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Lifestyles Left and Right
The Scumbag Millionare Economy
Discovering the cultural contradicitions of crap-italism.
Americans have busied themselves lately showing how little a decline in the vice of materialism begets a rise in virtue. Conservatives rediscovered economic austerity amid a fresh embarrassment of histrionic riches. Moderates awoke to the petty opportunism behind Obama's grand mal liberalism. And Madame Secretary Hillary Clinton set U.S.-Russia relations back a generation -- reverting, with her foreign policy "reset" button, from kitschy magnanimity to prickly distrust as Foreign Minister Lavrov revealed that the State Department had bungled its bargain-basement Russian translation. Rather than reset, the Cyrillic label on the button read overcharge. A fresh victim of America's new discount desperation, Hillary blurted out reflexively. "We won't let you do that to us!"
For that, indeed, we can rely on our own government. As today's traditionalist critics claim, the frenzy to perpetuate our American lifestyles, along with the status they confer, has led us to embrace a bailout at any -- or is it every? -- price. But the allure of a communitarian conservatism that binds us closer to the land and our neighbors is tempered by a temptation of its own.
We should acknowledge that excessive consumption and waste, public and private, artificially and dangerously inflated market values. But we should pause before hoping, therefore, that a crash of the market will cause a spike in virtuous living. Just as we can run up a huge spending deficit, particularly in tough times, we can run our self-respect deep into the red before giving up on going wrong -- especially when we can make a buck in the process.
Real vice offers big value in the ruins of an all-too-virtual economy. Gone are the days when you can work your way to the top so long as you keep your nose clean. With its "How Low Can You Go?" marketing campaign, Spirit Airlines, America's "leading Ultra-Low-Cost Carrier," promotes degenerate optimism as nothing less than the American spirit:
As you know, our fares are famously low. But we want to know what you think is even lower. Something crude, lewd and just plain low down.
Ever taken money from a church offering basket? Spit in someone's drink when they weren't looking just because they were rooting for another team? Whatever it is, we want to know.
Get to work creating a short video to enter in our How Low Can You Go? contest. The 10 videos that get the most views will become the Top 10 Finalists, and from that pool we'll select the Grand Prize winner who will win a year of free* travel with a companion to anywhere Spirit flies—and you may even see your video on TV or online! We've got more than one prize to give away; all of the Top 10 Finalists will win tickets.
Show us just how low you'd go.
This kind of market coping mechanism is shocking, all right, but not that surprising. The cultural logic that seeks value by auctioning off values has beckoned this way for a long time. As reality TV testifies, an easy market rewards whatever bad behavior is easiest to come by, and in the aftermath, bad habits are hard to shake. The lower our common denominator, after all, the bigger the numerator. So rather than shape up, our inclination is to double down, cashing in on the apparently inexhaustible taste for the tawdry. Slumdog Millionaire is out, and Scumbag Millionaire is in.
Despite our nobler dreams, our manners aren't likely to straighten up in straightened circumstances. In fact, the opposite is likely to happen. Boom-time vices of expensive thrills and expensive women yield readily to bust-time cheap ones. Eliot Spitzer's big-ticket bad behavior mimics the proud folly of wealthy fools throughout history -- another self-indulgent boondoggle for which, at bottom, he was greatly overcharged. And the hot air of populist indignation that builds during plutocratic times is let out of the bag when slumming starts to look like the only investment that holds its value.
Not so long ago, Fight Club spoke to a generation. "Our great war is a spiritual war," preached Tyler Durden. "Our great depression is our lives." With the real thing around the corner in the minds of over half of Americans today, that kind of bummed-out asceticism is one depression too many. Why beat ourselves up for nothing in private when we can cash in for free off a little naughty publicity? Fight Club's idyllic vision of the future -- postindustrial hominids pounding strips of venison and sowing crops amid cities gone to seed -- now sounds about as realistic as a sequel to Office Space penned by Rousseau. It's too much Romanticism, not enough ribaldry.
In times like these, the prospect of trading guilty pleasures for even more frustration sounds like a losing bet. As getting overcharged at the cash register becomes more unpleasant than ever, we're overcharging ourselves psychologically like a bundle of socks with a bad case of static cling. Every time we touch, we set off sparks. Every time we part, we crackle. We're ready to pop. As the makers of last year's nasty little Cheetos commercials intuited, reveling shamelessly (and inexpensively) in our small vices is a perfect way to blow off steam.
Alas, a quick look at Rod Dreher's blog reveals that traditionalists these days are typified by the irate repairman and the doom-stricken pastor -- figures for whom scumbag millionaires are part of the problem, not part of the solution. The traditionalists are right. But their challenge isn't to escape a crude culture so much as it is to sustain lives to be proud of despite winning fewer rewards for doing so. Though the Dow may languish and the banks may fall, America's market for the overshare isn't going anywhere. For virtue's devotees, wishing otherwise will only make matters more depressing.
