Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter shatter the central myth of radical political, economic and cultural thinking. The idea of a counterculture-that is, a world outside of the consumer dominated one that encompasses us-pervades everything from the anti-globalisation movement of feminism and environmentalism.
And the idea that mocking the system, or trying to ‘jam’ it so it will collapse, they argue, is not only counterproductive but has helped to create the very consumer society that radicals oppose. Heath and Potter offer a startlingly clear picture of what a concern for social justice might look like without the confusion of the countercultural obsession with being different.
Part I
1. The birth of counterculture
2. Freud goes to California
3. Being normal
4. I hate myself and want to buy
5. Extreme rebellion
Part II
6. Uniforms and uniformity
7. From status-seeking to coolhunting
8. Coca-colonisation
9. Thank you, India
10. Spaceship Earth