Bill Ayers speaks out! An In These Times exclusive.

In These Times

PrintDiscuss
Views » July 28, 2003

Sells Like Teen Spirit

By Ana Marie Cox

Selling “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City” to 11-year-olds doesn’t seem particularly honest to me.
The nice thing about living in Washington is that on your way to the mall you can see ads promoting Lockheed-Martin’s Super Hercules airplane—“a totally new, advanced, fully integrated digital weapons system.” A study by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania recently found that lobbyists spent $105 million during the 107th Congress on such advertising—designed for members of Congress, not the public.

The nice thing about living in New York is that you can go see Josh Hartnett expound on the future of the Democratic Party. Talk about making love and not war.

The Dems could do worse. Hartnett looks better in a swimsuit than John Edwards, even. He’s adorable, he’s a Midwesterner, and last month he appeared on a panel at the 92nd Street Y with other noted political science scholars, including novelist Walter Mosley and actress Janeane Garofalo. But the real draw that night was Danny Goldberg, music mogul-cum-campaign strategist and author of Dispatches from the Culture Wars: How the Left Lost Teen Spirit.

Goldberg is not completely off-base when he argues that the Democrats should go after young folks. One way to do that would be to emphasize the points of clear distinction between the left and the right on social issues, like, er … the war! Well, perhaps that’s not such a clearcut issue for the party. OK: gay marriage. Uh, no, there are two Democrats co-sponsoring the constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Hmm … welfare reform? Nope. Wait—I got it: rap music.

That’s right, Goldberg thinks the key to Democratic victory is to “embrace popular culture.” He rails against those Democrats he labels as the “new Puritans,” whose attacks on violence in the media risk alienating an entire generation. In a particularly nifty bit of rhetorical spin, he posits that vilifying popular culture is so dumb that even Republicans know not to do it. As he told Salon: “There were no Republican senators who signed on to the Lieberman bill that would have had the Federal Trade Commission regulate entertainment. Why? I mean, they thought about this and they said, ‘You know what? Let the Democrats have this one.’ ”

Goldberg is referring to the Media Marketing Accountability Act of 2001, co-sponsored by Sens. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Hillary Clinton of New York. The bill, it’s true, had no Republican co-sponsors, but a similar bill in 2000 was co-sponsored by Republicans Sam Brownback of Kansas and Orrin Hatch of Utah (talk about your new Puritans). The bill is hardly perfect, but it’s hardly an Ashcroftian menace to civil rights—or, as Goldberg put it, “a bill that edged closer to government censorship of the arts than anything proposed since the ’30s.”

The MMAA—which passed in both the House and Senate but was not signed by President Bush—would have endowed the FTC with the power to regulate the marketing of violent material to young people, hardly a right-wing conspiracy—if anything, a positively socialist agenda. Commercial Alert, the marketing watchdog of Ralph Nader’s Public Citizen group, proposed the idea in 1999. When I attended the media violence hearings on the Hill in 2000, some of the most vocal critics of this approach weren’t the new Puritans, but rather the old capitalists. Before he came around and co-sponsored the Brownback-Hatch bill, Sen. John McCain, Republican of Arizona, demurred, “As a defender of the free market I do not begrudge anyone’s honest profits.”

The problem depends on your definition of honest profits, I guess. Selling “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City” to 11-year-olds doesn’t seem particularly honest to me.

Goldberg testified at those media violence hearings, wrapping himself in the flag and the First Amendment and whatnot—a preview of what he goes on about at great length in his book, playing the whole thing as a metaphor for how anyone who would criticize pop culture is, like, a square. He told Salon that old people should get over themselves already: “Nothing is going to touch me the way Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde touched me then. But today, to my daughter, Pink is somebody she’s going to remember 30 years from now. Kids who like the White Stripes, or like Jay-Z or Eminem, these are artists who are touching them in a similar way. They’re 16, and we’re not.”

This is all very noble until you think about how much money Goldberg stood to lose if the FTC had decided to again enforce the kind of “safe harbor” regulations that, for decades, kept Saturday morning television from becoming the branded virtual toy store it is today, or if it had decided to clamp down on the predatory marketing of graphic, violent games and music.