About the Author
James Poulos is a doctoral student at Georgetown and the former Political Editor of Culture11. His writing has been published by The American Conservative, The National Interest, The New Atlantis, Partnership for a Secure America, and The Weekly Standard. In addition to AmSpecBlog, he has blogged at The American Scene, Doublethink, and Postmodern Conservative, which he founded. With degrees in political science and law from Duke and USC, he is currently at work on a dissertation about life after Napoleon. In his spare time he anti-blogs at Pish Tosh.
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Pingback| 3.17.09 @ 6:34AM
| London Riches links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Seek| 3.17.09 @ 12:19PM
Rule Number One: Do not talk about "Fight Club."
Mr. Poulos comes off as little more than a modern-day Polonius, scolding his errant countrymen for their supposedly coarse tastes. Too bad. Snobbish preening does not a "scholar" make.
Jeremiah| 3.17.09 @ 12:37PM
If you have a problem with the crassness of popular culture, with the inanity and moral squalor of television, pop music, and the general desire to turn the world into a gigantic casino / brothel / prison, your problem, my comrades, is with CAPITALISM itself, the motto of which, is "if it feels good, do it."
Sherman McCoy| 3.17.09 @ 1:20PM
This was a chore to get through. I'm not even sure what the gist of this article is.If I wanted to read Kant again, I'd re-enroll in school.
Scott Hadden| 3.17.09 @ 2:35PM
This is pretty awful stuff. Mr. Poulos needs a sedative. Quick ...
Trackback| 3.17.09 @ 3:04PM
The American Spectator : The Scumbag Millionare Economy, on EconWatch.com, links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
ruth| 3.17.09 @ 5:15PM
Jeremiah, "If it feels good, do it, " was the motto of the free love, anti-war, drug addled left/liberal/hippy movement of the sixties. In other words: The same people who are the leaders of your debased democrat party today. Nice try, but the moral squalor is all yours.
ruth| 3.17.09 @ 5:27PM
Mr. Poulos, thank you for your thoughtful piece. It is sobering, but true. Ben Franklin said, "Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." Unfortunately, our country lacks virtue, and the evidence is all around us.
frankg| 3.17.09 @ 7:16PM
THANK YOU RUTH!
I'm getting really tired of this "narrative" business of the left, constantly trying to rewrite the past, the present, and the future seemingly before it happens like so many printing presses churning out paper money overtime. It's almost counterfeit.
Growing up in the 70's I was taught to work hard, study hard, avoid substance abuse that would just impair my judgment or abilities, like when driving a car or working in a competitive society. When I asked about business men or companies that for whatever reason weren't alert or forward looking, my parents or their friends said something like, "if they don't wake up they won't be around much longer".
Jeremiah's description sounds more like the hollywood motto.
Michael L. Hauschild| 3.17.09 @ 8:15PM
If it feels good do it is the motto of hedonism not capitalism.
Alan Brooks| 3.17.09 @ 9:02PM
you cant talk sense into Jeremiah, hit him over the head with Maxwell's silver hammer.
ruth| 3.17.09 @ 9:16PM
Jeremiah is just another leftist/marxist Minister of Mis-Information--just ask Alan, he knows. Jeremiah is a pro.
Jeremiah| 3.17.09 @ 9:19PM
Frank, Ruth, Michael et al
Hollywood, like Los Vegas, is a BUSINESS. Why are they crass? Why do they debase the values you hold dear?
One word.
Profits.
Jeremiah| 3.17.09 @ 9:23PM
Las Vegas -- excuse the error.
My point was only that the pop culture many conservatives find so objectionable is the result of simple capitalist business deals. To criticize the junk you see on television or at your local movie house is to criticize capitalism.
The most perfect symbol for a capitalist market I ever saw used to be used by the Rolling Stones (five absolutely brilliant business men): it depicted a gaping mouth, with red lips and a protruding tongue. The phallic and labial imagery is impossible to miss, and its celebration of raw, uninhibited appetite is precisely the drive of consumerism. That business logo ought to replace the elephant as the symbol for the Republican party.
Mary| 3.17.09 @ 9:40PM
Thinking and speaking of capitalism gives me the opportunity to link Fearsome Comrade again.
This excerpt is really good:
"Second, the facts put the lie to this--the greatest capitalist society in the world, the United States, was founded on the self-sacrifice of those who died in the Revolution. Socialism came 150 years after the Revolution and so is very unlikely to be the natural fruit of the moral self-sacrifice of men generations past, especially as its ideas are of European origin. Clearly, self-sacrifice is not the foundation of socialism."
