Review: Αντικουλτούρα: Τα “κακά” παιδιά

Αντικουλτούρα: Τα Αντικουλτούρα: Τα “κακά” παιδιά by Juan Carlos Kreimer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Δύσκολα η γενιά μας έχει πρόσβαση σε πληροφορίες για το τι γινόταν 50 χρόνια πριν, σε μια εποχή που είχε ελπίδα, όραμα και παραδόξως -γιατί τότε ήταν ο τρόπος ζωής των παρείσακτων – γέννησε μεγάλο μέρος αυτού που σήμερα λέμε pop culture (δηλαδή δημοφιλή κουλτούρα). Δεν διδάσκεται πουθενά και όλοι μας σχεδόν έχουμε σαν δεδομένα αυτά που έγιναν τότε: από τα κεκτημένα στα δικαιώματα των μαύρων μέχρι τους ανατρεπτικούς μουσικούς που γέννησαν τη ροκ και τις ενθεογενείς ουσίες οι οποίες άνοιξαν μυαλά αλλά διώχτηκαν και συκοφαντήθηκαν. Δυστυχώς από τότε έχει περάσει αρκετός καιρός ώστε να μαθαίνουμε μόνο αυτά τα οποία το κύριο ρεύμα μπορεί να χωνέψει και έχει εντάξει· είμαι σίγουρος πως πολλές ιστορίες, φιγούρες και άλλα σημαντικά για την εποχή γεγονότα και διεργασίες έχουν πια ξεχαστεί ή/και επιμελώς θαφτεί.

Το βιβλίο ως βιβλίο καταπιάνεται με όλα αυτά. ο Juan Carlos Kreimer και ο Frank Vega προσπαθούν με το Αντικουλτούρα: Τα «κακά» παιδιά (thumbs-down στην μετάφραση του τίτλου και των εισαγωγικών, που στο πρωτότυπο είναι Contracultura para principiantes, δηλαδή Αντικουλτούρα για Αρχάριους), να μας δώσουν εμάς, την γενιά του 21ου αιώνα, τι έγινε εκεί πίσω στην εποχή η οποία δημιούργησε τις περισσότερες φιγούρες στις οποίες πιστεύει το σημερινό περιθώριο, όσο κι αν σπάνια έχει συνείδηση της συστημικότητας -ήδη απ’το ’70- πολλών απ’τα στοιχεία που αυτό οικοιοποιείται σήμερα. Τα καταφέρνει; Ναι και όχι.

Ναι, γιατί αναφέρει -αρκετά συμπυκνωμένα είναι αλήθεια- όλα αυτά που μόλις έγραψα. Πώς έγιναν διάσημοι οι Beatles, πώς ξεκίνησαν οι Sex Pistols, ποιος έκανε το LSD διάσημο, ποιοι ήταν οι πρώτοι διανοητές beat, ποιες ταινίες επηρέασαν το πνεύμα της εποχής, γιατί δολοφονήθηκαν όλοι οι πολιτικοί -μαύροι και λευκοί- οι οποίοι θα μπορούσαν να είχαν κάνει τη διαφορά, τι διάβαζαν οι χίπιδες, τι δυσφήμισε τα κινήματα κτλ.

Όχι, γιατί δεν κατάφερε να δημιουργήσει μια συνεκτική ιστορία που θα συνέδεε όλην αυτή την πληροφορία σε μια ιστορία, σε μια ενιαία αφήγηση. Διαβάζοντας το μαθαίνεις αποσπασματικά τις λεπτομέρειες αλλά δεν λαμβάνεις την όλη αίσθηση της εποχής τόσο πολύ.

Τελικά όμως θα μου φανεί χρήσιμο ως σημείο αναφοράς για να ψάξω από μόνος μου κάποια από τα πρόσωπα, τις ταινίες, τα συγκροτήματα, τα πρόσωπα και τα γεγονότα που σημάδεψαν την γέννηση της αντικουλτούρας. Γιατί αν δεν ξέρεις ιστορία, είσαι καταδικασμένος να την επαναλάβεις (Santayana), ακόμα κι αν η ιστορία δεν επαναλαμβάνεται, παρα μόνο κάποιες φορές κάνει ομοιοκαταληξία (Twain) και τελικά το μεγαλύτερο μάθημα που μπορεί να μας διδάξει είναι πως οι άνθρωποι δεν μαθαίνουμε από αυτή (Huxley). Νιώθω πολύ πόζερος που μόλις το έγραψα αυτό.

