e-volved living

Digging into the discussion of capitalism as the central theme corporate/government/media forces churn out for mass digestion and acceptance, what’s the alternative?  If we chose passion over profits, it is a daily responsibility to think deeply about what we are being sold, and told, and determine what products, and messages, are aligned with our our beliefs.  If we buy that product, accept that message, is it helping us create the world we are passionately striving for?

In Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing, and the Erosion of Integrity, Anne Elizabeth Moore examines how the capitalist engine is coopting the language and style of free thinking independents to get them to buy, buy, buy.  Same is true of the power hungry, greedy, gubberment (not all politicians, but many.)  Their target is not the progressives (who they know are not buying it) but the “average joe’s” they want to keep buying it .  Palin was chosen because she speaks average joe.  And, the mainstream media, since it is owned by the conglomerates, who sleep with the political powers, fulfills its purpose by regurgitating the messages of what you should buy, and what you should think.

So, what Moore stresses throughout the book – holding strong to your integrity while being attacked from every angle – is relevant to what we believe, and who we support, just as it is to what we buy, and what we create.

“What is at stake here is far greater than even the questions of authenticity and authorial voice behind both underground marketing techniques and Anti-Marketing’s oddly intentioned but still anti-advertising ad slogan.  These issues spur this book: they are fun to argue about with friends when you chance upon an Astroturf (as opposed to grassroots) political protest, a piece of graffadi, a TV program that uses mocketing techniques, some street brandalism, or other realities of living in our big, fat, remix culture.  Yet hidden somewhere within these jarring dichotomous cultural products, the notion of integrity – the idea that individuals can act autonomously and honestly according to a privately held system of values – abuts the corporate-sponsored assertion that, in fact, they can’t.  As marketing strives to burrow deeper into our social networks and bypass our reason entirely, our ability to locate and uphold personal integrity – factors that must precede a demand for democracy – is being challenged.”

It is a commitment, so worthwhile for its potential to do good, so scary for the alternative.

Think, it’s democratic.