>i don't think the outrage expressed here was anything other than elitism.
This kind of populist anti-brand politics is a lot more common than you think. I was roundly denounced on another list down here for being flippant about what I thought was a silly proposal for a South African anti-McD's campaign ("save out youth from western contamination etc...). All I had said was I thought it was a whole system rather than a particular brand of hamburger that we opposed. Apparently to some people, McD's is US imperialism incarnate and a call for the trashing of the nearest outlet an important transitional demand.
Russell