Selling Out - You are Not So Smart by David McRaney
Molti “ribelli” moderni finiscono per diventare un brand. L’errore è quello di considerare tutto questo un paradosso quando invece si tratta della loro sorte naturale. Sbagliarsi su questo punto significa non cogliere l’ “essenza del capitalismo”.
L'illusione ottica...
... Both consumerism and capitalism are sustained by corporations and advertising...
La credenza corretta...
... Both consumerism and capitalism are driven by competition among consumers for status...
Insomma, il capitalismo non si fonderebbe sui fantomatici bisogni indotti ma sulla competizione tra consumatori.
Ok, ma come si arriva da qui al fatto che il ribelle è destinato alla mercificazione. Calma, un passo alla volta.
Il venditore è sempre in cerca di novità: i ribelli all'ordine costituito – con le loro proposte innovative – sono quindi per lui una miniera d'oro...
... Beatniks, hippies, punk rockers, grunge rats, metal heads, goth kids, hipsters...
Tutti noi attraversiamo una fase giovanile di ribellione...
... Whether you lived through the Summer of Love or South Park, somewhere in your youth you started to realize who was in control, and you rebelled... you sought out something real, something with meaning...
Si tratta di un periodo molto creativo, e spesso sono proprio quelle idee che verranno commercializzate domani. L' esempio del punk...
... Think about an archetypal punk rocker with chains and spikes, gaudy pants and a leather jacket. Yeah, he bought all of those clothes. Someone is making money off of his revolt. That’s the paradox of consumer rebellion—everything is part of the system...
Il "venditore" non aspetta altro: nuove idee per rinnovare completamente il "guardaroba" (e non solo) di una generazione...
... Every niche opened by rebellion against the mainstream is immediately filled by entrepreneurs who figure out how to make a buck off those who are trying to avoid what the majority of people are buying...
Il cinema recente offre uno spaccato di cultura "contro" che rende benone al botteghino...
... Fight Club, American Beauty, Fast Food Nation, The Corporation, etc. The creators of these works may have had the best intentions, but their work still became a product designed for profit...
Ma anche tra artisti e scrittori il fenomeno è ben evidente...
... Michael Moore, Noam Chomsky, Kurt Cobain, Christopher Hitchens—they may have been solely concerned with creating art or illustrating academic principles, but once their output fell into the marketplace, it found its audience, and that audience made them wealthy...
Le t-shirt con Che Guevara sono un classico e "Imagine" di John Lenon, da inno comunista e visionario, è diventata in un amen la muzak ideale per accompagnare gli acquisti al centro commerciale. E, restando in Italia, che dire di Pasolini? L' uomo che denunciò in largo e in lungo lo “sviluppo” facendo la gioia dei suoi editori e del PIL. Paradossi? No, casi di scuola per capire la macchina capitalistica.
Il libro che meglio ha sviscerato il fenomeno: The Rebel Sell di Joseph Heath e Andrew Potter. La tesi...
... you can’t rage against the machine through rebellious consumption....
Non esistono "consumi alternativi". Solo consumi da reinventare continuamente.
Secondo la vulgata bisogna "omologare" per vendere meglio...
... All the interconnected institutions in the marketplace need everyone to conform in order to sell the most products to the most people...
Corollario: ci si salva solo uscendo dal mainstream...
... To escape consumerism and conformity, you must turn your back and ignore the mainstream culture...
Sbagliatissimo, il mercato prospera proprio grazie al "diverso". I mercanti amano e ricercano l' "alternativo", se la giostra riparte sono i primi a beneficiarne...
... The problem, say Heath and Potter, is the system doesn’t give a shit about conformity. In fact, it loves diversity and needs people like hipsters and music snobs so it can thrive...
La parabola di una band indie...
... For example, say there is this awesome band no one knows about except you and a few others. They don’t have a record contract or an album. They just go out there and play, and they are great. You tell everyone about them as they build a decent fan base. They make an album that sells enough copies to allow them to quit their day jobs. That album gets them more gigs and more fans. Soon they have a huge fan base and get a record contract and get on the radio and play on prime time. Now they’ve sold out...
Altri esempi presi a caso qua e là...
... In the 1960s, it took months before someone figured out they could sell tie-dyed shirts and bell bottoms to anyone who wanted to rebel. In the 1990s, it took weeks to start selling flannel shirts and Doc Martens to anyone anywhere....
Le corporation sguinzagliano i loro osservatori nei centri sociali per capire meglio le tendenze del futuro...
... Now people are hired by corporations to go to bars and clubs and observe what the counterculture is into... The counterculture, the indie fans, and the underground stars—they are the driving force behind capitalism...
Ora l'essenza del capitalismo dovrebbe essere più chiara...
... This brings us to the point: Competition among consumers is the turbine of capitalism...
Cerchiamo di essere i più fighi, e su questa nostra ambizione gira la macchina degli affari...
... As Christian Lander, author of Stuff White People Like, pointed out in a radio interview, you compete with your peers by one-upping them. You attain status by having better taste in movies and music, by owning more authentic furniture and clothing...so you reveal your unique character through your consumption habits...
Ma è difficile essere i più fighi intruppandosi nella massa, da qui l'ossessione per l'autenticità...
... your desire for authenticity is what moves these items and artists and services and goods up from the bottom to the top—where they can be mass-consumed...
Passata un’ onda si attende la prossima con ansia, e gli innovatori ribelli al conformismo sono proprio quelli che più garantiscono questo dinamismo... "siano benedetti" pensa il mondo del business...
... It is ironic in the sense the very act of trying to run counter to the culture is what creates the next wave of culture people will in turn attempt to counter...
La merce non ha solo un valore intrinseco...
... The value, then, is not intrinsic. The thing itself doesn’t have as much value as the perception of how it was obtained or why it is possessed...
La merce serve anche per competere e nel capitalismo la competizione tra consumatori relativa allo status conta più di quella tra imprese...
... Competition for status is built into the human experience at the biological level. Poor people compete with resources. The middle class competes with selection. The wealthy compete with possessions...