"Third, "rational selfishness" is not the "only" basis of capitalism, because it has never been its basis. The moral basis of capitalism is the intrinsic nobility of freedom. The American Revolution involved a lot of self-sacrifice, but not for the establishment of an all-powerful government to take care of the needs of each and every man, but for the establishment of a limited government to preserve the freedoms and liberties of each and every man. Under this scheme of morality, the poor subsistence farmer living in a sod house in 19th century Kansas lives a far more noble life than the richest Roman slave precisely because he is free. If freedom is intrinsically noble, then there are few evils greater than taking it away. Not only that, but we recognize after centuries' bitter experience that if you give your government power to take your neighbor's freedom, it will snatch away your freedom at the next available opportunity. A government that promises you all the provisions of life at the expense of your freedom is intrinsically evil."
You know, if I had a son I'd want him to be a lot like this young man. He's got it all: brains, courage, and the good looks wagon didn't pass him by either.
The one thing about consumption and materialism and status seeking is that it produces a pretty paltry group of sinners. Kierkegaard would refer to them as "lace-makers."
In one of Lewis' Screwtape Letters he has Wormwood offer up a toast at an Annual Convention of Tempters. He begins the toast bemoaning the skinny, meatless, stringy sinners of modern times.
The Tempters were looking for big, fat sinners, wary though they were that big, fat sinners are usually the ones who, once Converted, take on the World by Light with the same passion.
Even as fornicators we're pretty worthless; our sensibilities having been raped over and over and over again.
We'd be much better served if we sinners of all sorts could rally to the sentiment of the gentleman whose name I can't remember but who said: "Sex without sin is like egg without salt." Or, if you prefer Kristofferson: Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose."
Was it Irving Kristol who said there was nothing wrong with America that a good depression wouldn't cure?
Keep that nugget from Rush or the furies unspeakable will be on him like a short coat.
ruth| 3.17.09 @ 10:12PM
You are a laugher, Jeremiah. You liberals are the biggest financial rapists of all--Madoff is only the tip of the iceberg. He regularly donated so much money to Planned Parenthood that they took a major financial hit when he was arrested. Talk about an evil duet. How about the millions and millions given to Fannie/Freddie executives? All of the big boys on Wall Street voted for Obama, including the Hedge Funders. Did they steal all of this money 'for the children'? Who puts out Hollyweird sleeze? You liberals do. Don't hide behind the middle class excuse, liar. You are the party of sleeze, slime and perversion. Stop trying to pin your stupid hippy motto on us; you're the free love morons.
ruth| 3.17.09 @ 10:17PM
The Rolling Stones were liberal horndogs, and they used sexual imagery to get rich. Liberal, deviant Hollyweird (your people) does it every day. Duh!
Sam| 3.17.09 @ 11:42PM
Ruth shoots! Ruth scores!
Well-said Ruth...bravo.
Outstanding!
Fearsome Comrade| 3.18.09 @ 9:54AM
My point was only that the pop culture many conservatives find so objectionable is the result of simple capitalist business deals. To criticize the junk you see on television or at your local movie house is to criticize capitalism.
Criticizing products we don't like for find objectionable is part of capitalism, too. It's not a free market if you're not allowed to exercise discretion or voice your opinion.
And as Ruth pointed out, the Rolling Stones and Hollywood moguls are all big-time leftists. What this really shows is that the most vocal liberals embrace the free market whenever it's making them money...and when it loses money, you get the DMC and eternal copyright extensions.
Right Wing NAZISM wayto go| 3.18.09 @ 10:25AM
Keep printing, and head the same way as Zimbabwe. 3 years time a loaf of breal will be a thousand dollars. And the only place to live is in a tent, because electricity and gas will be too costly.
DAPHNE| 3.18.09 @ 2:35PM
God bless America! Land of the free--for now.
ruth| 3.18.09 @ 6:58PM
It's not primarily about money with liberals/leftists/marxists: Their real prize is power. That's what Ben Franklin meant when he said the coarser a society becomes, the more it requires a repressive government to control it. That's what we've got with Obama @ Co.
Matthew| 3.21.09 @ 7:03AM
Trotsky once said that wherever there are bread queues there are repressive political regimes.
Everybody knew about the debate on economic rationalism and the illusions of the capitalist "free market" - they were a major theme of US elections in 1972-80, and again during the mid-90's when the debate about the follies of economic rationalism was at it's height.
As the Bible says, you reap the seeds you sow, and the German experience of the 1920's suggest big nations can go down the tubes when nobody accepts the currency.
In the case of the US, China and Japan in particular have raised questions about the role of the US as the world's reserve currency. Middle Eastern nations have met to consider the same question, albeit much more quietly.
This is material fact - beyond mere clever liberal punditry.
Pingback| 3.23.09 @ 11:01AM
Topics about Economy » Archive » The American Spectator : The Scumbag Millionare Econ links to this page. Here’s an excerpt: