Jailhouse Chic

[Carl Remick]

>From: Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu>
>
>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.

Sure commodity fetishism is an old trick, but this nostalgie de la boue is a 
startlingly new variation. In earlier eras, the alienated masses wanted to 
mimic the look of the affluent, not those doing hard time.

Carl
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