gentrification

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

At 11:53 AM 8/18/99 -0400, Doug Henwood wrote:
>Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
>
>>That is an excellent summary of the problem.  The problem is the middle
>>class boredom and the longing to escape it to a more "rugged" life style -
>>the ghetto, the boheme, the country-side, the wilderness.  So the main
>>difference between the so-called "leftists" you are talking about and other
>>segments of the middle class is the cultural icon that symbolize that
>>escape: gangs, hip-hop, punk, bohemian lifestyle versus SUVs, safari,
>>survivalism etc.  But both fit well within th ecapitalism system  - since
>>both rely primarily on the consumption of cultural commodity.
>
>This kind of fantasy is hardly limited to "leftists." In fact, 
>leftists are probably more sensitivte to/guilty about any such 
>identifications than are nonleftists. The whole wilderness thing is a 
>cubicle-dweller's fantasy - look at the popularity of SUVs (imagine 
>you're on a safari when you're actually going to the mall!), Everest 
>books, and "extreme" everything. And the hip-hop audience is about 
>half white suburban kids. You think MTV is running its "Downtown" 
>cartoon - all about the alternative lifestyle on the Lower East Side, 
>a life that is gradually being made impossible by the intrusion of 
>stockbrokers and new media types into this formerly "bohemian" and 
>more formerly poor/immigrant neighorhoood - to bring in a "leftist" 
>audience? Gentrification thrives on packaging images of rebellion and 
>rough living for people who don't want any part of the real thing. I 
>had just that thought the other night when I was walking through 
>Disneyfied Times Square, now full of people who wouldn't have dared 
>set foot there 10 years ago: they come to blandified cityscapes from 
>blander suburbs to dream of escapes from blandness.
>

But that is what I was arguing - that it is "the middle class thing" to
consume packaged images of rebellion against middle class boredom - middle
class "leftists" are no different than other middle class identity groups
in this respect.

wojtek