Bulpadok 2011 by Trinity College Collections

BU L PA D OK

BU L PA D OK The Arts Journal of Trinity College

2011

Editor Joy Liu

Committee Joseph Constable

Rachel Macleod

Nicholas Fenech

Irini Vazanellis

Proofing

Layout & Design

Daniel Gibbons Proofing

Contributors Xian Buggy, Angus Cameron, Jackson Clarke, Joseph Constable, Imogen Dewey, Hélène Duchamp, John Ford, Samuel Hartley, Madeline Hodge, Arunima Jain, Joy Liu, Rachel Macleod, Luke Patterson, Andrej Peisker, Charlotte Poulain, James Ramsay, Alix Roberts, Bilitis Smith, Louisa Thurecht, Irini Vazanellis, Phoebe Williams and the year seven and eight students of Minyerri.

Acknowledgements Campbell Bairstow, Sally Dalton-Brown, Dee Jenkins, Andreas Loewe, Hazel Nazir & James Ramsay.

Design and Publishing James Ramsay

Typeset in Exljbris Calluna http://jramsay.com.au

Tenderprint

Digitally printed and perfect bound. Cover: 250gsm Keaycolour Holly Body: 100gsm Revive 50:50 Offset © 2011. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior written premission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this journal.

Table of Contents The Brothers

Joseph Constable, seond year Arts

Twitter to Terrorism

Samuel Hartley, first year Music

Challenges and Revolutions

Charlotte Poulain, third year Arts

Bushfire

Minyerri – Year 7 & 8

The Freshness of Night

My Dose Of Hemlock

Jackson Clarke, seond year Master of Science

Andrej Peisker, fourth year Science

Excerpt: Memories from a Conformed Poet Angus Cameron, third year Arts

In A (Short) Parallel Plotline

Joy Liu, third year Biomedicine

Dissolving the Mind-Body Problem Rachel Macleod, third year Arts

The Bul’: A Lament

A Sexy Way to Hate

Luke Patterson, fourth year Music

Imogen Dewey, third year Music

Rosy Eyes

Joseph Constable, seond year Arts

De nobis fabula narratur

Shaun Flint – reprinted Bulpadok 1999

When You’ve Got It, Flaunt It

Daniel Gibbons, third year Commerce

Illustrations Gated Community

Louisa Thurecht, first year Master of Teaching

Xbox “Live”

John Ford, third year Science

A Study of Shadows

La Salie on the Moon

Anonymous

Bilitis Smith, first year Environments

Piton des Neiges, 3071m, 7:02am

Hélène Duchamp, seond year Commerce

Flowers are Shallow

Alix Roberts, third year Arts

Blue Orchids

Arunima Jain, third year Science

Truckee

James Ramsay, TC 2008–’10

German Androgyny

Fondly, Foggy Memory

Phoebe Williams, third year Arts

Xian Buggy, third year Arts

Kamakura-za, Edo-Tokyo Museum, Tokyo Hélène Duchamp, second year Commerce

Boathouse Plans

Maddie Hodge, seond year Environments

Birds

Irini Vazanellis, third year Engineering

Earthquake Go tell the earth to shake And tell the thunder To wake the sky And tear the clouds apart Tell my people to come out And wonder

And say The old wrongs are over The old ways are done There shall be no more hate And no more war My people shall be one.

Where the old world is gone For a new world is born And all my people Shall be one.

For the old world is ended The old sky is torn Apart. A new day is born They hate no more They do not go to war My people shall be one.

So tell the earth to shake With marching feet Of messengers of peace Proclaim my law of love To every nation Every race.

There shall be no more hate And no more oppression The old wrongs are done My people shall be one.

For the old wrongs are over The old days are gone A new world is rising Where my people shall be one. – Thomas Merton

The Bulpadok is the literary journal of Trinity College and was first published in 1987 by the Editors M. Brazil, M. Gronow, J. McMahon, K. Moore, S. Mulready, and S. Ware. It seeks to offer an outlet for the creative life of the College and to express the vitality of the Trinity Community. The name Bulpadok emphasizes the source of this collection: by all the members of Trinity College, both past and present, for everyone. The Editor would like to sincerely thank those who have contributed to bringing the Bulpadok to print, especially recognising the efforts of the contributors and committee. The Editor of Bulpadok, and through her the College, is not responsible for, nor does she necessarily agree with, the views of the contributors expressed herein: issues should be raised with the copyright holder.

vii

Established by Clare Pullar, Director of Development, Trinity College 1997-2007, The C. L. H. Pullar Prize is awarded to the best literary contribution to the Bulpadok.

