Weekly Response 9

Levester Williams
Reed Esslinger-Payet, GSI
Art-Design 250

Your Authentic Act

We Americans have become sequacious; our choices are no longer “the products of [our] own will” (Lasn 40). Moreover, we are ultimately being controlled by a corporate state that infiltrate and saturate our lifestyle with capitalist ideals of lethal consumption (Lasn 69). This mindset that has been interwoven in lives has detrimental effects on us individually—such as body image, dietary issues, etc.—as well as collectively via the destruction of our environment. For example, Diamond mentions how China is striding to live the lifestyles of a First World country (Diamond 372). Yet, with such a large population, China’s environmental problems run on a gamut from air pollution to human-induced natural disasters (Diamond 358).
Lasn asserts that we must not tolerate degradation from our consumerist culture, but detourns the American dream (Lasn 168). He states that we do this by creating a “spectacle of modern life” by creating unusual disruptions in our daily routines (Lasn 101). Some actions seem so radical or rude that I question its effectiveness to promote a radical change to our culture while others are quite reasonable.
One of the action Lasn listed to start such revolution to our culture is to have rage toward corporate salesman (and similar careers). Having rage not only creates friction with the person who you are interacting with, but it creates friction with how people view you. For example, to be rude to a salesman because he has a job from a corporation one despises is futile. People will probably characterize you as a pugnacious dogmatist. That person is directing his rage and energy at the wrong individual. Balaguer, the president of Dominican Republic several times, directed his rage towards the ones who was directly responsible for the environmental degradation, such as loggers and politicians (Diamond 343); thus, it was effective. He didn’t direct his rage only to the individual that work at sawmills, but at the corporations and the powerful figures who supported them.
I agree that reframing the debate does start a change. Lasn, in the “Reframe Rebate” section, says one do this by stating and acting as a concerned citizen when one is rallying against a corporation. By shifting yourselves from a protester to a citizen, others in the community are able to become more aroused to support the issue. For example, I remember when I wanted to participate in the cleanup of my hometown. The main message that facilitated me in this decision was a sign that simply said “This Is Your Community.” Knowing that I was part of that community, I had a responsibility to participate in the county-wide cleanup day. Everyone identifies oneselves as a citizen who belong to a community. However, not only would want to be identify as a protester due to it stigma.
I believe that the revolutionary actions are successful at some level. Lasn mentions how a judge, acting as a private citizen, dissolved five tobacco companies since they have broken state child-abuse laws (Lasn 161). This informs us that the individual create a change within their community. With this, I could act spontaneously against cigarettes being smoked in public. One way is to support the smoke-free campus proposal. If people complain that it isn’t fair that they can’t smoke on campus, I will exclaim that it is fair that people can receive lung cancer from someone else’s action.

Works Cited
Diamond, Jared M. Collapse How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. New York: Viking, 2005. Print.
Lasn, Kalle. Culture Jam: The Uncooling of America. New York: Eagle Brook, 1999. Print.