Often there’s a kind of official and systematic rebelliousness that’s reflected in media products pitched at kids. It’s part of the official rock-video worldview. It’s part of the official advertizing worldview – that your parents are creeps, teachers are nerds and idiots, authority figures are laughable, and nobody can really understand kids, except the corporate sponsor. That huge authority has, interestingly enough, emerged as the sort of tacit superhero of consumer culture. That's the coolest entity of all, and yet they are very busily selling the illusion that they are there to liberate the youth, to let them be free, to let them be themselves, to let them think different, and so on. But it's really just an enormous sales job.
- Mark Crispin Miller, media critic, NYU professor, and author of Boxed In: The Culture of TV
1 comment:
The word "cool" is part of this. What does it mean? Maybe we should stop and ask, "do I want to be cool or righteous?" Often cool is the word we use for something fun or great or that we like - fine. But often it is the word the world uses for people who rebel and still seem to have a good life. Nevertheless, I refuse to give up using the word!
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