(no subject)

[symbioidlj]

Hakim Bey on commodification of the image of rebellion:

"H. BEY :

There is nobody to ban anything. There is no pope of the Temporary Autonomous Zone to say what's doctrinal or dogmatic. But I don't believe that the best way to communicate ideas is to commodify. I think there is a trend now which is called anti-media and the idea is to even actually reach more people without being recuperated into the medium. There, once you are taken in by the media, yours ideas are no longer alive. The are precisely commodities which are going to be sold by somebody. They are representations of their desires.
I would resist the idea that jumping into the media as if it were just a neutral ocean of discourse, is always the best tactic. Right now it seems to me to be a particular bad tactic, because the mediaworld is eager for false images of dissidence and resistance. I think this is because people everywhere feel disgust with the commodity "deal" and they would like to have something different, but they are still susceptible to believeing that a commodity or a lifestyle item, like a T-shirt, is the thing itself instead the representation of the thing. It's in this area that I perceive some danger in promiscuous embrace of media."

This is why I'm not too keen on adbusters. Maybe not quite in this manner, but this is a part of it...

Comments

[narcissuskisses.livejournal.com]

I've found Adbusters to be pretty lame as well, and not just because my work involves advertising. I think what magazine presents is often times just as bad as the media it is bashing.