The winner for 2011 is The Brothers Joseph Constable

viii

The Brothers Joseph Constable

Atop that mound of hay, Emblazoned with awe, Night slyly was upon them And outstretched was His claw.

It circled them thrice Chirping mem’ries long gone. Its redolent pitch Left the Brothers forlorn.

Trees with leaves turned black, A creek with its flow put to rest. These things did our Brothers see, Knowing surely they were blessed.

Transfixed they did peer, Both cautious and young, As Night’s frenzied talons Devoured the Dove’s tongue.

Wispy was the smoky air, The elements ablaze. Night’s claws attacked with frightful ire, But could not pierce the haze.

So ghastly that sight, It reeked of foul play. Beside the blackest leaf, That poor white frame lay. With all goodness frozen In Night’s icy glare, The Brothers’ dark dream Became their nightmare.

Whence from within this womb, Did their eyes now adjust: The tomb of a mound had fallen, And the creek ceased to rust.

But just like their hearts, Which never skipped beat, So too was the frost Soon trumped by Sun’s heat.

But here flowed not water, Only echoes of love; And with love in its wings, Outfleweth a Dove.

Gated Community Louisa Thurecht

This is my house for one year. It is a halfway house, the home for teenage runaways and those of us who have been institutionalised. It was set up in the olden days to help those in residence to integrate into society. They aren’t a charity though—don’t for a second think that. Most of the time Family members financially support a person’s stay (if they are having trouble with money), but we also have to work as part of the entrance requirements. Sometimes they let us stay for free if we are good. We get a room and a roof over our heads, and there are staff who live on the grounds. They keep an eye on us. The people in our neighbourhood don’t want us here. They think we drink too much and party and do drugs. The staff try to make sure we don’t get into too much trouble, but we do. Most halfway houses are single sex, but not this one. Sometimes this causes trouble, but they pretend they don’t know. I know I must have done something wrong to be in a halfway house. But on a good day, I’d like to believe I was half way home.

Established in memory of Captain Franc Samuel Carse, Member of Trinity College who was killed in the First World War at Bullecourt in 1917, The Franc Carse Essay Prize is awarded for an essay on a topic of national or international importance.

The topic for 2011 being: “We are dealing with the best-educated generation in history. But they’ve got a brain dressed up with nowhere to go.” – Timothy Leary What are the intellectual challenges facing Generation Z in the 21st century?

The joint winners for 2011 are Twitter to Terrorism Samuel Hartley

Challenges and Revolution Charlotte Poulain

Twitter to Terrorism

Global challenges of the 21st century Samuel Hartley

Barely a day goes by without the appearance of a news report, warning of the latest threat to our current social order, be it environmental, technological, economic or other. While many such proclamations may appear somewhat farfetched, bordering at times on the apocalyptic, the fact remains that as a society, we face a plethora of challenges, several of which are grave. Nevertheless, many of us carry on our daily lives, only partially conscious of the need for change, largely blinded by the comfort of our current life, and thus unable to see beyond the apparent lack of tangible warning signs. Additionally, contradictory and often alarmist media reports make it difficult for us to react strongly but rationally to those issues which present themselves. To understand the scope of the problems which face society, and the capacity for future social change, however, it is vital to appreciate the nature of the current generation of young individuals—Generation Z—and the world in which they inhabit, as the burden of responsibility for action weighs heavily on their shoulders. Much is said of Generation Z, today’s children and teenagers, positive and negative, accurate and less accurate. Yet one universal truth, which applies to most young people in the modern western world, is the startling amount of freedom they have compared to previous generations, and, consequentially, insecurity. It might seem ironic that the most highly educated generation in history should be so fundamentally confused. Yet in an enlightened, globalised society in which new findings and ideas regularly challenge beliefs previously viewed as undeniable, the pace of social change and growing generational divides has created a world where little can be taken for granted. Today’s youth, instructed in schools to be sceptical and independent thinkers, alienated from their families by generational differences, and from each other by the lack of a positive common worldview, a feature of society where both individualism and cultural dislocation meet, are left with so little to believe in or stand by. Consequently, their lives are often reduced to self-obsession, indulgence or even hatred. Freedom and education, two beautiful ideals in theory, have in practice led to a generation trapped and confined within their own scepticism and alienation, attempting to make sense of the world by latching on to frequently

Samuel Hartley

narrow-minded ideals in the absence of any positive, familiar role models to which they can aspire. As technological progress increases, and society becomes wealthier, the search for ideals and notions in which to believe, beyond pure self-interest, will become increasingly challenging, unless new approaches to the concepts of culture and society are adopted. If a large proportion of today’s young population are afflicted by a crisis of faith, almost all face a much more tangible problem, that of success in an insecure and changeable world. Despite the unprecedented wealth of western nations, the pressures of our consumer culture to express ourselves, not by our deeds, but by our purchases, leading to ever-higher levels of consumption, put pressure on young individuals to acquire “respectable” employment. Yet since entry into an increasing number of jobs requires many years of expensive tertiary education, two significant problems arise from such a situation. Firstly, the lengthy period necessary to acquire a relevant degree often leads to symptoms, real or imagined, of financial burden for the individual and their family. Although in reality, both the financial stress and the perceived need for a higher income frequently derive largely from a “consumer-culture” sense of what is necessary to sustain a fulfilled life, the perception so often prevails that a higher income is preferable to lower spending. Secondly, an inevitable effect of the increase in qualifications required for entry into the workplace is a commoditisation of education at the tertiary level, where it is so often seen as little more than a ticket to a good job. Therefore, education is seen purely in such utilitarian terms, and the actual process of learning is more one of ticking the appropriate boxes and following orders. Yet conversely, school children receive ever greater opportunities for self expression and cultivation through academic learning, sporting involvement and the arts. Such a dichotomy often increases the difficulties faced by educated young adults when, upon leaving an environment rich in freedoms and opportunities, they are faced with the mundane reality of the types of employment they so often deem necessary to sustain the level of comfort to which they are accustomed, or to which they aspire. Surely, the success of a society cannot be based purely in terms of economic development and consumption; the challenge remains of fostering a society where cultural and intellectual contributions are viewed as equally important to luxury and growth. If the “right sort” of employment appears to be ever harder to attain, the search for education and information has never been easier. The internet, and more broadly speaking, the computer in general, has altered the daily lives of so many of the world’s inhabitants in ways which we are still discovering. The reality for almost all young people living in the developed world is that the internet has become not just an aspect, but rather a way of life. While the countless benefits this invention has brought civilization are often taken for granted, the potential side effects remain far more controversial. Parental prejudice and fears about wasted hours spent gaming or chatting on the internet aside, growing evidence suggests that extensive use of such technologies has the power to rewire young

Twitter to Terrorism

brains in potentially devastating ways. While links have been made between short term memory loss and ease of access to the web, more disturbing evidence points to the stunting of certain aspects of brain development through excessive use of social media, especially when used as a replacement for face-to-face communication. Whatever the truth of such concerns, the reality remains that in becoming so reliant on these machines, we are experimenting with ourselves in ways we are yet to uncover. Significantly, at the frontline of such experiments are children and teenagers, the greatest users of such technologies. Again, one obvious side effect is alienation. On the one hand, social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter allow for communication and connections between individuals and groups from the all over the world. However, exposure to the internet and other forms of media contribute, not only to other ways of life, but to an impersonal world of simplistic generalisations, leading to a further sense of dislocation from one’s local environment, and its inhabitants. Thus, while one’s understanding of the world as a whole may be greatly expanded, this only detracts from the sense of authenticity and value of one’s everyday life, leading to feelings of detachment. If the combined effects of a lack of belonging, and social alienation are not enough to instil a sense of despair in today’s youth, we live in a time when pessimism, if unhelpful, would appear to be a natural response to the likely future of our society and planet. To summarise the full extent to which humanity has disrupted the natural systems on Earth, especially in such a limited space, would be to attempt the impossible. However, a variety of environmental disasters in the making, including climate change, freshwater supply, nitrogen levels, fish stocks and many others, are looming as our ever-present lust for resources continues to expand. Added to these is the threat of economic crisis, a crisis which would only be exacerbated by dwindling resources, which, alongside other problems such as overpopulation, peak oil and terrorism seem to paint a very bleak picture of the world Generation Z will have to face as it reaches adulthood. With such grim scenarios on the cards, one might be forgiven for wondering why the average young person does not respond with outrage and rebellion, or at the very least fear and anger, that such events should take place in their time. While it is true that, for a minority, this is exactly the way they feel about the future, for most it is just another facet of the volatile, ever-changing world in which they live, and one which may or may not affect their lives. Without any real set of values or opinions, and without a strong community to stand by and serve, such fears for the future become nothing more than questions of self-interest, to be viewed with minimal emotional concern. With little love for and connection to the immediate environment in which they live, so many lack the sense of purpose and duty, which no amount of wealth and education disconnected from the realities of every day life, can foster. The challenges, intellectual and other, which face the current generation