In calling for Democrats to re-engage with the culture war, Goldberg deliberately confuses art and the market in a way that’s familiar to anyone who’s seen Britney drink a Pepsi or seen Cadillac Escalades blown away by the wrath of a Matrixed Keanu Reeves. Violence is hardly the point, actually: The deep association between culture and commerce is. Real progressives look askance at this connection, and progressive young people do, too. It’s no coincidence that the causes young people have flocked to over the past few years—from antisweatshop activism to anti-Starbucks bumper stickers—explicitly seek to disrupt corporate control over the public sphere.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want defense contractors hijacking my government. But I don’t want record executives to, either.
Ana Marie Cox is the brains behind Wonkette, one of the most popular political blogs on the web. She is also the former editor of the dearly departed suck.com and has written for The Chronicle of Higher Education, Mother Jones, Wired and Spin.

More information about Ana Marie Cox

  • subscribe to print magazine

  • Reader Comments

    Violence on TV and Video Games has always seemed to me as the bread and butter of Christian Fundamentalists and their ilk...in other words: an argument rightly accepted by the same people who think abortions, gay people and euthanasia are bricks paving a road to hell.

    And for a reason: There is something i’m damn sure the Right has always found unsettling about some angry teen blowing some steam out with a simulated murder or...god have mercy...a Marilyn Manson CD!!!!!

    After all, if that teen ever does grow up to be enlightned about what Corporate America and the Republican Party has done to his country, he’ll already have years of simulated training and psychological conditionning on what to do if he ever corners Exxon’s CEO in a dark alley....

    Or maybe, just maybe...the modern american parent expects that TV and Video Games should rightfully be the best baby-sitter out there. Because voting with your money is totally out of the question. I mean seriously, i’d be expected to actually pay close attention to what my kids are buying and what shows they are watching...godamn it! What do you think I am? Responsible of raising him or something?

    That’s where it all comes in to place: Most of these activists are in the upper-crust of the american life: Profesionnals at the height of their careers, both parents work, and between the average 45 minute comute, 8.5 hours of work and 5 hours of watching the boob tube, they have very little time left for their spouse, let alone their kids. It definitely is easier to raise hell in the public forum than to raise good children.

    Freedom of expression goes a long way, and there really is nothing better than the first amendment to help measure the worth of any given society. Graphic display of violence is allowed, and furthermore attracts a great deal of people.

    I recon that Game Manufacturers shouldn’t go the way of Joe Camel when it comes to getting some clients, but there is a rating system that can guide parents in making the right purchase.

    Something i’m sure more than a few moms and dads didn’t give a rat’s ass about when they got little Timmy’s Xmas wish list…

    Posted by Alex on Jul 28, 2003 at 2:32 PM

    Here in scandinavia we are awashed by your storys and movies and games and ways to look upon life.Why is there so amazing many films and stuff that contain killing.its a shooting without end. dont you have anything else to tell tales about now that you are totaly in command of that market?its depressing.and its spilling into our culture.younsters belive they have to arm them self to get"respect" A total misconception of the term.they wander the Stockholm nights beating the shit out of everybody they think is"dissing" them.
    we are no children and not without wrongs but do we need your worst expresions?America: the cradle of the best-And the worst as Cohen puts it.Rarely there are some REALY good stuff coming thru the Commercial tvs needlehole of mainstream but and that tells me there are GOOD artist still In US but all this killing? why?Death certenly is lifes big finale and drama in it self but its careless to do entertainment of it.bang hes dead ha ha hagoes the laughtrack.
    Thank you for the black music-a world without blues is not thinkable.I think Eminem and Marilyn Manson is the two most important performers you have now.Putting them self in the middle and gamble them self .marks of truestery in my book.How you Democrates should turn visavi freedom og speach is a nut to crack. but the state of US and the world calls for something other than nice company-music for the kids to listen to when they walk the eternal mall where they are dumped to try to become living beings.’
    i think our culture being build to much upon competing.a certen kind of psykes turn out at the top.the ones that dont have any empathy and those who dont give a shit what repercussions there doings have.if we tryed cooperation instead we will find that its much more productive.we starts to compete as early as when we want mommy to watch us and nobody else standing on the hands.then its the same old story-the fight for love and glory.how to work this dangerous way of lifeout of our system?t to hard i guess.impossible you might say but humanity have left a lot behind at its journey.the hope is to women as i see it. when they turn to sisters instead of compete whos vagina is the tightest and creates another kind of power.the slow power of persistance.mabye im an idiot but feel free to mail me and tell me so if yo? want.

