managing
unity before it gets out of hand (the politics of marketing)
"Ideas that hold the promise
of producing social criticism are insinuated into products in
an attempt to subordinate the dynamics of social struggle to
the production of new lifestyles." Henry Giroux
It's no accident that Unamerican's
Kumar echoes the reams of advice and rhetoric produced by marketing
"experts." In a series of "DIY Work" columns
in Punk Planet, Kumar gives lessons in Entrepreneurial
Marketing 101, describing his "punk" version of niche
marketing, product differentiation, and free enterprise. He doesn't
fiddle much with the formula, presenting what are standard maxims
in business marketing with the radical addition of a few references
to "punk board games" and admonitions to "fucking
rock!"
Buzzwords like "innovation,"
"vision," and "directed play" are a dime
a dozen both Kumar's writing and more mainstream business literature.
Pick up any recent book on management skills and compare as Kumar
weighs in with the "fuck work" manifesto. Directed
at employers, he helpfully advises they "create community
in the context of your company" to improve efficiency, morale,
management costs, staff turnover, trustworthiness, and thus profit.
Businesses Week, Greenfield Marketing Consultants, and
Kumar all suggest companies ditch the mass appeals and pursue
niche markets especially those lucrative youth ones-- and
create "relationships" with consumers. Kumar argues
for ideas over profit, and so do the authors of Radical Marketing.
Kumar says to make sure your product makes people happy, their
lives better. What corporation doesn't present a public face
of "helping" people lead better lives?
Nothing new or revolutionary
here, any superficial survey of business literature will reveal
from just where Kumar picked up his motivational-speak. I feel
like Unamerican expects that I'm too naïve to recognize
the spin-doctoring, not savvy enough to catch on.
Reading the business bestsellers,
what creeps me out most is the snake-oil spin marketers put on
the notion of "community," which Unamerican seems to
have lifted right off the page. Deliberately crafted for maximum
consumer identification with both the product and the company
"personality," Radical Marketing suggests that
companies "encourage their customers to think of themselves
as a community...and promote the clothing and bumper stickers
and other badges of honor that identify the consumer as a member
of a special group." So what does it mean when this is all
that Unamerican retails?
What really bothers me most,
then, isn't the advice on how to run a small business, as much
as his idea for "punk" versions of any other product
makes me shudder. It's that Kumar actively promotes relations
of commerce as the glue that transcends all social ills. These
business relations even provide his model for revolution. He
writes:
"People in the punk
and radical scene are fond of saying 'unity' this and 'unity'
that, but there is no more intensely united effort than a business
partnership. When people of different races and ages and whatever
get together and form businesses, there is the potential for
true equality and justice.This important idea here is something
I'm calling unity management.This kind of unity the nearly
spiritual bond between different people pulling for a common
interest-IS THE REVOLUTION." (Punk Planet 28, Nov/Dec 1998)
The idea of "managing"
unity, as if it were something that required constraint, is bad
enough. Never mind that elsewhere he gives advice to "move
fast enough that nobody can copy your idea until you've dominated
the market." (Punk Planet 31, May/June 1999) Unity,
my ass.
But the mere suggestion that
business culture allows us to transcend racial conflict and other
social ills for higher purposes (i.e., profit) is so reactionary
and unprogressive, never mind the very real possibility for nausea.
(Does it make you sick?) No other models of social change are
mentioned and meanwhile, structural inequalities and state apparatus
are ignored in the course of this "revolution."
The conservatism of the Reagan
revolution proves its partial success, once again. Even
while claiming radical politics, Unamerican Activities enshrines
capitalist activity as the fundamental bedrock of community,
defined either by mutual commerce or consumer loyalty. The uneven
relationship between producer and consumer is typically not addressed,
except to invoke "punk" as both a scene and ready-made
nich market. (Apparently, this is also where the "getting
laid" part of the ad copy comes in. When I asked, Kumar
wrote, "Hooking people together with other people [through
punk businesses] will inevitably lead to better sex and better
jobs.")
Promoting a logic of business
as a model for politics, then, Unamerican lodges "true equality
and justice" firmly in the lap of market capitalism. And
in the relentless praise of free enterprise and relations of
commerce as models for "unity," Unamerican makes tacit
peace with the exploitative aspects of capitalist culture.
It's no accident that company
politics preach a (supposedly) democratic ethos of consumption
and capital --material goods and happiness are available for
all. Just "fuck work" and start your own business!
Be your own boss! Why bother changing the system when the system
can work for you? The hegemonic logic of the commodity and the
marketplace mobilize desire toward consumption rather than struggle,
and Unamerican does its part to pitch in. That uneven social
relations present very real obstacles in people's lives is acknowledged
sort of- and promptly dismissed as Unamerican advises you
to "simply live a life that's aware of your potential and
it's yours."
