Rebel, Radical, or Real
I imagine Heath and Potter may have lost some of their left-leaning friends as they attempted to expose how the anti-consumerism, counter-cultural movement since WW2 didn’t live up to its billing and in fact likely added to the furtherance of consumer capitalism.
It’s important to understand their thesis: “. . . that counter cultural movements have failed to effect any progressive political or economic consequences; thus counter-culture is not a threat to ‘the system.’”[1] To understand that perspective I must know how ‘the system’ is perceived. To that end, I enjoyed the authors’ analogy to the film series The Matrix. I’m a fan—at least of the first film. So Marxist socialists (Debord and Baudrillard) see consumer-driven media, advertising, and manufacturing as a completely blinding system, a system that most people would be happy stay within, and few would actually want to be rescued from; to see the harsh reality of consumer capitalism. “Thus we live in a world of total ideology, in which we are completely alienated from our essential nature.”[2] And also, “. . . we must try to discover our own sources of pleasure, independent of the needs that are imposed upon us by the system, and we must try to wake up from the nightmare of ‘the spectacle’. Like Neo, we must choose the red pill.”[3]
If you take the red pill what will you see? A system that “achieves order only through the repression of the individual. Pleasure is inherently anarchic, unruly, and wild. To keep the workers [a.k.a. human batteries] under control, the system must instill manufactured needs and mass-produced desires, which in turn be satisfied within the framework of the technocratic order.” [4] Insert the counter-cultural movements starting in the 60s that say “having fun” (free sex, drugs, rock-and-roll); hedonism as their “revolutionary doctrine”. But from our 21st-century perspective looking back it really isn’t too hard to discern that such a feel-good doctrine actually does little more than generate more consumer capitalism. Do a random analysis of advertising and the values it expresses and what will you find? “Feel good now,” “be happy today,”—for a price, of course. This ideology represents a vast majority of the ads and yet its roots are in the counter-cultural, have-fun-now-at-any-cost, idea of utopian society.
So then where does the “conformity” of society come from if not the mass media, driven by the consumption generating system? Heath and Potter propose that it comes from what the people want in response to a societal problem, what they call a collective action problem. The example is offered of “rules of traffic” without which a pedestrian wouldn’t know when to cross a street.[5] So the authors see societal rules as helpful ways to regulate some of the ills of society; they lean on top-down, bigger government ideas, like welfare. This is very different from the true rebel types who would argue the whole system needs to be thrown out. So while Heath and Potter support societal change, they would argue against “throwing out the system” seeing that it’s unrealistic and that a system promotes valuable social norms and rules.[6] It seems like Heath and Potter are left-leaning liberals, trying to borrow principals from conservatism.
Reviewers have criticized, and I agree, that The Rebel Sell uses straw man arguments. While some 300 footnotes show the authors wrote a well-researched book, but that doesn’t keep them from twisting facts to fit their particular argument.[7]
There is a lesson here for the church. The church should be in the world but not of the world. We Christians should reflect a counter-culture, as David Platt is now well known for promoting in his books; “Radical,” “Radical Together,” and now his latest “Counter Culture; but couldn’t this attempt to be counter-cultural also become worldly? I wonder. I see Christ followers as called to be holy, to be distinct in the way we live (a godly life) and especially in the way we relate to one another (an other-centered love), as well as the way in which we meet the needs of others (compassion) in the world. However, as radical/different as that might look for you or for me, we’re not called completely out—that is until the day Jesus takes us out. So while Heath and Potter look for a way to be anti-consumer while working within the capitalist system, we too must find impactful ways to be real Christ-followers within the real world, negotiating around a very worldly culture.
[1] “The Rebel Sell.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 22 July 2004. Web. 2 March 2015.
[2] Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter, The Rebel Sell: Why the Culture Can’t Be Jammed (Toronto, ON.: HarperCollins, 2004), 5.
[3] Ibid, 6.
[4] Ibid, 9.
[5] “The Rebel Sell.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 22 July 2004. Web. 2 March 2015.
[6] Blake Boles, “Book Review: The Rebel Sell,” BlogBoles.com, November 1, 2012, accessed March 2, 2015, http://www.blakeboles.com/2012/11/book-review-the-rebel-sell/.
