Hey, Coppertop!
June 28, 2005
I've been aware of
Adbusters for years, but I had not read Kalle Lasn's call to action
"Culture Jam" until last week. I found the book a nice pop interpretation of a lot of the readings I've done for school, the Society, and my own edification. It's the sort of thing that I would recommend to what I imagine to be Lasn's target audience, the potentially passionate but uninformed thoughtful citizen. (It's a shame how few of those there seem to be.)
I had some issues with the book, but those aside, it achieved its primary goal, and put my mind on my role in the society of the spectacle. My dissatisfaction with Beverly Hills has been refocused from distaste for the individuals to frustration with the framework that allows them to exist as they do.
The hyperreal state of living in these United States(TM) is not a subtly sinister Brave New World situation in the commercial area near my office (rodeo, camden, beverly drives, 90210), but a crass and blatant carnival of consumption. Every rude driver in a $100,000 convertible, and every $4 corporate latte I guiltily drink reminds me of the brokenness that must be risen above.
That is the crux, though. I choose to rise above, to float on the deadly ocean of advertising-driven dreck rather than try to drain it. My slightly defeatist stance is that while the structure is bad for me, I need it to exist. I, for one, am not ready for a face-to-face community-based lifestyle in some subsistence farming kibbutz, and using a
low-TCO laptop to extend my reach, extend my cognitive processes and hopefully influence others is probably only possible in the current environment. (without time machines and retroactive social redesign, anyway)
Are the souls of gullible posthumans the cost of the positive posthuman lifestyle? Could there be this new info-ubermensch without a million brainwashed husks contributing their paychecks to the machine of society? Well, I think that such a thing could possibly, theoretically exist, but we don't live in the realm of theory. It is with gradually increasing cynicism that I give thought to the idea that the dehumanized, or to coin a phrase, "negative posthuman / posthuman-" masses may be the necessary evil that allows the thinking classes their powerful tools, their extended lifespans, and their "positive posthuman / posthuman+" ways of life. Apologies to the Wachowskis, but when I see the common folk walking down the street these days, I don't imagine sheep, or even humans with blinders on. They've turned into batteries, gas tanks, essential infrastructure.
Standard disclaimer: This is stream-of-consciousness on an intrusively sunny day after direct dealings with plenty of BH types, and I have a headache. I think this issue warrants further dissection and contemplation, so don't brand me an elitist, Naziist, racist, classist or any other kind of ist
yet.