Accordingly, Unamerican ad
copy stresses what are the essential plot-points of American
national mythology: the hyper-individualism of the self-made
man, the fallacy of bootstraps and endless opportunities, and
the entrepreneurial spirit of that famed Yankee ingenuity. Kumar
goes so far as to suggest that America has given the world a
dream of freedom (if you don't count institutionalized slavery
or capital punishment), the power of self-determination (never
mind military intervention in Southeast Asia or Latin America
or that nasty colonialism in Guam, Saipan, and Puerto Rico),
and even a sense of humor (because the rest of us didn't have
one before--?).
Eerily echoing other motivationally
hazy ad slogans to "Be All You Can Be" (U.S. Army)
and "Just Do It" "Because You Can" (nike),
Unamerican assumes its consumers have both the money and social
privilege to do so. For any of us who face daily violations based
on class, race, gender, or sexuality, it's a little less than
liberating to be told to "dare to dream." As artist
Jenny Holzer once wrote, "The idea of transcendence obscures
oppression," and the Unamerican illusion of unity through
free enterprise is no exception.
If we take seriously Unamerican's
political claims, it wouldn't be to thoughtfully consider ruptures
in the global political landscape, post-industrial economic conditions
or racial strife. Despite the utopian rhetoric about revolutions
and untapped potential, it would be silly to imagine that the
Unamerican agenda might offer any useful insight. Unamerican
would serve well, however, as an example of "capitalism's
constant search for new areas to colonize." (Williamson)
So that even as capital seeks
to secure its global conquest, Unamerican embodies a social commodity
form that has become so regular, so mundane, so entrenched in
daily life that when liberation is subordinated to relations
of commerce, we hardly notice at all.
unamerican speaks for
itself (the incorporation of the market)
"Punk was founded by Malcolm
McLaren and Malcolm McLaren did it for the bucks. I mean, Malcolm
McLaren came up with the whole concept.He was doing it for the
bucks and it's because of his work with the Sex Pistols that
punk is anywhere at all." Srini Kumar, Stir Magazine
But you don't have to take
my word for it. Never mind that Kumar's genealogy of punk leaves
a lot to be desired I mean, talk about gaping holes
and mainstream mythology- his insistence that punk owes its existence
to a man who was in it for the money seems like a sly justification
for his own Unamerican Activities. McLaren cashed in, why can't
Kumar?
Unamerican might suggest they're
simply a bunch of kids trying to pay the rent. They might say,
"hey, we're just trying to make a living for ourselves,
what do you do?" In response, however, I'd have to answer,
"I teach women's studies and queer theory at a state university,
which makes me especially aware that while I'm technically a
part of a social institution, I don't have to parrot the conservative
social politics of that institution. While it's impossible to
imagine survival outside of capitalism --in the West, at least--
not all cultural activity has to automatically reproduce its
hegemony." That is, making a living doesn't mean you have
to consciously and relentlessly reproduce the logic of business
culture and entrepreneurial capital.
But therein lies the only consistency
of Unamerican Activities --the reproduction not only of a capitalist
ideology and business culture, but the desire for the fulfillment
of both. It's glaringly obvious in the self-promotional stuff,
originally composed to score a write up in expensive-toys-for-rich-tech-boys
magazine Wired. Reading the standardized press release,
it's hard not to cringe at the seemingly desperate tone ("so
please please please write about us") and the groping desire
for mainstream corporate recognition of their company spunk.
In case you need an angle,
Kumar provides a list of several possible story-lines all
focused not on the political meandering Kumar presents
everywhere else, but on the business and its "cutting-edge"
success. It's all about shrewd niche marketing ("we have
managed to unite every single freak under one flag"-- being,
I suppose, the Unamerican one-- "even the HOMELESS in SF
sell our stickers") and the use of internet technology for
profit ("the Internet has the potential to be DEMOCRACY'S
KILLER AP, yet where is the prospect of an official Internet
vote?"). It's also the bootstrap tale of small business
entrepreneurs ("it's a classic hobby-turned-business story,
and franchises are on the way") and an inspirational story
about starting small and making it big ("we are a personal
site that makes scads of money out of two San Francisco apartments
and your readers should do it too! Motivational articles
rule!").
Unamerican markets itself according
to a corporate mythology of the David-and-Goliath tale -- the
iconoclastic lil' guy versus the big faceless corporation. It's
an old story; think Apple's "Think Different" series
of innovators, or Academy Award-winning Jerry Maguire
starring Tom Cruise as the DIY sports agent with a heart. Kumar
even makes sure that you, the press, know that Unamerican is
a classic example of vanguard business ventures, with no
competition in the slogan market at all. (Actually, that's a
lie. What about the "give weirdness a chance" buttons
and "bitch goddess" stickers in head shops and alternateen
stores? And never mind all the DIY propagandists in punk rock,
like long-time Anok & Peace, and those who make their own
patches and stickers.) Investment opportunities, it should be
noted, are available.
Unamerican also states its
intention to become the "Tommy Hilfiger of Punk Fucking
Rock," selling a complete rebel lifestyle to the kids. Meant
humorously, it rings ominous anyway. It also suggests the establishment
Uamerican as a recognizable brand name, with all symbolic connotations
attached.
