The Beginnings of an Essay

Popular culture is, despite any outward appearance of divergence, characterized by expressing itself within the horizon (acting as an unwitting agent) of existing power structures. The “true test” for lasting legitimacy among counter cultural groups is the avoidance of aesthetics as a means of identification or the ability to keep the cause separate from the effect of the aesthetic (mainstream adoption). The aesthetic of these groups may act as a catalyst for association amongst diverse actors (composition of counter culture amalgamations), but the superficiality of such is easily marketed by the mainstream. A trend, related through example (the Seattle scene), marks the nature of articulation for counter culture and mainstream corruption. These groups, as related by Oliver Marchart in “New Protest Formations and Radical Democracy,” become directly political and are often misbranded as subcultural because of an associating or representative aesthetic that is adopted by and marketed to the mainstream. This leads to continual reformation and rebranding of protest to “stay ahead of the game.” I argue that, as with hipsters, the aesthetic does not mark the emergence of protest , but unwitting submission to “the game” of existing power structures. True agents of subversion, after all, operate from within the horizon of the mainstream. To act “for the people,” they appear and bear the message “of the people” (think CIA or the assassination of Julius Caesar). The brands of alternative culture are often the agents of their subjugation to mainstream agencies (think smoking, drinking, clothing).