How to be truly rebellious

In 2022, there’s nothing more conformist than being revolutionary.

I’ve written about this before, but I still think it bears repeating that it can be quite hard now to find brands who don’t present themselves as being in some way maverick, rebellious, and counter-cultural – even (or especially) amongst corporate giants.

They all stand with their fists raised defiantly against “the man”, even if by all rational analysis they are the man themselves.

How this came to pass is quite interesting.  So far as I can tell, it’s all about the 60s.  The cultural eruptions of that decade gave birth to a number of genuinely contrarian brands such as Apple, Ben & Jerry’s, and Patagonia.  In each case they and their Boomer founders presented a challenge to the stuffy, traditionalist, suit-wearing archetype of the prior generation, and managed to triumph.

This however created a curious paradox: a new revolutionary establishment, with nobody left to revolt against.  The counter-cultural zeal, vibe, and vernacular remained, but without an actual culture to counter.  To suggest that the 60s values represented by these brands are in any way edgy or outside the mainstream today is laughable – but that doesn’t stop them pretending that they are.  “Sticking it to the man” has become “sticking to the straw man”, where we all act as if pre-60s culture was still dominant, when in fact we know in our hearts that it was defeated long ago.

Now don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing especially wrong with this kind of play acting.  LARPing the revolution is fun, stylish, and in a lot of cases really sells.  But let’s not kid ourselves:

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