[7] “The Rebel Sell.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 22 July 2004. Web. 2 March 2015.
About the Author
Dave Young
husband, dad, friend, student of culture and a pastor.11 responses to “Rebel, Radical, or Real”
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David, I kind of got the feeling from Heath and Potter that any “real effort” to change the nature or culture of society isn’t really going to work. James Davison Hunter, who we will soon be reading, agrees and really speaks of any efforts to create change among the masses is futile. Only when we address the oligarchy controlling everything, which is a very few people, will thing really change. Definitely dampening thoughts but the more we keep reading the more I question macro change and shift. So I think I will just take the blue pill and see what happens:).
Kind of makes me want to give up even before I start. But then again, how do we account for 12 weak, clueless and mostly discarded disciples as the foundation for changing the world through Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection? Somehow we have to be realistic while hopeful. Is that possible?
Mary, Thanks for mentioning the fact that world change has been brought about by a group of Christ followers. It seems that the more the Church understands and becomes sold-out for the Kingdom of God, the more we actually see positive, real change in the world around us.
Hey Dave, I find that I have a tendency to proof-text, much like the authors. I approach concepts from the posture of “I know the best way” and then set about the goal of finding concurrence among “experts.” Much like the mass response to Rebel Sell, what could be a persuasive piece gets relegated to “opinion piece” status and the message (appropriately) marginalized. This book, if for no other reason, has been helpful to me by illustrating the need to temper the smarminess a little if I hope to be taken seriously by a wide audience, by people who hold opposing opinions…
Jon,
I’m sure that wasn’t the intent of the authors, but thank you for pointing out that key take-away. Words like “always” or “never” are pretty strong and often put people on the defense. If we want to have our own work well received, then we must present our opinions as opinion, except where we can offer solid unbiased proof. Sometimes the goal isn’t to win an argument, but rather to pose a new idea that seems plausible enough to make people think in a new way. If an audience responds so harshly to our views, then we have failed to deliver the message in a convincing way.
I agree with you, Jon, that these texts, both the ones I like and dislike, are causing some reflection on my own life. And I thought this doctorate program was about writing a dissertation for other people?!!!!! 🙂
David, You asked great questions for the church? How do we be in the world and not of it. I also loved how you asked if David Platt’s Counter Culture “couldn’t this attempt to be counter-cultural also become worldly?”
Did you see Michael Horton recently released a book called “Ordinary: Sustainable Faith in a Radical, Restless World” as a direct response to Platt’s Radical book?
Back and forth…back and forth….A good capitalistic response.
Nick, While I’m slowly learning how to talk about books I haven’t read – I’d rather be genuine with you. I haven’t heard of Horton’s response nor have I read Platt’s books. I”m just trying to keep my head above water. But you know I really appreciate where you landed with your post. 🙂
Your words about being in the world, but not of the world remind me of a Madeline L’Engle’s quote:
“We are all strangers in a strange land, longing for home, but not quite knowing what or where home is. We glimpse it sometimes in our dreams, or as we turn a corner, and suddenly there is a strange, sweet familiarity that vanishes almost as soon as it comes.”
In some ways, the tug of war in living here is knowing that God desires change “on earth as it it in heaven,” but it won’t be entirely realized until we are really home. How do we stay in the fray (our culture and/or counter-culture) yet hold lightly that which God will transform?
Dave,
Platt is a great example. Our capitalist system is utilized for him to produce a book that can be sold for profit, but still contain a message of radical change. We cannot completely disengage from our system (even the Amish shop at Walmart), but we can us the system in which we live to achieve something of significance.
I dont agree that counter culture is not effective. I believe some dont last but i think they have an effect on people and lives now maybe not politically like most want. Im not interested in the world im interested in how counter culture effectst that church. And even on the coming of Jesus, he effected every norm when he came. He is the biggest and greatest rebel i have ever seen or heard of. Many churches and leaders are not interested in core things he taught us, love, faith, fairness, and doing unto others as we would have them do to us. If we just started right there that would be a counter culture to our churches!