Culture Jam:The Uncooling of America Kalle Lasn review by teril smitz <-- Back

In this age of intellectual flailing against the system and the man, most authors often hack out rather inane tripe to sound cutting-edge and/or underground. Though they view themselves as the vanguard of revolutionary hipsters carrying the burden for the generation of thinkers, they are usually no more than flash in the pan drones produced by large publishing companies to make sure that truly great ideas do not slip through the gates and to the people on the streets. Cımon now, you know who you are. Fortunately for the masses, by the masses, trickles of water do pass the by the dam of corporate Amerikkka. One such droplet is Kalle Lasn, the editor of the deconstruction of media magazine, Adbusters( www.adbuster.org). Long the flag waver for the uncooling of mass media in everyday life, he has brought us other such great movements as ³Buy Nothing Day² and ³Turn Off the Television Week.² Along with fighting in courts for granting the right to any individual to advertise on national television, he has done considerable research into why and how weıve found ourselves currently under control of the thumb of an enthroned corporate state. This book should be required reading for anyone who is a free-thinker, or fancies him or herself as one. He does not hide his thoughts and theories behind a cloud of big words and obscure references; instead he simply lays out the facts with real life examples and lets the reader decide. The book is laid out into the four seasons of the earth, which after you read this book you know is in serious political and environmental trouble. The best part is the things he does not have facts to back up, but are based on assumptions, he comes right out and tells you instead of trying to hide it behind a curtain of academia. The highlights are how he traces our problems back historically to the Santa Clara County Vs. Southern Pacific Railroad court decision, where corporations were giving the same rights as you and I. He also offers up movements in the past who rose up against the Corporate-media State such as Dadaist, the surrealists, and most recently the Situationist International. I think, besides the uncooling of the media and advertising, my favorite part was his GPD (Gross National Product) versus the new ISEW (Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare). This one argument can single-handedly change a person's worldview. With the other culture jamming arguments within this book, you will be through the looking glass. But above all, he offers up a game plan against media-hyped corporate state. Unlike most people who just bitch and complain and have no Plan B, Kalle Lasn not only offers hope, but viable ways you can act out, both as an individual and as a group. As Atari Teenage Riot keeps trying to tell us, ³Do you realize time is running out?² Let the cultural jamming begin, if not for your sake, then for your childrenıs and your childrenıs children.