The Discerning Brute: fashion, food & etiquette for the ethically handsome man

The Discerning Brute: fashion, food & etiquette for the ethically handsome man » capitalism http://www.thediscerningbrute.com fashion, food & etiquette for the ethically handsome man Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:51:26 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Virtuous Hedonism & The Great Myth http://www.thediscerningbrute.com/2008/02/17/virtuous-hedonism-the-great-myth/ http://www.thediscerningbrute.com/2008/02/17/virtuous-hedonism-the-great-myth/#comments Sun, 17 Feb 2008 23:53:09 +0000 TheDiscerningBrute http://thediscerningbrute.wordpress.com/?p=51

There is a Great Myth perpetuated in our culture: that somehow, hedonism and a lifestyle of self-indulgence are radical protests against mainstream society, and furthermore; pursuing this as a lifestyle (obviously, through shopping) is defiant, brave and COOL. The most clever thing about this myth is that it really has most people fooled. The psychologist and theorist Abraham Maslow's triangle of development of personal maturity places infantile self-gratification as the first stage in human development. Ecologist Dr. Davord W. Orr argues that advertising is aimed at keeping us in that state perpetually, which makes a whole lot of sense.

The image industries (fashion, media and entertainment) are overflowing with cliché calls-to-action (advertisements) that ask us to rebel, to revolt, to be free, not to compromise self, to Just Do It © - as if this were a novel ideal to take up as a cause when in fact, this characteristic is the main driving force of our consumer-capitalist culture. It sells products. It keeps the cycle going. It justifies almost anything in the pursuit of selfish pleasure, which in turn, makes those in power really, really wealthy and gives them a huge reason to keep us stupid and scared. Smart, no? The surface-level commitment to modern Do-Good-Ness rarely extends beyond what we can actually see first-hand.One possible explanation as to why the pursuit of knowledge is Revolution

stereotyped as unsexy in our culture is because the more we know, the less pleasure we can derive from traditional consumer-capitalist activities with an unethical base that benefits those in power. AKA: shopping and consuming starts to mean something completely different when a holistic comprehension of objects and activities is pursued. It turns American Revolution?

traditional economics on its head, and it is not 'good for the economy' because we might decide not to purchase something based on the story of how it came to be. This conflicts with the story-telling and economic interests of those is power, so it is best that they continually reinforce a pseudo-rebellion against an ostensible culture of do-gooders.

Things start to become less 'cool' when we realize that 'cool' is a grand plan, cleverly designed by a few monolithic entities who reap the benefits of having us run in circles to achieve some false dream of personal revolution through solipsistic hedonism. The truth is that falling in line by responding to traditional fear-based and cool-chasing advertising can rarely be a revolutionary act. It's the furthest thing from it, because it simply reinforces the status-quo and in turn, the Great Myth. My main question for advertisers who use revolutionary terminology to sell images that sell products is this: What are you telling us to revolt against? Open For Business

So, is it possible to be a virtuous hedonist? I believe that hedonism does not have to equate to solipsism. When we are aware of the consequences of our personal actions, our ability to be pleasured by those pursuits changes dramatically. Even pleasure itself changes dramatically. For example, I used to love the taste of cheeseburgers from Burger King. It was just yummy, and that was all that mattered - simple as that. Soon, I came across information about how those cheeseburgers are made, and it changed my ability to receive pleasure from eating them. Instead of being able to en Burger

joy the piece of meat and cheese that came from somewhere out there, it became an avoidance and denial of the knowledge that the ground up flesh and cultured cow-udder secretions required the torturous confinement, exploitation and eventual messy death of a cow, the clear-cutting of rain forests for cattle grazing, human labor abuses, the displacement of indigenous peoples and the general ecological devastation. Does it still taste good? Maybe. But the net-gain of sensual pleasure is outweighed by the discomfort, or loss of pleasure associated with the transcendence of infantile self-gratification. The first maneuver to stepping outside this cycle is to recognize other entities (people, pigeons, and petunias) as subjects of perception. In other words, advanced empathy. An acknowledgment that others can sense, and are affected by our actions - and whose will-to-live is valid, is more rebellious than any fashion advertisement. This may sound simple, but when applied to our lives we'll see it poses a real challenge to nearly all of our current typical activities. I will argue that an evolved form of hedonism might be rooted in the pleasure one can potentially receive from activities (and the support of those activities) that pleasures all subjects of perception. The reason this might be difficult to envision is because there is little mainstream discourse surrounding it. What is a Discerning Brute to do? Educate yourself and evolve to a different state of pleasure-reception. Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn, and Animal Liberation by Peter Singer are a good place to start.

Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

The Adbusters Media Foundation, and writers such as Naomi Klein, Derrick Jensen, and David Abram are also invaluable thinkers on this and related topics.

]]> http://www.thediscerningbrute.com/2008/02/17/virtuous-hedonism-the-great-myth/feed/ 1 © Just Screw It http://www.thediscerningbrute.com/2008/02/02/%c2%a9-just-screw-it/ http://www.thediscerningbrute.com/2008/02/02/%c2%a9-just-screw-it/#comments Sat, 02 Feb 2008 23:22:20 +0000 TheDiscerningBrute http://thediscerningbrute.wordpress.com/?p=36

Adbusters is not just a great magazine. (If you don't read it, you certainly should.) Taking the momentum from anti-globalization activists of the mid-late nineties and crafting it into a refined movement of 'culture-jamming', the Adbusters community focuses on questioning corporate control of...well, everything. Who determines the status-quo? Who has permission to challenge and change [...]]]>

Adbusters is not just a great magazine. (If you don't read it, you certainly should.)

http://theicarusproject.net/downloads/Adbusters07Cover.jpg

Taking the momentum from anti-globalization activists of the mid-late nineties and crafting it into a refined movement of 'culture-jamming', the Adbusters community focuses on questioning corporate control of...well, everything. Who determines the status-quo? Who has permission to challenge and change it? Adbusters has grown into a Media Foundation:

"We are a global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the information age. Our aim is to topple existing power structures and forge a major shift in the way we will live in the 21st century."

http://www.drivl.com/img/articles/Nike-sweat-shop.jpg

Famous for making spoof-ads which file grievances with a plethora of coporate scum-bag-ness, Kalle Lasn and the folks at Adbusters Media Foundation are also the brains behind a shoe that aims to 'unswoosh' Nike. What's the beef with Nike? Sweatshops, for one. Add environmental recklessness and the power of a true corporate colossus, and it looks like a real monster. Find out more on why a Discerning Brute should never be caught in Nikes HERE. Can the David that is Adbusters take on a Goliath? Time will tell...

http://www.educatingforjustice.org/nikewages/graphics/nike_ad.jpg

The classic Blackspot Sneaker and v2.0: The Unswoosher are both designed by John Fluevog, known for his cutting edge innovativeness and flair. The shoes comply with vegan standards, and are being monitored by Robin Webb of Vegetarian Shoes in the UK.

"...the Blackspot, from it's red toe-tip and hand-drawn anti-logo to its renegade billboards and TV ads, is designed to do only one thing: kick megacorporate ass. We're going to cut into Nike's market share, unswoosh that tired old swoosh and give birth to a new kind of cool in the sneaker industry." - Adbusters

What I love about these shoes is not just things like recycled tire parts (which makes so much sense to use for shoes - designers, pay attention) but the integrating of social, political, environmental, and animal advocacy into a product. Consilience! This is a paradigm shift within the capitalistic model - and a testament to to our generation that says :'cool' is not one-dimensional. 'Cool' is comprehensive and multi-dimensional, and should meet our need to take responsibility for things aside from aesthetics or how much money one can make at any cost.

DB's Etiquette Recommendation: The fact that a product like this exists is extraordinary in itself. Hold on to your standards! There is no reason to expect any less of the companies with whom you do business than an accommodation of your demand for accountability. You are paying for a product - but you are also paying for how it was made. If you wouldn't force a child into sweatshop-labor, kill and skin a cow, or destroy a river with chemicals, are you OK with paying someone else to do it just because it's out of sight?

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