Samuel Hartley

of young adults, are by no means insurmountable. Where lack of guidance and tradition has been a source of confusion and searching, it could also be the catalyst for great social change, led by a generation no longer restrained by the shackles of convention. With such high levels of education, as well as great wealth and technology, younger generations are remarkably well equipped to face whatever the problems the next century has in store. So long as the intellectual capacities of today’s young people can be harnessed so as to positively and vigorously challenge the malaises of modern society, the current litany of problems afflicting western civilization may well be looked back on as an intellectual hurdle on the path towards greater development. On the other hand, if not taken seriously, they may prove to be the stumbling block beyond which society can no longer develop. All that is for our generation is to decide.

Challenges and Revolutions Charlotte Poulain

When my father decided to study engineering, he planned on becoming an engineer. O, implacable logic of the youth! He eventually became one. My mother decided to study Russian for some reason. She then became a stylist before stopping to raise my sister and me. She happened to have a feminist husband and offspring, and started her own successful business at fifty—she doesn’t speak Russian anymore though. Maybe it was easier, a simpler time. In France during the ’50s, people would go to university and study whatever they were interested in. The men would then get a hopefully well-paid job, and the women a husband they hopefully fell in love with. Workers would stay in the same firm for forty years, and no one would divorce: the life of the majority of the French population was seen as stable, simple, happy. And yet, for some reason, this idealistic world depicted in ads for home appliances started to be contested, and to fall apart. There were the sits-in, strikes and demonstrations of May ’68, the so-called “sexual revolution,” the rejection of 1950s family values. Suddenly students went to university to listen to rock’n’roll and smoke weed rather than to study—some of us still do. In the early ’70s, students wearing tight blue-jeans and flower shirts swore they would never reproduce their parents’ lifestyle: they would have sex with however they wanted to, and become poets and writers and singers. Then how come we don’t have a whole generation of 60-year-old hippy artists? How come the crisis-struck banks, the ever-annoying French administration and the decried government are all ruled by ageing bankers, administrators and ministers? Surely they cannot be the same hippies that played guitar on the gardens of La Sorbonne some 40 years ago? They had an education, and a good one. They had dreams and hopes for the

Challenges and Revolutions

future, and those dreams and hopes were in radical opposition to the system that reigned at the time. This generation is now the ruling class in French society: their ideas and decisions shaped the country as we know it. Believe it or not, it is not subtended by hippy ideas. What about equality, free will, peace and love? Nowadays rich Parisians are still trying to prevent their sons and daughters to marry out of their “social cast”; young people in the suburbs are severely discriminated against when looking for jobs; weed is illegal, yet the French are the biggest consumers of antidepressants worldwide; we don’t allow same-sex marriages, nor adoption for homosexual couples. From a young age, through idiotic TV shows and intrusive ads, we are supposed to get used to, and embrace consumerism without thinking about its global impact on the environment or on those who are left behind. We are taught to fear darker-skin immigrants who might take our jobs and our “national identity”— the same “identity” we are trying to promote worldwide through the French luxury industry. We are bottle-fed Disney Princess stories, but forget that France is still one of the most patriarchal societies in Europe, where women earn 30% less than men, and where female deputies cannot wear skirts in Parliament without being whistled at. These are a few of the facts that allow a glimpse of the main ruling ideas in France, of the mindset in which the younger generations are raised. We are the next generation. Do we agree with those ideas, or do we want to fight against them? We could probably find hundreds of good reasons for wanting to rebel and change the world we live in. Even more, we certainly have the intellectual resources to do so, as our generation has reached a level of education never seen before. But what do we want to do with this education? Do we have radical dreams and expectations for the future? My feeling is that we receive a somewhat contradictory education: we are told to think, but warned against being utopians. We are told to think, but are we reflecting on the real issues? Young people who dare to challenge the world as we see it today, who demonstrate and write pamphlets, who refuse to act accordingly with the social norms are called utopians, or seen as mildly dangerous anarchists. We think of a “successful person” as someone who goes along with our socio-economic system; more precisely, as someone who makes a lot of money. How come the hero of our times is the one who takes the principles and structures that lie around him for granted? How come the “outsider” is mocked and fitted into clichés—the enraged student, the communist utopian, the anti-capitalist weed-smoker? Can’t you be educated, intelligent and drug-free, and still refuse to be a part of the world as it is now?

