Read the article for more information on it.

I did think the article was pretty unfair to some of the examples it used, for example “American Beauty.” It pretty much rips the film a new one for portraying Kevin Spacey’s character as a man in anticonsumer rebellion, then pointed out parts where his rebellion was pretty consumer.

I didn’t think that was the point of the film at all. I thought Spacey’s character was part of what was being satirized, which is why at the end he realizes his whole rebellion was bull and his dying image was of what’s really important, i.e. his family.

I guess I liked the film more than the article authors, though. “The Rebel Sell” is the Canadian name. We poor schmucks in the US are stuck with the much lamer name of “Nation of Rebels.” I really liked the article and look forward to borrowing the book from any friend of mine who happens to buy it and then never returning it. My final point, babies and bathwater. Don’t throw one out with the other.

People need venues and formats for discussing these very important issues. Personally, that’s why I like the Internet. One person’s thoughts - or even better, the e-mail listserv from The Compact - are hard to package as a for-profit product.

I agree, Adbusters is weak. “Culture jamming” is asinine and tax code changes are a better way to combat advertising than fake ads spoofing real ones (see the article for what I’m talking about with the tax code thing).

But just because this issue attracts a lot of pretension and crap doesn’t mean the core argument of “We don’t need all this crap” isn’t a valid one.