There’s a very particular critique of the post-World War II West that’s been on my mind lately. It’s a critique you see cropping up again and again in the worlds of popular music, art, films, standup comedy, books, scenes, zines and even comic books. And, clad in a variety stripes and guises, this critique is most often about mass-market commodities -- specifically the stultification, stagnation and actual danger that seeps into our lives when some of our most basic needs and vulnerabilities – a desire to be part of something greater than ourselves, the need to eat, the hunger for sex, the precarious health of our bodies – become the site of a mass-produced marketplace.
I won’t go through 300,000 examples of this critique, but a few come to mind. One is the work of George Carlin, our forever irreverent and deconstructive linguist/comedian. Man, did he ever see the mass market as a threat to a fully realized and authentic life! He screamed it from the rooftops right up until the end of his life.
Others, as do so many powerful critiques, come from the world of popular music. (I could write a whole treatise on punk and indie rock, here) But, really my brain goes right to the late 60s and Joni Mitchell’s humorous lament about love and the mass market, “Big Yellow Taxi”.
The end of the song is fairly devastating, as Joni joyously sings the final refrain “they paved paradise, put up a parking lot!” and then bursts into pixie-like laughter at the absurdity and sadness of it all. Dylan’s lyrics to the song “It’s Alright, Ma” also hit you in the face with his anger at the commodification of near everything:
As I’ve followed the ups, downs, and sideways of the debate on health care reform, this critique of commodities and the mass market cuts me even deeper. Here’s what I mean: As it appears right now, Obama’s drive for health reform has reached an exceptionally narrow place. And we can go into all the specifics of what makes the bill that will probably get through Congress so narrow in scope, but others have done that much better than me, so you can check out a good piece of analysis by Paul Krugman here.
Suffice to say that systemic reform looks unlikely. A healthier America looks unlikely. Why? In large part, because there’s a basic issue that needed to be explored collectively at the beginning of this debate -- by us (and by this I mean you and me), President Obama, his advisors, the policymakers in Congress, and corporate CEOs, too. The issue? Is it possible that there are things in this world that are sacred enough that we should refrain from commodifying them? And is our health one of those sacred things? Because if we believe it is, then the care of our health simply may not be appropriate as a commodity.
I suspect that most of the people who helped Obama employ his winning grassroots/netroots campaign strategy are not with him any more. It’s hard to speculate on the why’s and it could be a lot of things but, given that his sit-round-the-kitchen-table-and-discuss-with-your-friends-and-neighbors campaign approach was so successful (especially in states that use caucuses for their elections) it seems amazing to me that Obama did not kick off his drive for health care reform by extolling the same kinds of “house parties” that he did during the campaign. A comprehensive website about health care could have gone up quickly, complete with a downloadable kit that offered some specific, step-by-step ideas on how citizens could get together and discuss health care, beginning with the most basic issues and then expanding outward. I also suspect that, had Obama put forth this kind of effort, a sizable amount of folks would have come to conclusions about health care that are much less mass market-driven than the current set of Beltway political solutions in the various completed pieces of legislation. Because it’s important not to underestimate just how insistently these critiques of the mass-market I mentioned earlier have worked their way into the viewpoints of a significant number of Americans.
And those citizens could have become Obama’s peoples’ lobby, inserting themselves into the debate in a way that would have bolstered his hand as he jockeyed for position amid corporate-funded Congress-people, industry lobbyists, and a timid set of presidential advisors. Can you imagine what the debate might have looked like if such a strategy had been put into action 4-6 months before the Congressional debate even began?! Damn. The media would have almost been forced to cover the cross-country house parties. Such a missed opportunity.
But the esoteric thing about this whole debacle that I’m just perverse enough to be amused by is that the key to asserting health care as sacred and too important for commodification may be found in the judicious use of Internet marketing techniques that derive from the very commodity culture that inhibits a more person-focused health care system in the first place.
Oh, the paradox that is my country.
Disillusioned words like bullets bark
as human gods aim for their mark
made everything from toy guns that spark
to flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
it's easy to see without looking too far
that not much is really sacred.
As I’ve followed the ups, downs, and sideways of the debate on health care reform, this critique of commodities and the mass market cuts me even deeper. Here’s what I mean: As it appears right now, Obama’s drive for health reform has reached an exceptionally narrow place. And we can go into all the specifics of what makes the bill that will probably get through Congress so narrow in scope, but others have done that much better than me, so you can check out a good piece of analysis by Paul Krugman here.
Suffice to say that systemic reform looks unlikely. A healthier America looks unlikely. Why? In large part, because there’s a basic issue that needed to be explored collectively at the beginning of this debate -- by us (and by this I mean you and me), President Obama, his advisors, the policymakers in Congress, and corporate CEOs, too. The issue? Is it possible that there are things in this world that are sacred enough that we should refrain from commodifying them? And is our health one of those sacred things? Because if we believe it is, then the care of our health simply may not be appropriate as a commodity.
I suspect that most of the people who helped Obama employ his winning grassroots/netroots campaign strategy are not with him any more. It’s hard to speculate on the why’s and it could be a lot of things but, given that his sit-round-the-kitchen-table-and-discuss-with-your-friends-and-neighbors campaign approach was so successful (especially in states that use caucuses for their elections) it seems amazing to me that Obama did not kick off his drive for health care reform by extolling the same kinds of “house parties” that he did during the campaign. A comprehensive website about health care could have gone up quickly, complete with a downloadable kit that offered some specific, step-by-step ideas on how citizens could get together and discuss health care, beginning with the most basic issues and then expanding outward. I also suspect that, had Obama put forth this kind of effort, a sizable amount of folks would have come to conclusions about health care that are much less mass market-driven than the current set of Beltway political solutions in the various completed pieces of legislation. Because it’s important not to underestimate just how insistently these critiques of the mass-market I mentioned earlier have worked their way into the viewpoints of a significant number of Americans.
And those citizens could have become Obama’s peoples’ lobby, inserting themselves into the debate in a way that would have bolstered his hand as he jockeyed for position amid corporate-funded Congress-people, industry lobbyists, and a timid set of presidential advisors. Can you imagine what the debate might have looked like if such a strategy had been put into action 4-6 months before the Congressional debate even began?! Damn. The media would have almost been forced to cover the cross-country house parties. Such a missed opportunity.
But the esoteric thing about this whole debacle that I’m just perverse enough to be amused by is that the key to asserting health care as sacred and too important for commodification may be found in the judicious use of Internet marketing techniques that derive from the very commodity culture that inhibits a more person-focused health care system in the first place.
Oh, the paradox that is my country.
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