Re: <nettime> No Logo is a good Logo

["Benjamin Geer" <benjamin.geer@btinternet.com>]

On Mon, Nov 13, 2000 at 06:23:53PM -0000, matt king wrote:
> Naomi (Calvin) Klein's book "No Logo", is being promoted rather
> heavily here in the UK, and perhaps globally. Her anti corporate
> capitalist stance is something I have strong sympathies with.
>
> However I feel that the promotion of her work in the media has been
> given a one-dimensional branding all of its own. It seems that this
> book with its large flat coffee table form will become another piece
> of christmas present gloss that is talked about rather than read (I
> probably wont read it).

I think that if you read it, you would realise that it's exactly the
opposite of what you think it is.  In reality, it's a lucid, biting
critique of branding and its effects on society.  Far from being
self-aggrandising, Klein's analysis of the origins of the anti-capitalist
movement shows remarkable humility: she faces up not only to the folly of
her youthful brand worship, but to the naivete of leftists like herself
who, during the culture wars of the 1980's, believed that everything would
be all right if they could just get the media to show positive images of
women, blacks, and homosexuals.  (The media were happy to comply;
meanwhile, corporations were busy turning schools and universities into
brand shrines, censoring any research that would be embarrassing to them,
hiring third-world populations at starvation wages, etc.)  She then ties
together all the issues that led to the anti-WTO protests in Seattle
(which occurred after the book was written).  I think that this book
deserves all the favourable press it can get, and that it can only have a
salutary influence on the anti-capitalist movement.  Not only is Klein's
historical analysis very solid, and supported by copious research, she is
also doing an excellent job of identifying common goals and useful
strategies in a very heterogeneous social movement.  Any newspaper editor
who has the courage to publish an article about _No Logo_ should be
praised for doing so.

-- 
Benjamin Geer
http://www.btinternet.com/~amisuk/bg




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