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Politics. In some form or other, it's something that burns

inside many of those who claim a genuinely alternative mindset.

But it's also something that's crushed easily by sheer weight of

cynicism - frustration at the arcane complexities, flawed

ideologies, endless arguments and lack of real progress that are

associated with any attempts to formulate viable political goals.

Like many of my kind I dabbled in left-wing politics during

earlier teenage years. Each ideology I looked to for some form of

meaning, I soon found to be based on shaky principles. Call it

apathy if you will, but it's easy to reach the stage where your

own small scale world takes priority over seemingly futile

attempt to change the world at large. It is an ugly world and it

often seems your only form of protest or escape is to define

yourself as an individual - using whatever forms of expression

come to you. Being the overriding passion of this scene music is

where I look for my own personal space. But at heart the passion

of real political belief and action never dies - and while there

is no coherent movement I could claim to follow with any

conviction, I remain an essentially political person.

I think it's important to set the scene in this way, to give

you some idea of the impact this book has. I'm talking about "No logo" by Naomi Klein - an intriguing book which has recieved a

lot of publicity and picked up recommendations from media figures

such as Thom Yorke.

I was a little

dubious initially, expecting perhaps a heavily politicised

collection of righteous diatribes and economic complexities.

While 'No logo' doesn't shy away from serious analysis, I would

describe it as the most accesible, dynamic and interesting books

I've ever read on this subject, and one that is direcly relevant

to anyone who lives in the modern world, whether fiercely

political or fiercely cynical or both. Or neither.

Reading this book filled me with a real buzz. For a long

period I've felt that there is no set of political beliefs or

actions I could follow that wouldn't self-destruct under the

weight both of heavy opposing arguments and pervading post-modern

cynicism. I think what "No logo" does is alert you to

the fact that you can be radical, indignant and impassioned about

the direction of the modern world without having to fall into the

offputing world of tired political ideologies, stereotypical

left/right arguments, the shallow bickering between reactionary twats

and their slightly-less-reactionary counterparts on the opposing

benches of parliament. The issues described and analysed by Naomi Klein

transcend this popular view of politics and address the system as

a whole, dissecting it infront of our eyes and alerting you at

first to the sheer ugliness lurking behind current trends and

then to a growing wave of resistance, whether individual and

spontaneous or collective.

Naive it is not. 'No logo' is at the same time an objective,

intelligent piece of journalism, and an impassioned manifesto. It

highlights the flaws in all the arguments and movements it

describes, but the sheer analysis is enough to convince you that

things are not right. I don't have room to paraphrase all the

arguments here, but a few of the many issues it addresses are

+  The increasing invasion of advertising and corporate

    sponsorship into public spaces and every aspect of our

    lives - massive spending of large corporations on

    abstract brand-named campaigns leading to branding of

    almost every aspect of society 


+  The corporate invasion of every cultural and artistic

    movement - "cool hunters" who seek out new

    subversive youth trends and turn them into marketing

    campaigns 


+  Something potentially very relevant to readers here - the

    'co-opting' of alternative music by large corporations -

    the influence of MTV on popular tastes, the quick

    commercialisation of the original Seattle punk/grunge

    movement, the sad situation where 'indie-cool' is just as

    marketable as brand-name sportswear, when armies of Fred

    Durst clones parade like empty ghosts of a true

    underground ethos, and our indie-rock heroes appear in

    the soundtracks of Gap adverts. 


+  The expansion of franchise chains like Starbucks and

    McDonalds replacing independant shops and homogenising

    high streets. Also large out-of-town superstores and the

    expanse of suburbia at the expense of real community in

    the cities 


+  The 'McJobs' phenomenon - How jobs in the western world

    are increasingly low-paid and temporary, downsizing and

    streamlining of corporations with production being moved

    offshore 


+  The impact of all this on the third world - sweatshops,

    free trade zones, the large-scale exploitation of foreign

    workers 


+  The many flaws of "globalisation" - the

    inequalities of third-world production and attempts by

    large corporations to homogenise worldwide culture into a

    marketable "global teens" concept

I'm sure I haven't done justice to all the concepts in this

book - it's all backed up with evidence, anecdotes, stories,

journalism and argument. It's very readable and whatever your

views there will be parts of it which should make you positively

seethe with anger... with me I think it was the corporate impact

on youth culture and music more than anything. To give you some

idea I'll paraphrase the introduction to one of the earlier

chapters - something which I can identify with a lot.

It's the feeling when you're at the start of your life...

you're not sure quite who you are or what you want to be but

trying to find some individual form of expression. And it seems

like every option you can take, has already been done a thousand

times, has already been converted into a marketing opportunity

and bought out before you even reach it. Don't like mainstream

pop acts? Maybe you want to try being an indie kid. Here, buy

this major-label Travis/Coldplay CD... or punk... why there's a

whole industry in producing hooded Greenday sweaters and

Offspring CDs. Pissed off with the world? Buy into the whole

Slipknot/Limp bizkit marketing bonanza. Maybe you're looking for

something more intellectual? check out the latest trendy

Slint-a-like post-rock band. Wherever you turn all you can find

is a new groove to fit into... one that's been laid out a

thousand times before and looks tired before you can even get to

it. The pure concepts of subversion and originality seem

irredeemably sullied by the commercial value of watered-down

clones, until the point where they smother the original scene.

There seems no room left for the individual in branded culture.

Naomi goes on to explain that while she long since grew out of

this sense of desparation, it is as much a reflection of the

deficiencies of the corporate world as some teenage sense of

existential despair. We need to reclaim our public spaces and our

rights to real art and expression. While it would be easy to read

this and let it do nothing more than push you deeper into

depressive cynicism about the world, this book did the exact

opposite and instead filled me with inspiration to seek out and

fight for a true underground scene. I think the crucial point is

not to allow the underground to be defined as some elite 'cool'

concept, which is essentially empty and can only be bought out in

time and sold ('cool' being the most marketable quality which all

advertisers seek to attribute to their products), but to define

the underground as any collection of individuals who have

reclaimed the right to define their own culture, music and forms

of expression.

Alongside this cultural revelation, 'No logo' also contributes

greatly towards a new form of political awareness. The many

issues described should give the most hardened cynic something to

fight for. A large section of the book is devoted to the

reporting and analysis of a new wave of worldwide protest - it's

disconnected nature and freedom from any large-scale organisation

gives it a distinct advantage over the radical political

movements of the past which relied on, and often failed because of,

attempts by parties and organisations to homogenise radical

protest. Of course organisation is essential, but increasingly

tools like the internet are used to coordinate varied individuals

and organisations into new forms of protest and campaign which

are often more spontaneous and expressive. Examples include the

well-reported large-scale protests in Seattle and Prague and the

"Reclaim the streets" events, which blur the boundaries

between street parties and protests. She details how many

campaigns and boycotts have forced large companies to clean up

their act somewhat, a widespread backlash against the labour

practises of large brands such as Nike. On top of this the whole

concept of culture-jamming is analysed in some depth - the

appropriation of commercial media for non-commercial messages, as

pioneered by Adbusters and the Billboard Liberation Front.

So to round off. 'No logo' is an essential read for anyone who

anyone who is willing to delve beneath the shiny surface of the

modern world. I can't guarantee you'll be as inspired as I was

but it will certainly give you a lot to think about, and force

you to reconsider views on many subjects. The book as a whole is

comprehensive, intelligent and impassioned and I strongly

recommend getting hold of a copy.