I am half-way through reading Heath and Potter's great book, The Rebel Sell. I'm aware I'm a bit behind the curve in picking up on this one, as it's been out for quite some time. Nonetheless, it's a great little thing and a very enjoyable read that I highly recommend for anyone interested in pop culture, counterculture and all the degrees in between. It addresses a pretty interesting and very old and convoluted issue- that of countercultural rebellion. Does any gesture of "sticking it to the man" truly stick it to the man? Is there even a man to stick it to? While I still recommend that you read the book for yourself, Heath and Potter argue very convincingly (with a few quibbles here and there) that gestures of anti-consumerism and other forms of countercultural rebellion are the true forces behind the phenomenon of consumerism. Among other things, they argue that the non-conformist "rebel consumer," who presumes his or herself to be above the "mindless cogs" in the machine of late capitalism, is in fact the cornerstone of the epoch of late capitalism (that is, roughly, the period of time we consider to be the postmodern. Or post-Reagan. Take your pick). This small lot of consumers does not buy to conform to a brainwashed mass, as countercultural theory would have us believe, but rather as a form of distinction- competitive consumption. As Heath and Potter put it- we don't want to keep up with the Joneses. We want to beat the Joneses to the punch. Consumption becomes a means of distinguishing oneself from the Hobbesian masses who buy industrially-produced goods like little lambs led to moral slaughter by powerful corporations. To own a Lexus means nothing if everyone owns a Lexus. But if you're that one pimp on the block with a Porsche, you're something.
Heath and Potter go on to explain how it is these consumers, the quintessentially "cool" customers, who have the crosshairs of corporate advertising on their back. Business is locked in a cycle of "coolhunting" where market researchers scour the streets for something fresh to market (safety pins, military detailing, etc.) as "cool." Thus what was once seen as alternative, or distinctive, or "cool" is "co-opted" (however dubious and vague that word may be) by the system and the rebel consumer is forced to push the boundaries of style and behaviour to stand apart from the Joneses.
It's a seriously compelling argument, and one that doesn't take a whole lot of convincing on. It's easy to see the influence of once radical subcultures such as punk and goth worming their way into off-the-rack clothes at any major retailer. And here I am, stuck. To seek individuality and differentiation form others is normal, healthy, and kind of fun/fulfilling. But it seems that the material gestures of difference that countercultural theory so wholly believes in are, in and of themselves, the definition of fashion- constantly changing, locked in a state of perpetual competition and one-upmanship. This is especially strange when we consider that most subcultures claim to be viciously anti-fashion in that they aren't enslaved by aesthetic value and normalcy. This is a very basic conundrum that you've probably turned over in your head many times.
So what's an identity challenged junior high kid to do these days? Being a mindless cog didn't work, being the countercultural rebel didn't work. In all honesty, how do we find and anchor that we can truly call unique in the postmodern, late capitalist world. One scholar (whose name I will look up at a later juncture) called our current era a "carnival of signs." Basically, we're awash in symbols and signs which respectively, have no solid relationship between signifier and signified, symbol and referent. Safety pins next to tattoos next to scarification next to vintage clothing, all without any solid meaning. So I ask again- what in the hell are we to do?
It's an honest question that I have no answer to, thus why I'm posing it to whoever reads this. The closest I came to a decent answer is that to "opt out" of the consumer cycle, to anchor yourself as something other than a cog or a rebel, you have to rid yourself of every notion that you are one or the other. If you wear off-the-rack clothes, you are not mindless. If you wear hand-woven, organic cotton clothes, you are not superior. Stuff is stuff. The only way to feel secure as something wonderfully and perfectly unique, as far as I'm concerned, is to actively partake in some act of creation. To write a song, or a poem, or a story is something completely unique. Those words/letters have never been put together in quite that way by anyone who's come before you. Unless you plagiarized, in which case, 50 lashes at dawn. The same goes for any act of personal work, be it scientific, artistic or otherwise. The act of creation is completely unique.
So try it. Create something that is you to the core and see if you feel any more anchored, any more a "self." With any luck, if enough people do it, and if it works, we'll all be spared trends like trucker hats in generations to come.
I am still open to suggestions, though. Feel free.
I am off to find libations.
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