Never trust a hippy. posted by Richard Seymour

Slavoj Zizek is given to extemporising on the way in which cultural diversity, difference, even rebellion is already inscribed into the global capitalist order. He gives as his main example the fate of Hindus in India who discovered that McDonalds were frying their chips in cow fat. There were huge protests, an enormous uproar, and McDonalds quickly allowed their fries and palm oil to be tested and proved that they did not use animal fat in India. They admitted to using it in the States, where the noble bovine is held in less regard, but they rejected the ruling BJP's accusations that they had used it in India.

Thenceforth, the Hindus happily went back to munching the fries.

It is precisely this sort of insistence on cultural difference and diversity that capitalism thrives on. It creates new markets, and doesn't really threaten the coordinates in which capital reproduces itself. There is a market for everything. There is a market for pet psychologists, riverdancing, shit fetish videos, nipple rings, coffin beds, Che Guevara t-shirts. And is anyone surprised that a multinational corporation can adapt to a market that only demands that chips are fried in vegetable oil?

Now, a new book has come out to challenge what is (unfairly) called the Naomi Klein camp:

Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter -- full-time academics and part-time writers -- seek to shake up the complacent left. For too long, too many have confused a lifestyle of, say, organic foods and regular spiritual retreats to India with actually making a difference in, say, the giant gap between rich and poor. "Counterculture has almost completely replaced socialism as the basis of radical political thought," they write. "So if counterculture is a myth, then it is one that has misled an enormous number of people, with untold political consequences." The main problem the writers have with what they call "the counterculture" is that "the hipster, cooling his heels in a jazz club, comes to be seen as a more profound critic of modern society than the civil-rights activist . . . or the feminist politician campaigning for a constitutional amendment."

...

Pretend rebellion energizes capitalism, which depends on the notion of counterculture to peddle new styles to the many who seek a veneer of cool as they go about their quotidian lives.

Back to the McDonalds case. Is it not the perfect example of local culture defending itself from the "monoculture" of capitalism? And yet, it was stirred up in part by a ruling government that was at least as pro-market as it was racist. The conventional wisdom has been that when Indians cast votes, they vote castes. Well, not last time round, but its coming to something when the collusion between elitism and populism means that the government can tell you what to protest about. Ersatz rebellion is not merely inadequate, but also an abrogation of the duty to engage in the total situation that we are in. Clinging to cultural specificities can be a source of strength when you are under attack precisely on account of what you are (Jew, Muslim, herbivore), but when your cause is championed by the government and McDonalds can affirm that they accept your unique cultural claim, then you aren't really challenging oppression. You're blowing in the wind.