Culture Jam

My interests have never leant toward economics and management of money. The reality is that this sector of human development is inherently critical to attaining a state of societal well-being that is capable of lasting. Expansionist, or neoclassical, approaches to economics only fuel the current vision of prosperity, success and growth. These economists argue that there is no cap on what we can consume, extract, market, etc. Enough people realize the flaw in this to support the opposition: ecological economics. According to this paradigm our future is just as dim. Ecological economists claim that we have reached the limits of what the earth can provide and we are heading towards the “age of despair”. Surely a model must exist which allows for careful and controlled human expansion, preservation of our remaining earth and a sustainable future. It is easy to imagine that this model would require a redistribution of wealth that would leave North Americans devoid of their creature comforts and stuck with a standard of living much lower than many never expect to experience. It seems that we are faced with the choice of sacrifice or ignorance.
I greatly enjoyed learning of the Situationists, an international group of revolutionaries who believed that living fully meant “a life of permanent novelty.” They value impassioned moments, spontaneity, free will and acting on primal urges. There philosophy believes that this world is crushed by all the wasted potential. I believe this. If you watched a high percentage of students at UVM, which is loaded with potential energy and resources, most would be doing close to nothing. So much of our youthful energy and rebellious instincts have been squished by all the “stuff” we own, television shows we watch, media we ingest and loads of excess constraints. It is difficult to imagine what would emerge if each student in this University lived to his/her full creative and spontaneous potential. In a way it is almost painful as this seems so far from the reality we inhabit.
Why then don’t we just do it!? This is the question I often ask myself and oftentimes I find myself truly acting on my intuiting and living in my spontaneous form. Lasn introduces the idea of “breaking the syntax”, or discovering a new way of seeing the world. Our language is confining and barely allows for expression of the sentiments related to the necessary paradigm shifts. How then do we overcome this seemingly impassable barrier? Do we try and force our words around intuitive concepts and hopefully strike a chord with the masses or do we investigate other was of communicating which may prove more appropriate.
Lasn has provided us with a positive note amongst all this chaos and detachment; culture jammers are the underdog and thus in a prime position to take risks. The key is to actually take those risks. As Edward Abbey said, “sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.”