So then where does the \u201cconformity\u201d 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 \u201crules of traffic\u201d without which a pedestrian wouldn\u2019t know when to cross a street.[5]<\/a> 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 \u201cthrowing out the system\u201d seeing that it\u2019s unrealistic and that a system promotes valuable social norms and rules.[6]<\/a> It seems like Heath and Potter are left-leaning liberals, trying to borrow principals from conservatism.<\/p>\n Reviewers have criticized, and I agree, that The Rebel Sell<\/span> uses straw man arguments. While some 300 footnotes show the authors wrote a well-researched book, but that doesn\u2019t keep them from twisting facts to fit their particular argument.[7]<\/a><\/p>\n 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; \u201cRadical,\u201d \u201cRadical Together,\u201d and now his latest \u201cCounter Culture; but couldn\u2019t 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\u2019re not called completely out\u2014that 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.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1]<\/a> \u201cThe Rebel Sell.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia<\/em>. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 22 July 2004. Web. 2 March 2015.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter, The Rebel Sell: Why the Culture Can’t Be Jammed<\/em> (Toronto, ON.: HarperCollins, 2004), 5.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Ibid, 6.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Ibid, 9.<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> \u201cThe Rebel Sell.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia<\/em>. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 22 July 2004. Web. 2 March 2015.<\/p>\n![\"MatrixBluePillRedPill\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/MatrixBluePillRedPill-300x157.jpg\")
\u00a0If you take the red pill what will you see? A system that \u201cachieves order only through the repression of the\u00a0individual. 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.\u201d [4]<\/a> Insert the counter-cultural movements starting in the 60s that say \u201chaving fun\u201d (free sex, drugs, rock-and-roll); hedonism as their \u201crevolutionary doctrine\u201d. But from our 21st<\/sup>-century perspective looking back it really isn\u2019t too hard to discern that such a feel-good doctrine actually does little more than generate more consumer capitalism. Do a random\u00a0analysis of advertising and the values it expresses and what will you find? \u201cFeel good now,\u201d \u201cbe happy today,\u201d\u2014for 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.<\/p>\n