Cristina made some great connections between discussions of the frontier vis-a-vis consumer culture in our composition course and discussions of the frontier vis-a-vis military culture in her history course. Here's part of her correspondence:
I am taking a history class now called "American Military Culture". I was just reading from the text when I came across something that kind of made me laugh because it had to do with our discussion of the American frontier used in advertisement as part of the American culture. Here it is:
"The roots of American strategic culture lie in a frontier tradition, an experience and expectation of success in national endeavors, experience with an abundance of resources for defense, a dominant political philosophy of liberal idealism, and a sense of separateness-moral and geostrategic-from the evil doings of the Old World." (Colin Gray)
So far since I started reading this book, I feel that it is a long persuasive essay on how war should be and is culturally acceptable and that soldiers act in accordance to and only for society. I just thought that it was hilarious that he used the American frontier to sort of push and justify his belief a little more.
Making these sorts of connections will help extend and deepen your analysis of consumer culture for your essays. And I hope all of you will begin to notice how such cultural motifs and myths (e.g., frontier, counterculture) underlie all parts of your life, including your life of reading and thinking for other courses.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Hipster Nation
“If culture involves consuming, and counter culture is a kind of culture, then isn’t it a consuming culture?”
The validity of this statement depends on one’s definition of “counter-culture.” If it is defined as the rebellious teen who buys Ray Ban’s and wears skinny jeans to declare his or her individuality and rebellious nature, then absolutely, he or she is simply feeding the consumer society monster. Buying products that have attached themselves to an idea or stereotype of rebellion is no more rebellious then buying a Raulph Lauren polo and vacationing on a beach in the Hamptons. This idea of buying products to declare a statement or identity was elucidated in class “I shop; therefore I am.” The most recent example of a countercultural fad is the hipster style. Young adults dress in a messy manner, resembling a fushion of both the hippy style of the seventies and the grunge fad of the early to mid ninties. Although some of these individuals look as if their clothing came out of a dumpster, most of it is quite pricey. At stores who embrace this look such as, Urban Outfitters and American Apperal a cotton t-shirt can cost as much as 50 dollars.
However, not all individuals declare themselves with the product buy, but rather through their countercultural actions and ideals. This definition of counterculture depends on one’s level of involvement in a consumer society. Whether the choice is to conform to the full on “Disneyified”, “McDonaldized”, or so called, “Americanized” version of one ’s self or chose to participate in consumerism solely for the purpose of buying necessities. One can choose, for the most part, to opt out of capitalistic society. The monster of consumer driven culture is alive and well, and will go on without one individual's participation, but why feed the beast and allow it to grow larger? Separation from this society allows one to become more aware of the true nature of life, creativity, and individualism. Counterculture has nothing to do with the music one buys and listens to, the clothing one wears, or any other product that has disguised itself as an idea of rebellion. It is finding one’s own path to individuality and the actions (hopefully non-violent) that are taken against consumerism. The individual takes a stance, defends an idea, even when the pack disagrees. An example of the emptiness of defining one's self through consummerism is conveyed in Thomas Frank's article "Countercultural Consumerism", as he quotes Abbie Hoffman who states in his literature, Steal this Book, "A revolution in consciousness is an empty high with a revolution in the distribution of power.” Purchasing so called "countercultural" paraphernalia is just feeding the capitalistic monster in a different way.
The Pepsi commercial demonstrates the way in which advertisements have adopted revolutionary themes and ideals, such as female empowerment (the woman slapping the inappropriate man), the socio-politcal commotion of the Sixties, and the end of the cold war, as portrayed in the Pepsi commercial. These movements had absolutely nothing to do with Pepsi’s product, but rather the ideas of the time, and the actions taken by the true counter cultural individuals. Pepsi has attempted to attach itself on these ideas and thus degrades them, claiming whoever drinks Pepsi will be linked to these revolutionaries and create revolutions of their own. In reality, it is true Pepsi was in existence during these time periods, but it was not a contributing factor to any “refreshing” rebellion, nor linked to the counter cultural society.
Here is a website that depicts the infamous, “hipster.” I found it interesting reading about people who hypocritically assert themselves as individuals via buying into “counter cultural” consumerism.
http://www.hipsterhandbook.com/
The validity of this statement depends on one’s definition of “counter-culture.” If it is defined as the rebellious teen who buys Ray Ban’s and wears skinny jeans to declare his or her individuality and rebellious nature, then absolutely, he or she is simply feeding the consumer society monster. Buying products that have attached themselves to an idea or stereotype of rebellion is no more rebellious then buying a Raulph Lauren polo and vacationing on a beach in the Hamptons. This idea of buying products to declare a statement or identity was elucidated in class “I shop; therefore I am.” The most recent example of a countercultural fad is the hipster style. Young adults dress in a messy manner, resembling a fushion of both the hippy style of the seventies and the grunge fad of the early to mid ninties. Although some of these individuals look as if their clothing came out of a dumpster, most of it is quite pricey. At stores who embrace this look such as, Urban Outfitters and American Apperal a cotton t-shirt can cost as much as 50 dollars.
However, not all individuals declare themselves with the product buy, but rather through their countercultural actions and ideals. This definition of counterculture depends on one’s level of involvement in a consumer society. Whether the choice is to conform to the full on “Disneyified”, “McDonaldized”, or so called, “Americanized” version of one ’s self or chose to participate in consumerism solely for the purpose of buying necessities. One can choose, for the most part, to opt out of capitalistic society. The monster of consumer driven culture is alive and well, and will go on without one individual's participation, but why feed the beast and allow it to grow larger? Separation from this society allows one to become more aware of the true nature of life, creativity, and individualism. Counterculture has nothing to do with the music one buys and listens to, the clothing one wears, or any other product that has disguised itself as an idea of rebellion. It is finding one’s own path to individuality and the actions (hopefully non-violent) that are taken against consumerism. The individual takes a stance, defends an idea, even when the pack disagrees. An example of the emptiness of defining one's self through consummerism is conveyed in Thomas Frank's article "Countercultural Consumerism", as he quotes Abbie Hoffman who states in his literature, Steal this Book, "A revolution in consciousness is an empty high with a revolution in the distribution of power.” Purchasing so called "countercultural" paraphernalia is just feeding the capitalistic monster in a different way.
The Pepsi commercial demonstrates the way in which advertisements have adopted revolutionary themes and ideals, such as female empowerment (the woman slapping the inappropriate man), the socio-politcal commotion of the Sixties, and the end of the cold war, as portrayed in the Pepsi commercial. These movements had absolutely nothing to do with Pepsi’s product, but rather the ideas of the time, and the actions taken by the true counter cultural individuals. Pepsi has attempted to attach itself on these ideas and thus degrades them, claiming whoever drinks Pepsi will be linked to these revolutionaries and create revolutions of their own. In reality, it is true Pepsi was in existence during these time periods, but it was not a contributing factor to any “refreshing” rebellion, nor linked to the counter cultural society.
Here is a website that depicts the infamous, “hipster.” I found it interesting reading about people who hypocritically assert themselves as individuals via buying into “counter cultural” consumerism.
http://www.hipsterhandbook.com/
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Food and Counter Culture
www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/counter-culture-642406.html
This link bring you to the British news website of independent.co.uk. The article that the link leads you to is about how food and drinks are apart of counter culture. The article also explains the future os food shopping and how certain foods become fashionable and trendy and how food is used to sell other products.
Monday, February 2, 2009
IGGY in other Commercials
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYnydYrZPp8
Iggy Pop is actually the one acting in the commercial. How crazy is that. I TOUCHED IGGY POP's head at a concert. Bad idea... he's really quite sweaty.
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