tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post5505138438825809736..comments2024-01-23T17:14:04.067-05:00Comments on Jaltcoh: Oblivious anti-consumerismJohn Althouse Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11703450281424023177noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-42223893050889307202009-10-22T15:03:46.352-04:002009-10-22T15:03:46.352-04:00Summer: That's a great point, and I wasn't...Summer: That's a great point, and I wasn't aware of those facts. Yes, this knowledge makes the irony weaker than if the second bumper sticker had a Budweiser logo.<br /><br />But as I said in my first comment in this post, the very fact that you're putting something <i>on a bumper sticker</i> is itself a statement. Putting a bumper sticker on your car typically carries a subtext: "This (statement, product, store, what-have-you) is one of the things that <i>defines</i> me." Sure, someone who shops at Wheatsville yet has anti-consumerism views isn't high on my list of people who are guilty of hypocrisy. You and I could certainly agree that shopping at Wheatsville is relatively benign as modern-day "consumption" goes. Someone who has a Wheatsville bumper sticker, on the other hand, is <i>advertising</i> a store where you buy products in cardboard boxes and plastic containers. You don't need to decorate your car with <i>any</i> bumper stickers promoting plastic products; anyone who does so, and also puts a down-with-consumerism bumper sticker on the same car, should be laughed at. (One of the Althouse blog commenters <a href="http://althouse.blogspot.com/2009/10/yeah-i-also-dont-like-having-idea-of.html#c3115971238719350462" rel="nofollow">says the car owner was being knowingly ironic</a>, which is fine by me!)John Althouse Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11703450281424023177noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-46494161575357632302009-10-22T14:57:07.959-04:002009-10-22T14:57:07.959-04:00Filling the void, whatever, what about filling the...Filling the void, whatever, what about filling the VORTEX? Oh wait, that job's taken. (bah-DOOMP!)halojones-fanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05473935330204075559noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-38792998357149485902009-10-22T14:47:55.501-04:002009-10-22T14:47:55.501-04:00If they are recovering alcoholics, then the bumper...If they are recovering alcoholics, then the bumper stickers make sense.kjbehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02205930548533839170noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-605920205739707982009-10-22T14:32:51.920-04:002009-10-22T14:32:51.920-04:00Interesting, perhaps semi-relevant note: if your d...Interesting, perhaps semi-relevant note: if your dad is still in Austin, Black Star Pub Brewery is a cooperatively-owned, volunteer-run home-brewing group with the hope of eventually opening a bar at which the customers would also be co-owners, ala the cooperative grocery store in town Wheatsville. <br /><br />Obviously that doesn't cancel out your points, and consumption isn't really a synonym for capitalism even if people act like it is... but I do think it might contribute to why the person with that car might not have thought of the two as contradictory. :)summer anne burtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18277818654592922276noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-90772484253925964282009-10-22T11:48:14.176-04:002009-10-22T11:48:14.176-04:00"Well, I have to go now ... I'm due back ..."Well, I have to go now ... I'm due back on the planet Earth ..."John Althouse Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11703450281424023177noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-12973381816398678192009-10-22T11:44:01.139-04:002009-10-22T11:44:01.139-04:00Yeah, I also don't like having the idea of &qu...Yeah, I also don't like having the idea of "the void" thrust upon me while I'm driving. I'm afraid of that phantom crazy impulse to drive my car into the oncoming headlights.<br /><br />(Not really. "Annie Hall" reference.)Ann Althousehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01630636239933008807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-83199162047719612032009-10-22T06:53:52.890-04:002009-10-22T06:53:52.890-04:00Just because you know consumption will not fill th...<i>Just because you know consumption will not fill the void doesn't mean you're against consumption.</i><br /><br />If the statement were made in the middle of a conversation, that would be one thing. But putting it on a bumper sticker implies that it should be interpreted as an ideological manifesto.John Althouse Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11703450281424023177noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-51109623108946755612009-10-22T06:18:23.341-04:002009-10-22T06:18:23.341-04:00There's a lot of money to be made in anti-cons...There's a lot of money to be made in anti-consumerism.Jason (the commenter)https://www.blogger.com/profile/16045360562791361484noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4464222071440015933.post-23987426172570823892009-10-21T11:18:43.049-04:002009-10-21T11:18:43.049-04:00There's a void, Jerry, there's a void... &...There's a void, Jerry, there's a void... "<br /><br />"A deep, yawning chasm..."<br /><br />***<br /><br />Just because you know consumption will not fill the void doesn't mean you're against consumption. I like a lot of things that I don't expect to give me profound satisfaction. I can still enjoy a beer (or a car) even if I know it isn't the most fulfilling thing in life.Ann Althousehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01630636239933008807noreply@blogger.com