Posts Tagged ‘ideology’

Jan
07
2009

War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength, Scion is Creepy

As the country works together to fight off depression this winter, we’ll have to do without the usual excitement of the circuit of over-the-top auto shows. Even the revered Detroit International Auto Show is struggling, as Nissan (whose new ads feature the tag line “You don’t just need a car, you need a car company“) pulled out of the event and all the other manufacturers are cutting back on parties, catering, and models. GM is even trading in the usual wood floors in its exhibit for less-costly carpet.

sheesh.

Against this backdrop, there seems to be one company – or rather one marque of the no-longer profitable Toyota Motor Corp - that is still “cool:” Scion. Personally, I find their cars pretty ugly and they’re not fun to drive (I’ve rented the xB a few times through Zipcar). Perhaps their only redeeming quality in my eyes is that ?uestlove drives one.

Currently, viral marketing is all the rage (Dodge is trying to ignore the reality of non-existent truck sales by putting together a viral “reality” show with some real Americans) but there remains nothing more powerful than when customers spontaneously adopt a brand personality.

This is where Scion gets really creepy (start at 0:30):


 

I saw this Orwellian ad at during the previews before Milk. I thought it was more than a little unsettling, especially since I had recently read a NYT article about the devotion of many “Scikotics:”

From its inception in 2003, Scion, a division of Toyota, has made rampant use of grassroots marketing to recruit owners like Mr. Wong — young, enthusiastic, industrious — to be the hot-rodders of tomorrow. Encouraged by Scion’s keenly directed flow of marketing dollars, which not only support car shows and track days but also hip-hop concerts, fashion shows and exhibitions of graffiti art, owners have formed close-knit social networks in the real and virtual worlds, where Mr. Wong is the very model of an alpha Scion citizen.

Asked in an instant messaging exchange whether he goes to Scion meets, Mr. Wong replied: “All the time. I have one tonight, one Friday, Saturday and Sunday this week.”

This fanaticism brings to mind Marx’s famous quip about Ideology “They do not know it, but they are doing it.” Scion has successfully engineered a product that is meant to be incomplete. By opening up their cars to easy modification, Scion has created a brand that captures customers’ imaginations because they can be unique after buying the car. Obviously this is a common tactic among brand managers, but the genius here is how Scion parlayed this feeling into a need to continually buy new parts, continually pour more money into the car.

I don’t think it should ever be surprising that advertising creates this kind of mentality, but it’s the fanaticism that really gets me. If you don’t believe me, check out the comments on that youtube clip.

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Nov
16
2008

white supremacists’ neuroses

The conventional wisdom is always the most interesting when its totally counterintuitive. After months of fearing that middle America’s racism would prevent an Obama victory, liberals have quickly pivoted to embrace the anxiety of an assassination attempt. This is juxtaposed against (and encouraged) by an emerging narrative that white supremacists were rooting for Barack all along, hoping to use the moment to reinforce “race pride” and boost recruitment.

passing the torch to a new generation?

passing the torch to a new generation?

But there is more to this phenomenon than racist pamphlets and white supremacist server crashes. Reinvigorated white supremacy works on a more individual level; Althusser argues that racist ideology provides fuel for the unconscious, producing a much more powerful and insideous response:

the unconscious can exploit anything to its ends, but it still has to “find” something suitable to its ends. To say that the unconscious “functions with ideological imaginary” is thus to say that it “selects” in the ideological imaginary the forms, elements, or relations “suitable” to it. I have the impression that it is not by chance that certain ideological “situations” sustain certain defined unconscious structures marvelously well and that “affinities” exist between a specific form of neurosis, and even psychosis, with the result that a particular conjuncture “realizes” par excellence specific unconscious structures….

One would thus have to “read” against the grain of the meaning all too often proposed, the “unleashing” of “instincts” under… racist ideology as a general and official (and thus public and permissive) distribution of that ideological “fuel” needed by certain perversions to “function” in the open air.

The white nationalism Palin unleashed (and implicitly condoned) at her rallies is more than deranged raving. It’s the psychoanalytic “working-through” of the unconsciouses of America’s most regressive, (formerly) pro-American people. The white supremacists are right: the best thing for their cause is a moment when the conservatives’ discourse on race emerges from the alibis of “crime reduction” and “welfare reform.” In this conjuncture, racism has emerged as an avowed part of the dominant ideology, unshielded by the usual mystification. Thus, the election must be (and the campaign certainly was) almost as satisfying a jouissance for the right as it is for the left.

This speaks right to the myth of a post-racial America. It’s not that we’ve collectively transcended racism; instead, the unleashed racist ideology allowed a release of pressure as our nation’s most destructive perversions emerged into the open air:

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Nov
03
2008

the new poll tax

It’s rare to see the mainstream media’s pundits really demystify the hidden political motives behind “neutral,” technical, state decisions. Six-hour long voting queues in south Florida, which evoke images of a developing nation’s democracy, are not failures of preparation. They are class- and race-conscious attempts at disenfranchisement. Rachel Maddow, MSNBC’s new post-Matthews counterpart to Kieth Olbermann, correctly identified these motives on her show last night:

This is an example of responsible journalism about an issue that can easily be supplied with an alibi. Here, Maddow reinscribes voting rights within the broader social context, reading the ideology behind these “technical choices.” Critiquing the alleged “objectivity” of the humble social servants at election boards nationwide is the only way to defend against the next Katherine Harris.

In his life-long project to read ideology, Althusser’s most powerful rhetorical moments are his exposures of ideology in the common features of our rythmes de vie. In Marx In His Limits, Althusser actively demystifies the motivations behind supposedly “technical decisions”:

Those who assist the ministers and government in coming to a decision that is ultimately taken by all the political personnel of the state make no bones about the fact that several different ‘technical solutions’ exist, but that a political choice always comes into play, so that only one solution wins out. It is then justified by bogus ‘technical’ arguments, notwithstanding its profoundly political nature…. Class struggle does not take place in the sky. It begins with exploitation… in matter. The matter of factory buildings, machines, energy, raw materials, the ‘working day’ the assembly line, work rhythms, and so on.

Assigning a specific (too-low) number of voting machines in a Florida library is neither a necessary nor a neutral decision. It should never be treated as one.

Yes We Can (stand in line)!

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