attention industry

Addendum to Adbusters Post.

I can’t help but laugh at a magazine which states, again and again, that our consumer business model is irreparably broken, targeting specifically at students (Phrases include: ‘Your university is a police state’, ‘Ask your prof: Are we selling off our natural capital and calling it income?’) while more or less declaring that everyone in a position to actually make change is inherently corrupt.

Charging students nine bucks to tell them that they are totally right, and that their prof is a dick?  This isn’t revolutionary.  It’s not game-changing.  It’s not even intelligent.

It’s the same self-indulgent rebellion that gets sold to every generation of youth, before someone pulls them aside and says “If the system is failing, then it is YOUR JOB to go out and overhaul whatever part of it you can.  Protest is only revolutionary if you are protesting the lack of a clear, positive change, not yelling that something is broken without offering alternatives”.

EDIT: As you’ll see in the comments below, I’ve been informed that this issue was actually distributed free to students. I’d need to pick up another issue to see if this rules my statements entirely out of order. Thanks to Mike for pointing this out.