    Posted by jim bjorklund on Jul 29, 2003 at 7:29 PM

    Violence begets violence. It always has and it always will. Jim Carroll constantly daydreamed about killing because of the cold war. Tom Wolfe would target practice on people walking down the street. There is such a link between humans and violence. We are drawn to it. So what suprises me is that anyone in a capitlatist society would try to cap someones ability to sell violence. If it truly is a free market you our alowed to sell it, no matter how unethical. And that is the answer itself. Be ethical, raise your children the same way. If everyone was ethical then business(including music, games, and movies) would have to become ethical too.

    Posted by Frank Morrison on Jul 31, 2003 at 7:02 PM

    My 12 year old son plays some of those violent games. He’s a pacifist. He abhores violence in real life and believes grownups that kill are “evil morons.”

    It’s all in how the kid is raised, in what values are taught in the home and how they’re taught to the kids. My son agrees with my anti-corporate and progressive views. He hears more than one side to the arguments surrounding a vast number of issues. Why? Because I don’t treat him like he’s stupid and too young to learn what’s happening in the real world. I want him to see, to listen and to think, which he does.
    I’ve taught him bits of the history between Progressives and Federalists, of the second American Revolution that has never been finished. So, he’s a future voter that will enter adulthood with a well-fed mind still feeding. I’m not the only parent encouraging that generation to cut through the crap and learn what’s overlooked by authors of text books and the mainstream media. Add that to the children of the younger activists of today to get an idea of what challenges these kids will present to politicians.

    They’ll be more skeptical, especially ones raised by parents like me that point out the rhetoric and other tactics intended to dupe the American people. They’ll want to know more beyond election campaign promises and claims, because they’re better exposed to those of us that prefer to dig into a politician’s record, and his/her history in business and other dealings, including anything personal which may be a deciding factor.

    In the age of the Internet, times have changed. We are able to access and broadcast a lot more information. Those of us that pass information relative to politics, including other matters that are affected by politicians, also have the ability to give our kids a better start than we had when we were younger. We’re setting an example for them that out weigh their choice in games and other entertainment. This is especially true for those of us that pass our knowledge to our kids.

    It’s all in how we’re raising the kids.

    Posted by Treva on Aug 1, 2003 at 9:34 PM

    Goldberg well understands that controversy drives music sales.  For example, when Ice-T released his “Cop Killer” album, sales were thin, and exploded only after people like Charleton Heston and Tipper Gore rained opprobrium on the record.

    In other words, if Goldberg was ONLY concerned about profits, he’d cheer on the proposed legislation.

    More to the point: While I wasn’t too impressed with Goldberg’s self-serving book (he yammered on and on about all his celebrity friends), his central question is a very important one.  Given that voting participation amongst the young has dropped precipitously over the last few decades, what can we do to reverse this trend?

    By all means, disagree with his positions and fulminations about censorship and proposed solutions, but it’s wrong to doubt the sincerity of his question.

    Finally, you needn’t worry that record executives will hijack the government.  The government has hijacked the record industry: thanks to Tom DeLay’s “K Street Project,” the Recording Industry Association of America, the industry’s official lobbying arm, now has a Republican CEO, a former chief of staff to Sen. Frist.  Read the Washington Monthly article for more info—http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/0307.confessore.html

    Posted by Sakitume! on Aug 18, 2003 at 6:35 PM

  • extended discussion >>>Continued...

    Discussions with more than 5 comments are continued on our special discussion page to encourage continuity and ease of use. There are currently 6 posts.

Appeared in the August 11, 2003 Issue
Also by Ana Marie Cox
  • Race to the Bottom
    Some real-time reaction from the debates, swiped from my full-time gig as… morePosted on October 15, 2004
  • The Worst Show on Earth
    The Republican National Convention, to paraphrase Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show,”… morePosted on September 16, 2004
  • All Hail the Liberal Media
    Howard Kurtz in the June 9 Washington Post analyzed a new survey… morePosted on June 23, 2004
  • Pimping the Vote
    Of all the T-shirts to spark controversy in the off-the-rack irony department… morePosted on May 13, 2004
  • Death of the Cool
    It’s a slow news season. The election is seven months away, summer… morePosted on April 9, 2004
IN THESE TIMES COMMUNITY MEMBERS

Popularity

In These Times is published in Chicago. We’ve been around since 1976, fighting for workers’ rights, corporate accountability and progressive government. In other words, a better world. more

Copyright © 2008 In These Times