Jailhouse Chic

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Tue Jun 13 10:50:09 PDT 2000


At 09:58 AM 6/13/00 -0400, Carl quoted Guy Trebay:
>It's also, perhaps, about the fact that the United States now jails more
>people than any other country in the world. It becomes increasingly
>difficult to conceive of jails as institutions outside society when you
>consider that the number of incarcerated Americans approaches the combined
>populations of Idaho, Wyoming and Montana.

No - it is about money making opportunities created by commodity fetishism.

Shrewd entrepreneurs sell commodified identities to alienated masses and make a handsome profit! That is the oldest capitalist trick on the books. Why should that be seen with approval, if nor reverence, by the Left?

The infatuation with cultural symbols is a sure sign that the so-called US left has nothing interesting to say other than counter-cultural gobbledegook.

wojtek



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