Πολλά ευχαριστώ στον Κίρα που μου έκανε το βιβλίο δώρο πέρσι τα Χριστούγεννα. Άργησα (σχετικά!) αλλά δεν μου ξέφυγε.

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Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed

Another article I found through Ran Prieur on how working 40-hour weeks works against the welfare of people, forcing us to consume more because there’s less time for us to enjoy life and the types of entertainment or habits that contribute to personal development and are free but take more scarce time than their costly counterparts. It is however necessary for the economy to keep going.

Review: The Rebel Sell: Why the Culture Can’t Be Jammed

The Rebel Sell: Why the Culture Can't Be JammedThe Rebel Sell: Why the Culture Can’t Be Jammed by Joseph Heath

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This one is a toughy. Few other times have I been this undecided on a book before reviewing it.

While reading The Rebel Sell, I was nodding in agreement with many of the arguments Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter posed, such as the proposition that mass consumerism is unavoidable because it is recognition, distinction and status that people find when they consume, and while on the whole if theoretically no-one bought anything all would be well and good, everyone has to keep consuming just because everyone else keeps doing so. It is an instance of the prisoner’s dilemma, a central part of their point, used many times in the book and presented convincingly. It’s an interesting concept applicable to politics, sociology and other topics.

Furthermore, their analysis of taste in art and culture and how it is another form of projecting one’s own social class was also profound, as well as their take on what it means to be cool and how, in their view, that is the very thing that drives consumerism: someone has to be the Joneses, after all, and it is the cool people who become the Joneses, whether they realise/like it or not. There are many other such bits and pieces I found agreeable and fun to read, such as the distinction between dissent and deviance, something with which I can completely relate. If you wouldn’t like a society in which everyone acts a certain way and not just you, it’s probably deviance and not dissent, like the stupid graffiti tags, not paying taxes or avoiding standing in queue. It’s a healthy observation.

But. As convincing as I found the points above, as well as many others which did, at times, make the book a bit chaotic in its argumentation, I couldn’t help but feel the smugness of Mr. Heath and Mr. Potter seep through the pages. They ridicule the counterculture, often repeating themselves and failing to spot the benefits society has gained from it in the 50 years since it first emerged, at least in the form they describe. They cannot find any merit in any kind of fringe social movement. It’s like they’re trying to “get over” their own countercultural past by dissecting it, as if they’re trying to prove how wrong and misled their own mocking peers had been -as my friend who lent me the book accurately commented. It’s like they’re saying “look how grown up and rational we are now! Just try and grow up like we did, you pathetic self-important tree huggers/hipsters/anarchists/punks/Naomi Klein.”

Nevertheless, I realise that the implications of what is presented within the book are vast and indeed might be playing an important political role in the fragmentation of the left and its members trying to “out-radicalise” oneanother. The sad result is that it is a weaker force which is left to oppose the all-consuming capitalist market. When all has to do with individuality and how different everyone can and should be in order to “stick it to The Man”, there can of course be very little emphasis on how people can cooperate and find the similarities and common goals between them. The problem is that the same market which the writers are defending -at least in principle- and its state today, 10 years after the writing of the book, has only made itself horrifyingly stronger against legislative and institutional reform. The writers greatly underestimate the current relationship between corporations and governments and how difficult it is to change from within. The world is practically ruled by corporations and to question that rivals the counterculture in its supposed naiveté.

Comfortably, the above declaration would be enough for the writers to smirk at me and include me in the already-accounted-for group of wannabe radical counterculturals who can’t face reality. The whole point of the book is putting cases such as me, if just a hint less self-conscious, in their rightful place; just another individualistic rebel who lazily rejects all small reforms in favour of a total paradigm shift which will most probably never come, at least not in the form anybody expects. Maybe I am such a naive, sentimental being as to fall right into this argumentative trap, but I feel, like so many others ridiculed in the book, that there just is something wrong at a much deeper level with the world than what can be merely altered through laws and regulations.

Enough. I could go on. As someone whose rough ideology is directly challenged by the book, I feel I have to excuse myself and prove how “they don’t get it” in quite a thorough and wordy manner. I’m not sure I like this reacion of mine but I acknowledge it. Suffice it to say that this shows that the book is at least worth reading. For good or bad, it has intensified my great ideological confusion and has made me think and question myself – a favourite hobby of mine, that last part. I recognise its value and its propositions even if -I suppose I should say ‘thankfully’- at a sentimental level I just can’t agree. I suggest that you read it and see what impact it has on you too.

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