Exploitation
Today's world revolves around trend
and popular culture. Before economy took over the world, people are the ones
who developed such trend for their own pleasures. However, such era has passed
and now, as corporations and the government figured out that by controlling
trend, they can convince submissive citizens to be someone that are drawn out
and characterized by such organizations; they implant the trend into the brains
of the common people through complex and stealthy tactics solidly structured by
the professionals from various areas and people are fooled by such tactics and
are blinded of the truth. However, such transition "happened so gradually
that hardly anyone has noticed," (Lasn 61) and even "those who have
clued in apparently figure it's best to ignore the shit and just keep dancing."
(Lasn 61) In Culture Jam, Kalle Lasn
explains and criticizes about such corrupt social situation in America while illustrating
the future plans for culture jammers. He starts off his critique by explaining
how technology has been implemented into our lives and since it has been
implemented too deeply, some people see the virtual world as their real world.
They see it as a world in which they exist and as an utopia where they can
amorphously transform into any type of being they desire to be; "It's too
real to be a game, yet too artificial to be real." (Lasn 45) Lasn points
out the dangerousness of such illusion since the corporations take advantage of
this and exploits it for the selfish benefit by using media and technology to
their advantage. This process has become too ordinary and currently, people
"go to corporations on [their] knees" (Lasn 71) for fresh and
new-coming trend, artificially created images by such organizations which are
far yet to be true. The corporations brainwash the people so that they are only
able to pursue happiness through consuming. Thus, culture jammers, group of
people who, since they are discouraged by today's society and had to give up on
American dream, banded to challenge the existing normality in the society that "the
only Life, Freedom, Wonder, and Joy in [people's] lives are the brands
on [their] supermarket shelves," (54) are trying to enlighten others with
more versatile and critical perspective in order to assist them regain their
individualities and personalities back. However, since people are too lured and
fixed to the opinions aired via media, Lasn and the culture jammers must fight
on air with advertisements and visual programs, which is the main ground of the
corporations, and verify their viewpoint and logic.
As Lasn describes, people today are too
convinced that visual images produced and streamed by others are the ones that
they need to follow. People sit in front of their TV sets and effortlessly
consume the information published on air. Since they do not have much
consciousness that their ideas and thoughts are being deformed into less unique
ones by viewing the popularized and artificially made programs, they are forced
into thinking that that is the only way for them to showcase themselves as cool
people before they know. In Life
According to TV, Harry Waters explain that according to the experiments
done by George Gerbner, Larry Gross, Nancy Signorielli, and Michael Morgan,
they came up with an expected outcome that "heavy viewers of television,
who account for more than 30 percent of the population, almost invariably chose
the TV-influenced answers." (Waters 138) Most deny that the television
programs have formed their entire identity, but the reality is that they do
mold identities without noticing. People have given up our responsibility to
decide not just their body images and moralities but many other aspects as
well. For example, people "assume that the markets will hold," (Lasn
93) and forfeit their responsibilities to keep their money under their control.
Such delegations of their whole identity to the media and the corporations have
caused today's corrupt and inclined trend which only cause economical
circulation and no true cultural diffusion. The corporations plotted out such
deformation and exploited it to their benefit in order to gain massive benefits
and lure more consumers in.
Not just the advertisements people
see electronically, but also the ones people see every day at the bus stops,
freeways, books, etc. are what constructs false images into people's conceptions.
The corporations use many complex techniques that they have invented in order
to obtain consumers' attentions. One technique is called Salespeak. In Salespeak, Roy Fox describes Salespeak
as "any type of message surrounding a transaction between people."
(Fox 55) It is persuasive and when applied to business, they bring in massive
interactions between the suppliers and the consumers. It can also
"function as a type of entertainment or escapism." (Fox 55) The
corporations use this to attach whimsical yet convincing messages to be carried
upon the viewing of the advertisements. At last, it has specific targets. As
Lasn illustrated, when mother takes her daughter to a shopping, "there are
products down here at eye level that [mother] cannot see." (Lasn 54) By
narrowing down the target range and creating a fit message for that specific
group, the Salespeakers are able to produce maximum effectiveness. The
corporations had done such exploitation "because they have jettisoned
faith in the true spiritual nature of the human being and have not the courage
to risk being real, but must always be striving to become superior to their
competitors.'" (Lasn 106) Even when corporations call their products
eco-friendly, they are not ultimately so and are just trying to improve their
corporate images. People must recognize this and must use this argument as a
defense to sustain their individualities.