Charlotte Poulain

I am not particularly involved in any kind of political movement, but even I can find a lot of things I do not agree with. I am not saying we need a revolution and that heads should be chopped off. But obviously, the world we live in needs some serious change and maybe we need to chop off some metaphorical heads. I am not happy with the French government’s answer to youth unemployment and I am not happy with the behaviour of French men towards women. I am not the only one, and these are certainly not the only problems that need reflecting upon. In France, and elsewhere, thousands of students are criticizing the way economic and social issues are addressed. These are demonstrators with an education, with a brain that is dressed up for a fight, for a cause they believe in. Earlier this year, there has been a widespread movement throughout Europe, of young people gathering and demonstrating to demand change. I was in Barcelona in June, and participated in the Indignados settlement on the Plaça de Catalunya, where students, the homeless and the unemployed joined together to call for change, for a real democracy where the government would listen to them rather than the IMF. We are told this is the only way, that this is how the world works, that there is no “alternative” way. We could not prevent the 2009 crisis and prevent billions people from losing their jobs because this is “how things work.” And yet, no one seems to remember that global capitalism has been introduced less than a century ago. Only two generations before us have lived in it, and we’re only the first ones living in what they call a “truly globalized world.” I don’t see how that makes it an ancestral, eternal institution that cannot suffer any change. For what it’s worth, I am perfectly conscious of my own contradictions as I write this slightly anti-capitalist essay on a MacBook. But I don’t think we are all aware of the fact that the Western world advocates for democracy and globalization as though they go hand-in-hand, when the core principle of globalization, that exploit the misery of some and the technological capacities of others, denies every form of equality, a core principle of democracy. We are told to believe in wealth, materialism, consumerism, we are told not to dream too high, we are told that change is impossible and that there is no way out. That it is abnormal not to think like everyone else, that it is dangerous to disagree with the system. And yet, this way of thinking is increasingly criticized throughout the world, by young people of our generation, who refuse to go along with a world that relies on principles they feel no connection to. For all these reasons, I think the main intellectual challenge our generation faces is challenging our own upbringing and the very society in which we’ve grown up within and lived in. Can we pretend to be educated, can we pretend to think if we are not questioning what we take as self-evident? What is the purpose of education, if it is not to have an enlightened youth that think and work to make the world a better place?

Challenges and Revolutions

Maybe things were easier, simpler at the time. But maybe simplicity is not what we are looking for. And maybe a challenge is exactly what our generation needs, so that we can build a world that suits us better.

Bushfire Minyerri – Year 7 & 8

Yellow fire-flame; dirt-black grass. Burnt bush, scorched leaves. Smokey, burning bush-bark ashes. Dry dust sky with heat smoke smell; Hungry hot dust and angry smoke drift across the hot earth. Red flame surrounds scared birds. Thirsty pigs and hurt, afraid kangaroos: Weak wallabies fear death. Tired, sweating — run away home. Rainwater creates a new creek. Safety.

The Freshness of Night Jackson Clarke

On a dusty road several miles from anything, two tiny mice darted under a house. It was an old house, and it yawned to welcome them. The paint had flaked off the siding. The stairs at the entrance were rotten. In fact, everything was rotten. And the doors squeaked and didn’t quite close. In the house lived an even older man. He was rotten, too. His skin sagged because it longed to tell stories to the anxious earth. And his eyes, they were every colour at once and they held eternity. They kissed his eyelids when he blinked and they said “Don’t be scared,” because there is no comfort close to eternity— only inside. The man had gathered all his possessions into the kitchen in the back of the house. His bed took up a modest space blocking the door that led to the yard. Brown stains sullied its sheets. The table and counter served as a base for a pile to store anything that did not belong on the floor: old magazines and opened letters; empty fly spray and a cracked coffee pot; two radios, neither of which worked. Any vacant spot overflowed with food scraps. There was one spot left clear though, on the counter, where the man prepared his meals. A river of ants sprouted from a honey jar left in that spot. The man had never got around to closing it. He never got around to anything much. Even when his dog disappeared he never got around to finding it. It was that early part of the morning when the man awoke, that time when the freshness of night still lingers in the air and the dew settles on the grass. The rattle of the two scampering mice sounded under dusty floorboards. He skirted around the table and stepped over a pile of books on the floor. Seeing the honey jar, he sighed. He screwed the lid on weakly. Defeated, the river flowed back from whence it came: under a toaster and around the empty mugs, and through a crack under the window pane. The man stared at the crack, and at that moment a twang reverberated in his mind. The twang whispered “Follow the river” and it filled his heart with agony because it gave him no choice. It was powerful and it was overwhelming. He

