Resistance is Futile.

luka

Well-known member
I keep meaning to start this thread but then wanting to wait till I have collected my thoughts and I feel intelligent but I'm starting to think that will never happen so I'm starting now while hungover and sunburnt.

So much of pop culture is about the rebel. (insert examples eg Bob Marley, James Dean) but as we keep saying there's only one game in town now and everyone is playing. there's nowhere to defect to. there's no other scale of values to be judged by.
 

luka

Well-known member
one of the things I find grotesque about the IQ people who conflate intelligence with financial success and social status is that it has no room for the refusenik who opposes the entire value system and refuses to play the game on those terms.
 

luka

Well-known member
my experience of school was that no one with a brain did well. only the very stupidest children got good marks and did their homework.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
I've worked with a lot of boomer types who maintain their "rebel" status by listening to classic rock music and riding a motorbike or classic car at the weekend.

On the other hand it is indisputable that music has inspired people towards acts of actual rebellion. There will be people on the BLM events who have been radicalised by black music.

So there is an endless cycle of rebellion being sold back to people. But there are acts of rebellion - small and large - every day.

I think focussing on the "the rebel" as an individual heroic human is dumb Hollywood stories though. Rebellion needs to be collective.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
People are gonna get their collars felt for pulling down that Colston statue and other people will spring up to support them... pop culture probably doesn't get a look in there.
 

entertainment

Well-known member
I feel that sense sometimes that your participation is costantly being demanded. If there is an 'outside' then you are under constant pervasive pressure not you engage with it. You get those funny looks. People get suspicious, you become that weird kid in high school. If you look happy being there, you're probably mentally ill or something.
 

entertainment

Well-known member
Another place where resistance is futile is culture wars. There is no escape. Political charges have been attached to every move you make. The idea of autonomous thought crumbles. Even saying that, you can feel the eyes on you, pulling you into the game.

Art is supposed to be that outside. Some other way of communicating and expressing and imagining and being in the world, but that is being worked as well, taken hostage, probed and propped op.
 

DannyL

Wild Horses
I sometimes wonder if the reason for the increase in mental health problems with young people is because of a lack of alternate spaces to enact acts of difference and rebellion.

I'd add that if you look at the energy that's put into identity politics by young people - say around transgender issues - the idea that they aren't rebelling and questioning norms seems pretty empty.
 

sufi

lala

sufi

lala
I feel that sense sometimes that your participation is costantly being demanded. If there is an 'outside' then you are under constant pervasive pressure not you engage with it. You get those funny looks. People get suspicious, you become that weird kid in high school. If you look happy being there, you're probably mentally ill or something.
the wierd kid role is institutionalised for decades though
 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
I feel like there's some dissonance between rebels existing and the current streak of anti authenticity/sincerity that has been talked about so much on here lately. You'd need to go against that imo
 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
Was half hoping the KLF thread would cover some of this. But as padraig (u.s.) so bluntly said in there, no one seems to really care. Or do they? Imo culture jamming ala the KLF is a vital part (of what should be many angles) of ongoing resistance. And imo, its different to what goes on on 4chan. Need to think a bit more before committing to a definition though. I just know that there are types of resistance that give me a sense of hope (KLF) and others (4chan) that pretty much do the opposite. Was talking irl to some people about the old changing the world thing with music. There was a time when people believed in music and art as instruments of change. Our saviour. Wake us up. Bring about the new age. I think it did do a lot of good work (Sly Stone, Fela, Bob for eg.) But that attitude expects a switch to be switched and then we'll all be better, ignoring the fact that the battle between the two opposing forces is perpetual. We came to the conclusion that it's not about changing the world, defeating evil for once and for all. It's about keeping the fires burning. Being a messenger. Can feel the eyes rolling as I type. Even my own eyes. But is that it? We just gave up? The social justice movements going on right now are inspiring, and it's great to see regular people coming together and taking action. But, it's fuelled by so much anger. And not that that's always a bad thing. But it's dangerous because it's so easily used against itself. It's righteous anger, yes. But as any professional fighter will tell you, don't go into the ring angry. And what about when that anger dies down? Let's get back to normal? Or what if it's perpetually stoked by the unravelling of society?
 

luka

Well-known member
Well all know you love nothing better than to strike a brave and provocative pose, but - come the fuck off it.

given this is a wild and emotional over-reaction. i think it is safe to infer that mr tea got very good grades at school.
 

luka

Well-known member
i didnt want to talk about the rebel as individual stance at all btw. i just didnt kick things off very well cos i was hungover and had heat stroke
 
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