Such exploitation through media and
advertisements cannot be avoided since technologies have turned into the
fundamental tools that people use every day. As an outcome, now, people are
only able to acknowledge the images viewed through the scopes of technology as
reality. People use role play online games, online chat service, and virtual
simulators in order to perceive their own version of reality. Every when people
physically visit the world outside to gain inspiration and happiness, the
images must be "memorialized on film" (Lasn 45) before they are able
capture and grasp the factors in their guts. Although, these actions are
becoming ordinary, they only provide artificial emotions. This is because
previously, images were used to remind themselves of their physical and
emotional history. Their inspirations primarily came from the actual visits and
the pictures were just the tools for themselves to think of what have made them
into the human beings they are currently. However, today, people are only able
to capture the concept or the image by looking through the demented scopes
created artificially by the others. Such distorted view on the society are
created by media and the products, both created by the corporations to further
propagate their benefits. This has caused people to lose their identity and
thus Lasn claims it to be a problem. However, as Lasn explains, "They're
our responsibility, but they are not our
fault." (Lasn 178) The corruption of people's identities are caused by
the corporations' misleading actions and, although, it is people's
responsibility, it is not people's faults for falling into them. People must
realize this fact in order to gain energy toward reformation. People must also
realize that "corporations are legal fictions." (Lasn 157) and that
"their 'bodies' are just judicial constructs, and that, according to Loy,
is why they are so dangerous." (157) Corporations are working for no one
else but themselves.
Although such wicked deeds remained
under the surface for a long time, some have started to reveal and announce
them into the public recently. However, why are people not able to grasp the
concepts of the brainwashing done by the corporations and respond to them by
requesting a reformation? Lasn analyzes this and explains that diffusion of
responsibility is causing such behaviors; "A
lot of people who habitually give up often say, 'Hey, it's not my battle.' Or, 'What
possible difference can I make?' It's this attitude that allows corporations to
gain the upper hand in any policy or procedure they decide to foist upon
us." (Lasn 149) According to Lasn, people have given up to challenge the
norms spread widely among the community, because they think that just because
one of them opposes the system, the rules will not be changed in the democratic
community. People wait until others act for what they desire. They wait until
the last moment so that they do not have to employ their energy into nebulous
future instead of what they think is more stable. People have "spent
so much time bowed down in deference [and] forgotten how to stand up
straight." (Lasn 71)
"Culture isn't created from the
bottom up by the people any more - it's fed to us top-down by
corporations." (Lasn 189) Culture jammers
are the group of people who stood up to challenge such injustice and
exploitation. They are the group of people who believe that "being spontaneous, authentic, [and]
alive" (168) is much more important
than being wealthy. They claim that "the broadcaster's right to run
a commercial business stands in direct opposition to [their] right to freedom
of speech" (Lasn 197) and that the corporations' actions to disrespect
authenticity in order to gain further more is unforgiveable. Such exploitation
has been veering out of control as "population growth, overconsumption,
inappropriate technological applications and relentless economic expansion are
destroying the life-support systems on which our future depends." (Lasn
201) To regain their right to freedom of speech, according to Greil Marcus,
they must cause "'the détournment of the
right sign, in the right place at the right time.'" (Lasn 108) If they are
able to spark in such occasion, such spark would "bring everything into
focus." (Lasn 109) More specifically, their plan is to put up their
messages on media boards in order to reach those who are contaminated. They
believe that by fighting on the same ground and gaining an upper hand as Gandhi
did, "the power dynamic [would] invert" (Lasn 153) and the resisters
will be the ones "who set the agenda" (Lasn 153) for the
corporations. If culture jammers are able
to commit to their original plan and are able to keep the chain of
enlightenment to others with "the joy of jamming" (Lasn 150) as well,
they may be the ones who "will wreck this world" (Lasn 121) and bring
a fundamental change to the society in the future. If such desired future is
achieved, it will not be the governments and the corporations who decide what
is 'cool' for the people; it will be the "empowered citizens
deciding for themselves what's 'cool'." (Lasn 168) This would bring back
the connection between human beings and the planet people once had and then
people would be able to educate their children of the importance of
individuality.
Works
Cited
Fox, Roy.
"Salespeak." Comp. Michael Petracca and Madeleine Sorapure. Common Culture: Reading and Writing
About American Popular Culture. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 June 2013.
Lasn, Kalle. Culture Jam: How to Reverse
America's Suicidal Consumer Binge, and Why We Must. New York: Quill, 2000.
Print.
Williams, Harry. "Life
According to TV." Comp. Michael Petracca and Madeleine Sorapure. Common Culture: Reading and Writing
About American Popular Culture. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 June 2013.
Response
As I
read through the whole book, Culture Jam,
I gained broader perspective. The logical and constructive view point of
Lasn provided me an opportunity to propagate myself. Although I have heard of
culture jammers in my life, from the first glance, I am able to admit that
their critiques were interesting. As a member of American culture, I thought it
was necessary for me to seriously consider such matters in order to establish
better fundamentals for the community. I got an impression that such poisonous exploitation
must be leashed under law and taken under control.
Overall,
I think that this essay was my personal best. First, I was able to back up all
of my logics by clear quotes and explanations. I think this is the best
improvement that I have gained through this course; to learn how to back up my
logic. However, I did not do well sentence structure wise. Although I planned
out previous to writing up my draft, as I started writing it, more and more
ideas about what should be on the paper popped up. From next time, I would try
to put more time into getting ready in order to produce essays with better
qualities.
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