Jackson Clarke

turned and tripped over the books and dodged the table. He mounted his bed and pushed open the back door. Nature had conquered the yard. Turned-over chairs were choked by weeds and swallowed by grass. The man gingerly stepped into the yard and stared wide-eyed at the path that led around the side of the house. The river flowed down the siding and at the path joined with hundreds of others. Some were streams and some were torrents and they all led into the great sea of grass at the same spot. He parted the grass there and tremulously ventured in. The river only became stronger, a horrible black deluge with direction and purpose. And there in the corner of the yard, in the place where the garden shed and the wooden fence met, lay a mound. The flood gushed over the mound and behind it disappeared. The man inched towards it. Behind the mound was a hole. It was about the size of a barrel and contained as many secrets. He crouched and looked inside. There he saw nothing, not even darkness. A tiny mouse darted from the grass and dove into the hole. He reached his arm in after it but the walls fell away and he felt nothing. He pulled his arm out in fright and slumped backwards onto the shed. And the nothing inside the hole pervaded his being. It travelled up his arm and across his chest and caught in his throat. He choked on all his regrets and a single tear rolled from his cheeks and fell to the grass. And there another mouse crept from the grass and jumped on the man’s lap. The mouse turned several times on the spot and buried its face in the man’s shirt and fell asleep. Slumped against the shed, the man saw hundreds of things plunge down the hole: frogs, birds, insects, even a cat. He saw leaves spiral in from impossible heights and he saw no abatement in the flood. And the mouse stayed there with the man. It stayed there until the freshness of night returned and it stayed there until the man fell asleep himself. It was that same early part of the morning when the man awoke once more. He was startled as the mouse climbed over his chest. It looked at him for a few seconds, as if waiting to be acknowledged, and then turned and leapt down the hole. The man picked himself up and crawled to the hole with trepidation. He gazed inside. The mouse fell away and grew larger and larger until it was no longer there. The man stood and wrung his hands and stared up at the morning sky. He jumped in. He saw the world shrink until it was a single blue eye before him. He saw it shrink until it was a single blue dot. And then it was gone. And the man was gone but he was everywhere. He was the ants and the mice and the birds, he was the leaves and the cat, he was his dog and they were him. He felt the comfort of eternity.

The Freshness of Night

And a wave of compassion sprung from the hole. It travelled around the world once and then almost twice. People in their homes paused, children winced and babies cried. Ducks quacked and whales sounded their harmonies. They all felt it and they were all a little afraid, because they knew what it meant and they did not want to think about it. After a second it was gone. And the fear was gone. But nobody ever talked about that second.

My Dose Of Hemlock Andrej Peisker

When someone is asked whether or not they are a “philosopher,” and after an almost imperceptible pause they amicably shake their head, politely grin and reply “no” after glancing briefly at their coffee, they are in fact most likely saying the complete opposite. Despite the calculated stratagem of the unperturbed tone of voice, and the well-practised subterfuge of the indifferent body language, what they have inevitably meant is “of course, but I don’t like labels.” So it turns out after a brief sociological survey of my own that we are all in fact philosophers and moreover very accomplished ones. To illustrate, let us examine just one of the myriad intellectual triumphs of the self-proclaimed “non-philosophical” to which I have borne witness. Just the other day I chanced to observe an unnamed individual place a coin into the slot of a vending machine, just like that, astonishing. Now allow me a moment to disclaim, it is understandable that the reader may suspect some crude form of sardonic irony is at play on the part of the writer; however they should rest assured that he maintains with full authenticity that the scene recounted is one of tremendous note. Imagine yourself in the position of our hero; as you put the coin into the slot, you are skilfully applying a deft combination of two ideas: transcendental idealism and rationalist epistemic metaphysics. In other words, you make the unfounded yet confident metaphysical assertion that the laws of causality will remain as they presently are, so that the can will not vanish or transform into, for argument’s sake, a herring (to name but a few of an infinitude of possibilities) on its way down. What admirable confidence! In your unconditional mastery of the intellectual challenge you even deny that it is worthy of praise. Of course, you don’t need me to make you aware of your philosophical mastery of everyday life; you know exactly what you do and do it with utmost humility. However there exists an institution called Philosophy which systematically manufactures people who are unable to operate vending machines, cross the street or get out of bed because there’s just so much thinking to be done beforehand, so much pacing and ruminating and gesticulating. It may come as some surprise to the majority of you “vending machine philosophers” (VMPs for short) such as our friend, that they (the VMPs) are the envy of a certain brand of

