Ten years ago this November I made my then-girlfriend cry with a rant about how much of media is selling something through the commodification of identities and interests. She thought I was crazy and asked why I couldn't simply enjoy the pop music about consuming products and engaging in brand loyalty (Hennessy comes to mind). I told her I was not born--and indeed, no one was--to have these conditions thrust upon them and sold as joyful pursuits.
I suspect she started crying then, not tears of amazement toward my basedness, nor because of the idea that much of her interests might have been picked up because of capitalist exploitation and its expectations of her in the role of wealth extraction, but because she realized that we were effectively done and incompatible. We broke up shortly afterward. I was just too weird for her. In her defense I am a real Tyler Durden about shit like this.
That experience is a very important one for me. Some modern applications of Marxist theory, or really any anti-capitalist analysis of certain wealth extraction schemes, just sounds nuts to regular folks. I find a tongue-in-cheek, half sarcastic joke about "being had" is the most effective sugarcoating, if anyone is interested in discussing things such as this article's focus with the uninitiated. Otherwise you might as well begin with "In the world I see, you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center."
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Ten years ago this November I made my then-girlfriend cry with a rant about how much of media is selling something through the commodification of identities and interests. She thought I was crazy and asked why I couldn't simply enjoy the pop music about consuming products and engaging in brand loyalty (Hennessy comes to mind). I told her I was not born--and indeed, no one was--to have these conditions thrust upon them and sold as joyful pursuits.
I suspect she started crying then, not tears of amazement toward my basedness, nor because of the idea that much of her interests might have been picked up because of capitalist exploitation and its expectations of her in the role of wealth extraction, but because she realized that we were effectively done and incompatible. We broke up shortly afterward. I was just too weird for her. In her defense I am a real Tyler Durden about shit like this.
That experience is a very important one for me. Some modern applications of Marxist theory, or really any anti-capitalist analysis of certain wealth extraction schemes, just sounds nuts to regular folks. I find a tongue-in-cheek, half sarcastic joke about "being had" is the most effective sugarcoating, if anyone is interested in discussing things such as this article's focus with the uninitiated. Otherwise you might as well begin with "In the world I see, you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center."
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