The confident claim that Unamerican
is the brand name product around which a community of
freaks has united is arrogant, sure, but it's also a market goal
"communities" organized and affiliated according
to their consumer/corporate loyalties. Does it matter that Unamerican
is not at the level of, say, the Gap or Tommy Hilfiger? The company
operates according to the same marketing principles. The company
goal of distributing five million "fuck work" stickers
seems to be less about creating a nationwide activist network
of "extreme youth" than it is tapping into a pool of
potential customers for future Unamerican product expansion.
(This is classic marketing strategy, give stuff away and customers
will come back and pay for more.)
The presence of the Unamerican
tag-line on all product is no small matter, either. Unamerican
not only nurtures a vision of "community" as customer
base, but promises that a very real "community" can
be had under the unifying logo of the company flag. Remember
Radical Marketing? The authors suggest that the "key
to creating a brand is the pleasure a buyer gets in both acquiring
and owning a product...much of that is tied to joining and belonging
to a group." And what else but brand name recognition is
behind the Unamerican offer to send you custom stickers, $50
for 100, your slogan in the copyrighted Unamerican design? At
those prices, you're paying more for the company affiliation
than for the product itself (which can be had elsewhere for much,
much cheaper).
To paraphrase cultural critic
Ellen Willis and her analysis of Disney iconography, I would
say that a state where politics is indistinguishable from logo
and where the practice of politics risks infringement of private
property is a state that values the corporate over the human.
Why is Kumar in the slogan
business? He answers in the Stir interview. While claiming
to provide his customers with a "voice," he says, "Any
company that is involved in the business of helping people to
express themselves is golden. I mean, look at [multi-million
dollar internet corporations] Geocities and Yahoo." And
when asked if he feels that there is a strong tie between making
money and punk, he hardly objects: "Enterprise! Free enterprise.
Making the most of your freedom to make your life and the lives
of others better. I mean, that's great. That's very punk."
What does that mean, exactly?
To me, it's the collapse of
business culture into subculture, the line so blurred that we
can't tell the difference between DIY and market capitalism,
sponsored by Unamerican Activities.
It's Dilbert for punks. Is
this your idea of revolution?
unamerican, my ass (the
conclusion)
"To do away with the illusion
that we have chosen these pleasures is to demand new choices.
The call to abandon illusions about a condition is the call to
abandon a condition that requires illusions." Laura Kipnis
Polling my friends (which I
admit isn't very scientific) I found few fans of "punk free
enterprise." Most felt it was hypocritical, others just
stupid. One wrote to me, "It is banal and safe to put stickers
on things. No revolution is to be had through merchandising."
Another wondered, and this is important, "If 'destroy capitalism'
is all that important a message to you, aren't there better ways
to go about your supposed cause than creating an unnecessary
product and marketing it commercially without any analysis or
context?" Or as yet another person said, "We
used to make our own stickers all the time, just small ones that
we gave away for free. I guess we weren't smart enough to sell
them. Does that make us bad anarchists?"
Unamerican wants it both ways,
promising revolution in one breath and taking it back with the
next. The promo kit insists Unamerican is a vanguard organization
but then agian --and especially when the heat is on-- its "just"
a sticker company, a harmless bunch of punk kids in a San Francisco
apartment. (it makes for a neat trap-door escape.) Whatever the
intent, however, Unamerican Activities functions as the containment
of revolutionary desire.
By way of an expanding product-line
and an enthusiastic business politic, Unamerican wants to channel
your revolutionary deisre into a conventional capitalist mold.
Between bootstrap entrepreneurship and individual consumer will,
it's the return of that patriotic fetish, the American Dream
in a mohawk. Liberation is defined by our participation in capitalist
relations, whether we're buying Unamericn or embarking on our
own self-started enterprises. Freedom is produced is forms custom-made
to our social order, packaged as merchandise and exchanged on
the market. Politics are appropriated for ad copy, community
hijacked as a customer base, and meanwhile social justice is
"managed" as a marketing gimmick for selling product.
The irony is in having us believe
that our "liberation" is at hand, that revolution is
as easy as purchasing a slew of stickers, a t-shirt or two.
Social transformation requires
some kind of structural upheaval and an ideological threat; the
kind of challenge embodied, for instance, in the theatricalization
of rage by the likes of queer activists and striking workers.
Drawing on both structural analyses and the art of activism,
that's radical politics. Unamerican only manages to reaffirm
the status quo, cultivating a free-market agenda and promoting
business principles as the "new" social imagination,
disguised in DIY and a bad attitude.
And does it matter if Unamerican
calls itself punk?
Well, only if we want to believe
that punk is or can be a critical, oppositional space or
at least a suspicious one. Or even simply a creative culture
as Bean asked, do we really need someone to sell us our
politics on five-inch stickers and t-shirts, to "help"
us express ourselves? Haven't we been doing this all along, producing
our culture instead of buying it?
To criticall question Unamerican
Activities is to begin to examine its logic of liberation and
criticize the mode of social organization (i.e., capitalism)
that produces it. As market capitalism re-packages everything
"countercultural" from punk to communist chic, it's
important that we recognize that process, and not mistake it
for a revolution.