Andrej Peisker

institutionalised philosopher who seem incapable of such common tasks for fear of some cosmic inconsistency. These institutionalised philosophers (IPs), these intellectual Calibans, are characterised by their overwhelming desire to frighten their interlocutor into submission through obscurantism, mystification and jargonry. Reality is flipped on its head, as the everyday VMP is led to believe that they are in fact the intellectual inferiors. In defence of this position, the IP will claim that the only possible critique or resolution to philosophy is inevitably itself philosophy. The writer humbly disagrees and instead suggests that the answer to philosophy is not more philosophy. Philosophy, like all the branches of the academic tree, presumably once existed with the right intentions, i.e. playing its humble role in liberating the world from its ills. However, over the last 2000 years it has emerged as a discourse which relies heavily on creating problems, whose contributors are actually celebrated for elevating such problems to new, absurd heights of obfuscation and insolubility. This admittedly amusing creative exercise would explain its more frequent association with the arts rather than the analytical sciences from which it originates. Yes, there was a time when philosophy was a practical tool, used to seek occasional recourse when a particular species of problem arose. A problem conventionally thought to require “philosophical” treatment would be, for instance, one where an irrational existential fear needed to be quelled. However, it is occasionally forgotten that we have experts in these fields already, for instance logicians, psychiatrists and mathematicians. These experts do not necessarily exhaust philosophical inquiry, rather they negate the tendency to lazily and to unimaginatively label as “philosophical” the mysterious pseudotangible artificial purple haze made to seem particularly elusive or “difficult.” This is by no means to trivialise the profoundly challenging nature of many real problems, but rather to highlight the frequent abuses of intellectual protocol which serve to produce unhelpful stigma in almost all fields of inquiry. To illustrate, the unfortunate VMP will most likely at some point have been subjected to a situation such as the one below. At the twilight of a conversation featuring said VMP and IP, the latter begins to for whatever reason feel insecure and so waits for an opening. He is asked a simple question, gives a slightly more-cryptic-than-necessary response, and following a condescending squint, jettisons the catch phrase “it’s philosophical.” Now, to translate: in general, if something “is philosophical,” in most cases it means it “is confusing, most likely irrelevant to the conversation or to humanity, probably overflowing with semantic ambiguity and furthermore there is an entire legion of human beings working diligently night and day to make it even more confusing.” If it doesn’t get “philosophical,” then alternatively perhaps you’ve heard that it gets “ontological” or “metaphysical,” whatever self-defensive jargon is pulled out at random from the Philosopher’s oversized artillery. To assist the VMP, for whom it most likely “gets” nothing but annoying, a brief lexicon has been constructed below. This is for the benefit of those with more productive things on

Study of the fundamental nature of the universe

The premise that meaning and purpose are subjective

Metaphysics

Existentialism

A formal system for reasoning

The study of knowledge and its acquisition

The ontological assertion that the world and our experience of it are simply byproducts of the mind and do not “exist” in any “real” sense

Epistemology

Solipsism

Philosophy of mind and sensation

Formal Logic

Neurophilosophy

A study of morality

The study of the nature of existence or reality

Ontology

Ethics

What It Nominally Should Be

Concept

The Matrix trilogy

Revenge of the arts student

A useless system for reasoning

A great way to get extradisciplinary publications

The rich and privileged find imaginative ways to make themselves feel less hypocritical

Bipolar disorder sufferers decide they want a better label

A useful plan B for people that aren’t naturally persuasive

A poor plot premise for unimaginative screenwriters

What It Has Actually Become

Can I prove that other people have experience?

Does science actually make sense?

Is our reasoning valid?

Do “qualia” exist?

Should I take the last Tim Tam?

Is there any real meaning in the world?

Does God exist?

Is there an objective reality?

Example “Problem”

“No, you are a figment of my imagination”

“So it seems, but we must always wear an authoritative frown when science is mentioned”

“So far, but we must never stop trying to disprove this”

“Yes and no, I mean no but yes, well... consider this irrelevant thought experiment”

“To answer we’ll start by constructing a metaphysical framework...”

“No, and what a convenient excuse for misanthropy”

“I don’t know but I’ll pretend I’m an authority”

“No, there is only pain and suffering”

Example of Philosopher’s Solution [/response]

“Yes” (then poke philosopher sharply with pen)

“Yes, things work”

“Mostly, except when philosophers are around”

“Really?”

