Without doubt, there are certain sociopolitical-economic disparities in the global dynamic system that must be addressed. However, what began a few years ago on the streets of Seattle as a concerted effort to address such disparities through violent and nonviolent mass protest has devolved into a seeming right of passage for disaffected American youth. Long on misdirected energy, and short on specificity, these naive, gas-mask toting miscreants clad in black have a tendency to lump many issues together under the rubric of a “corporate-dominated, C.I.A. orchestrated, world-capitalist conspiracy.”
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Yet, the same capitalist conspiracy that most anti-globalization demonstrators blame for selling out humanity has long been selling a radical persona to the young demonstrators themselves.
Corporations realized the profitability of a pre-packaged revolutionary ethos when most anti-globalization demonstrators were still a figment of their baby-boomer parents’ imaginations.
It should be extremely clear from looking at the corporate exploitation of the hippy subculture, the (pop) punk subculture, and a thousand other youth subcultures that any community/ subculture that focuses primarily on products and image is vulnerable to being taken over by corporate interests.
This sublimation often takes place through progressive advertisements that tout the ‘revolutionary’ quality of the products for sale. These advertisements can create the impression that progressive social change is simply a matter of purchasing the correct ‘anti’ products. Moreover, revolutionary thinking and slogans become just another marketing tool to encourage kids to buy things rather than to actually effect progressive social change. “Rage against the machine,” which used to mean, “vigorously strive to overthrow the government and the oppressive power structures built into our modern society,” now comes to mean “buy the new record by the band with the same name” Thus what was once a desire for true revolution is subverted into a motivation for consuming products that keeps the gears of the present system turning.
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As young activists get more deeply involved with the progressive elements of contemporary mainstream America, they find that they really do spend quite a bit of time buying and selling products. They start going to more demonstrations and buying the posters, films, books, records, ‘zines, and other paraphernalia that they hear about. They buy T-shirts, clothes, piercings, and tattoos that are similar to the ones their friends in the progressive community have. Economics, then, or more specifically, the commodification of mass protest as a viable means of affecting progressive social change, seems to be one of the main themes of the progressive community today.
The sight of the infamous and ever present ‘Che’ banner or T-shirt at demonstrations of all persuasions should be enough to convince anyone that the prepackaged revolutionary ethos has a long shelf life. To the anger and dismay of the anti-globalization protestors, their rage against the machine has been bought, sold, and re-sold countless times before. Ultimately, Anti-globalization demonstrators must ask themselves the question, “are we using ourselves to ‘sell’ revolution, or are we using ‘revolution’ to sell ourselves?”
