{"id":16673,"date":"2018-02-22T19:52:20","date_gmt":"2018-02-23T03:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=16673"},"modified":"2018-02-22T19:52:20","modified_gmt":"2018-02-23T03:52:20","slug":"cool-not-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/cool-not-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Cool…not me"},"content":{"rendered":"

In their book\u00a0The Rebel Sell: Ho the CounterCulture Became Consumer Culture<\/em> Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter make the argument that being “counterculture” is actually not a strike against capitalism and consumerism. In fact, it feeds directly into capitalisms ultimate goals, to package and resell what they believed to be fighting against it. I have always been amused at those who fight against the system, while wearing Birkenstocks, recording everything on their iphone, and uploading to social media. The introduction is a great commentary on just how strange this can look. They tell of\u00a0Adbusters<\/em>, “the flagship publication of the culture-jamming movement.” [1], who in a act of rebellion started selling their own brand of trainers. Think about that, a group who is ardently against the consumer culture, trying to sell you their brand. In fact, they argued they did not “sell out” because they were not using sweatshop labor.<\/p>\n

Just like those who wear Che Guevara t-shirts and yet could not tell you who he was and why he should not be on their shirt. In fact Che himself is quoted as saying to Carlos Fanqui\u00a0\u201cWe executed many people by firing squad without knowing if they were fully guilty. At times, the Revolution cannot stop to conduct much investigation” [2]. So for people who want to feel rebellious, here is your rebel leader.<\/p>\n

The chapter From status-seeking to coolhunting really caught my interest. It starts off with the story of how most of us find out we are not really that cool, in junior high. How one of them wore “cougars” a type of snow boot to school only to be ridiculed for not wearing deck shoes. It did not matter that those who wore the deck shoes feet were probably freezing and wet while the authors feet were warm and toasty. He felt like an outcast because he was not wearing what was considered cool.[3]<\/p>\n

The chapter discusses what the hipster culture and its origins with Norman Mailers list in 1959,\u00a0 The Hip and the Square.\u00a0<\/em> They argue that Mailer’s list from over 50 years ago, still to this day, cannot be argued with.[4] The corporate machines will continue to use the cool factor to sell you everything you think you want. My eyes were really opened when I first watched a documentary called “The Merchants of Cool”. Here is the first line of the synopsis, “They spend their days sifting through reams of market research data. They conduct endless surveys and focus groups. They comb the streets, the schools, and the malls, hot on the trail of the “next big thing” that will snare the attention of their prey–a market segment worth an estimated $150 billion a year.”[5] The entire show is about how MTV sets the culture and what is going to be “hot” and you cannot do anything about it. There is one moment when the president of the company looks into the camera and says “we own your children”. It is a chilling moment but one that smacks of reality.<\/p>\n

There is a ridiculous side to this as well. I came across an advertisement for, in my opinion, the\u00a0quintessential hipster\/millennial targeted product. The bripe, I will let you watch the following video and let you make your own decision.<\/p>\n