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Nope, and you'll see this everywhere that you see the intersection of pop culture and the advice to "be yourself." This isn't a dig at Nimoy's advice - it's da
by omegaham 12y ago
Nope, and you'll see this everywhere that you see the intersection of pop culture and the advice to "be yourself."
This isn't a dig at Nimoy's advice - it's damn good advice. But it doesn't sell compared to You're worthless unless you buy our stuff. The only reason why they can print Nimoy's advice is that the "Be a FAD" ad is right next to it. And not only that, the earnest advice itself is often packaged and cynically sold, right alongside the "OBEY CONFORM CONSUME" message!
One of the most recent examples of this is a song I keep hearing on the radio - "Try," by Colbie Caillat.[1] The message of the song is pretty simple - it's that people work their asses off to be liked, but they're still not happy because they're straying from being true to themselves.
But it's a manufactured product explicitly created to appeal to people who are feeling lost, confused, and frustrated with being popular. And they have a beautiful woman, who is already an enormous success, singing this song that's specifically saying, "Stop worrying about what other people think about you" when her entire career is based on what other people think of her.
I'm a much bigger fan of Tool's Hooker With a Penis.[2] At least Keenan is frank about it.
All you read and wear or see and hear on TV is a product
Begging for your fatass dirty dollar
So shut up and buy, buy, buy, my new record
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXoZLPSw8U8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXoZLPSw8U8
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R890wISHwG4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R890wISHwG4
- buckbova 12y agoTool! I dig aenema. Flush it all away. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uCEeAn6_QJo https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uCEeAn6_QJo This is the kind of music I work to.
- WalterBright 12y agoI always enjoyed the irony in the 1970's Dr Pepper ads that exhorted people to join the non-conformists.
- TeMPOraL 12y agoYup. Reminds me of a quote: "Revolution has already been televised. Revolution has been merchandised. Revolution is a commodity, a packaged lifestyle, available at your local mall. $19.95 gets you the black mask, the spray can, the "Crush the Fascists" protest sign, and access to your blog where you can write about the police brutality you suffered when you chained yourself to a fire hydrant. Capitalism has learned how to sell anti-capitalism." From [0], found when reading [1]. [0] - http://journalism.berkeley.edu/projects/biplog/archive/000748.html http://journalism.berkeley.edu/projects/biplog/archive/00074... [1] - http://lesswrong.com/lw/k6/the_outside_the_box_box/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/k6/the_outside_the_box_box/
- icebraining 12y agoOne of my favorite examples of that is the game Guerrilla War [1], made by SNK - a step above and beyond the infamous t-shirts of Che. [1] http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_War_(video_game) http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_War_(video_game)
- dredmorbius 12y agoKatz's version of Scott-Heron's classic is excellent. Thanks for that.
- vacri 12y agoSimilarly in the atheism movement movement there's 'freethinkers'. It annoys me that being a freethinker is just subscribing to another labelled group with a doctrine, as opposed to being a free thinker. A small space makes a lot of semantic difference.
- proveanegative 12y agoThis kind of thing tends to happen to historical terms. Groups that trace their lineage from group X call themselves X, especially if the name has positive associations. This happened with, to use a somewhat controversial example, the term "liberal" in the US but, curiously, not in Europe. In computing you could say that this happened, and continues to happen, with the term "hacker" ("growth hackers" are a recent example).
- josephlord 12y agoAtheism is not a doctrine any more than not believing in Santa Claus or the tooth fairy is a doctrine. It is possible that there are doctrines within atheism but atheism itself is not one. I'm not bothered about the term free thinker and wouldn't necessarily have linked it with atheism.
- vacri 12y agoI'm aware atheism isn't a doctrine - I said within atheism. Albeit said with an annoying double-word typo. :/ Anyway, if you don't think 'freethinker' is linked to atheism, throw the word into google and skim the results.