THE REBEL SELL: HOW THE COUNTER CULTURE BECAME CONSUMER CULTURE PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Joseph Heath,Andrew Potter | 376 pages | 17 Feb 2006 | John Wiley and Sons Ltd | 9781841126555 | English | Oxford, United Kingdom The Rebel Sell: How The Counter Culture Became Consumer Culture - The authors write in short, conversational paragraphs but their best sentences can be artfully stinging. The obsession of modern marketing with coolness and youth is memorably dismissed as "the society-wide triumph of the logic of high school". Some of the themes here are not completely new, though. The US cultural critic Thomas Frank whom the authors acknowledge as a big influence wrote extensively in the 90s about the links between modern bohemianism and business. But Heath and Potter go further by suggesting that there has never even been any tension between the two sides: their interests have always been compatible. To demonstrate this, they supply an ambitiously brief version of the history of capitalism. In the beginning, it was a system concerned with selling people things they needed. But once those needs had been largely satisfied, in rich countries at least, capitalism became about selling things that would make people feel distinctive. In the late 19th century, the sociologist Thorstein Veblen coined the phrase "conspicuous consumption" to describe the never-ending competition for prestigious lifestyles and possessions that was set in motion. Anti-capitalists, in Heath and Potter's view, have long failed to understand this development. They have mistakenly seen capitalism as a system that sells conformity rather than individualism. And so they have failed to spot something important: that the counterculture of the 60s and its successors have simply been examples of prosperous westerners seeking social distinctiveness, as Veblen predicted. From hippies to punks, from organic farmers to ravers, rebellious subcultures are always entrepreneurial - both in their daily activities and in their overriding concern to set themselves apart in the great modern marketplace of tastes and styles. And all the debate and worry about "selling out" that has attended the growth of such groups, the authors argue, has been a way of avoiding an uncomfortable truth: that everyone involved was instinctively capitalist long before the corporate sponsors came calling. Anti-capitalism of the attractively packaged No Logo variety, The Rebel Sell concludes tartly, is just the latest of these worldly subcultures, outwardly iconoclastic but actually status-seeking and snobbish. The authors are not above spicing their dense arguments with some easy point- scoring: "Whenever you look at the list of consumer goods that [according to critics of capitalism] people don't really need, what you invariably see is a list of consumer goods that middle-aged intellectuals don't need Hollywood movies bad, performance art good; Chryslers bad, Volvos good; hamburgers bad, risotto good. In the rare moments when Heath and Potter are not in attack mode, they describe their own political beliefs in orthodox left-leaning terms. Still, it would be a shame if the book's ramblings kept it from getting read. At the very least, it puts its finger on a trend: there will be plenty of future critics of capitalism lining up for their free-range chicken. Reuse this content The Trust Project. More from Unknown Jobs at The Economist intern. The idea of a counterculture — that is, a world outside of the consumer dominated one that encompasses us — pervades everything from the anti—globalisation movement to feminism and environmentalism. Heath and Potter offer a startlingly clear picture of what a concern for social justice might look like without the confusion of the countercultural obsession with being different. We request your telephone number so we can contact you in the event we have difficulty reaching you via email. We aim to respond to all questions on the same business day. Part I. The selling of the counterculture | Unknown | The Economist But do vocal opponents of the status quo offer us a real political alternative? Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter shatter the central myth of radical political, economic and cultural thinking. The idea of a counterculture — that is, a world outside of the consumer dominated one that encompasses us — pervades everything from the anti—globalisation movement to feminism and environmentalism. Heath and Potter offer a startlingly clear picture of what a concern for social justice might look like without the confusion of the countercultural obsession with being different. We request your telephone number so we can contact you in the event we have difficulty reaching you via email. Post a comment. Sunday, May 25, The Rebel Sell and counter-cultural myths. Through Adbusters, the Estonian-born Lasn has been one of the most strident critics of capitalism in the last decade. The idea comes from radio jamming: where public frequencies are pirated and subverted to either enable independent communication, or disrupt dominant frequencies. It is their thesis that counter-culture is actually counter-productive and instead of destroying consumer society it is the key ingredient in creating it. Although Lasn says his product will not be made by sweat shop labour, Heath and Potter says the enterprise does not represent a threat to the capitalist system. They say it is a business model that has already been successfully exploited by the likes of Starbucks and The Body Shop. According to Heath and Potter, culture jammers are the latest in a long line of countercultural rebels who have been unsuccessfully trying to foment consumer revolt for over forty years. Heath and Potter say this is not a sell out but a natural progression. For its first pages, The Rebel Sell makes a very compelling argument that the counter-culture has got it completely wrong. They say that counter-culture provides entertainment for the rebels, but not much else. Reuse this content The Trust Project. More from Unknown Jobs at The Economist intern. Jobs at The Economist Job listing: News intern. The best of our journalism, hand-picked each day Sign up to our free daily newsletter, The Economist today Sign up now. The Rebel Sell: How The Counter Culture Became Consumer Culture | Wiley Post a comment. Sunday, May 25, The Rebel Sell and counter-cultural myths. Through Adbusters, the Estonian-born Lasn has been one of the most strident critics of capitalism in the last decade. The idea comes from radio jamming: where public frequencies are pirated and subverted to either enable independent communication, or disrupt dominant frequencies. It is their thesis that counter-culture is actually counter-productive and instead of destroying consumer society it is the key ingredient in creating it. Although Lasn says his product will not be made by sweat shop labour, Heath and Potter says the enterprise does not represent a threat to the capitalist system. They say it is a business model that has already been successfully exploited by the likes of Starbucks and The Body Shop. According to Heath and Potter, culture jammers are the latest in a long line of countercultural rebels who have been unsuccessfully trying to foment consumer revolt for over forty years. Heath and Potter say this is not a sell out but a natural progression. For its first pages, The Rebel Sell makes a very compelling argument that the counter-culture has got it completely wrong. They say that counter-culture provides entertainment for the rebels, but not much else. The idea of a counterculture -- a world outside of the consumer-dominated world that encompasses us -- pervades everything from the antiglobalization movement to feminism an In this wide-ranging and perceptive work of cultural criticism, Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter shatter the most important myth that dominates much of radical political, economic, and cultural thinking. The idea of a counterculture -- a world outside of the consumer-dominated world that encompasses us -- pervades everything from the antiglobalization movement to feminism and environmentalism. And the idea that mocking or simply hoping the "system" will collapse, the authors argue, is not only counterproductive but has helped to create the very consumer society radicals oppose. In a lively blend of pop culture, history, and philosophical analysis, Heath and Potter offer a startlingly clear picture of what a concern for social justice might look like without the confusion of the counterculture obsession with being different. Get A Copy. Paperback , pages. Published December 14th by Harper Business first published January 1st More Details Original Title. Other Editions Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Nation of Rebels , please sign up. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Jan 08, Cate rated it really liked it Recommends it for: anyone currently or formerly involved in "counterculture" movements. From the time I was about 15 I began wondering why the fashion styles of various counterculture movements seemed to be absorbed by the mainstream okay, so really I was pissed that the same kid that made fun of me two years before for wearing this or that was now wearing this or that item, only now it was considered "cool". I later came to the conclusion that most people involved in the counterculture do--the styles had been co-opted by corporate marketing schemes. Turns out I, along with the r From the time I was about 15 I began wondering why the fashion styles of various counterculture movements seemed to be absorbed by the mainstream okay, so really I was pissed that the same kid that made fun of me two years before for wearing this or that was now wearing this or that item, only now it was considered "cool".