“While the ethicist was constructing a framework I took the last Tim Tam”

Indifferent stare followed by crass segue to Gossip Girl

Any loosely relevant Monty Python reference

Exaggerated look of mock horror

Example of Sensible Solution [/response]

My Dose Of Hemlock

Andrej Peisker

their agenda than memorising an exorbitant list of the catchy names of history’s most famous tail chases, so they may be armed against the ravenous IP during an assault and see that the swords are in fact feathers. I would venture to guess that the reader falls into the category of the VMP, since there are more of them to begin with and by this stage any of the Philosophers would have surely stormed off to their respective lairs in disdain to resume arranging their bookmarks in descending order of aspect ratio. If you, the reader, happen to classify yourself as a VMP, i.e. you relate to the column on the right, then I humbly congratulate you—you have managed to achieve what centuries of many of the most revered and glorified philosophers could not—a dose of common sense and perspective. You have evidently mastered and perfectly understood the fundamental postulate of metaphysics—“Nothing Matters Very Much So Whogivesadamn,” and with this carved indelibly in your minds you skip from one vending machine to the next with minimal concern. Now, having said the above, the writer feels he ought to make public that he thinks very positively of philosophy as a practise, but merely wishes to emphasize the difference between philosophy and Philosophy. You’d do well to compare this to “liberal” and “Liberal.” The writer also accepts that he has potentially put himself in a rather awkward position: has he not undermined himself with all this drivel? Does this tiresome third-person self-reference not betray precisely the deep-seated insecurity or fear of judgement of our previous IP case study? Might he be giving you that condescending squint right now? These are all questions that the reader, if this article has succeeded in its intention, ought be asking. Presently the writer can do little but seek the mercy of the magnanimous reader to have faith in his good intentions. He acknowledges he has said absolutely nothing anyone didn’t know; good philosophy is common sense and philosophy has become an institution whose authority is frequently abused. However, these simple truths seem to be occasionally ignored to the irritation of the writer, amongst whose primary motivations for this piece were facts like the following. One of the fastest growing mental conditions in America is “solipsism syndrome” (see lexicon above) and the writer genuinely wonders how many “affected” would actually be suffering were it not for the powerful psychological effect of having the disorder justified through its institutionalisation into philosophical jargon. It is through engaging with people who have wholeheartedly felt that philosophy exists solely to vindicate or validate their debilitating neuroses that the writer felt a reality check was needed. Here’s to common sense!

Excerpt: Memories from a Conformed Poet Angus Cameron

I Now as my time is passing I dare to pose the question; Who is it that will remember me? Which, in turn leads to why. Why will they remember me? What will I do? When? I have a million questions, I know a million answers, I’ll get a million cancers, And make a million more suggestions But as I go to say them I falter and I stay them And so away I store them Until our souls just bore them. The world in which we wander, wonders when will it be through? Through the ages and the pages of a history that we blew. From beginning to the end again, and then a little more, I fear with tender silence, of the history in store. The time is now the present, though it’s difficult to tell, With tenses tensing all the time it’s difficult to spell. But who am I to say, my dear, of who is right and wrong? I merely make the point and ask where do I belong?

Angus Cameron

II Eternity moves faster than infinity can see; No matter how great you are, you are lost in history. All is always forgotten; the world, it never stops, All that we have gotten for ourselves and one another, Is ephemeral, Is gone, Lost. Even the stars fade away; from memory and sight, From understanding, knowledge and innocent delight. No longer a mere twinkle in the winkle of an eye, A vapid dream, no more; Like trying to hold fine sand In the desperate clutches of your hand… All stars will fade. With the masses fickle memories and fleeting loves and hates; The bottom dollar all consuming, setting rates and dates. Time speeding up by the hour, not a second can be spared. Heroes come and go like candles, They flicker Then they’re out. No pause to remember, respect or repent; No relent on intent to circumvent our regret. No time like the present to forget and move on, No understanding, compassion, No right and no wrong. Past the last ear to hear and eye to see, Past the living of this and life of thee. After history is no more and culture has reached its end; No more need now to pretend, No one left here to offend, The final farce left unlamented, no more need now to say sorry, No need to fret and worry now it’s all over, the verve has died.

Excerpt: Memories from a Conformed Poet

Long after the reason for reason has crumbled away And the fabric of life has begun to decay, Long after all that’s taught is taught and all is understood, And humanity has come, to all it ever could. In a moribund existence with no reason and no rhyme, Perpetual survival, lost in space and time, No one there to share it with, No one to care and help to bare it with. If there is no one there to see you, Want to be and love and free you, If there is no one who admires, Never tires nor bemires, Then, Who wants to live forever?

In A (Short) Parallel Plotline Joy Liu

I Although excellently suited for certain activities, her abode in the middle of a dark, twisted forest was not ideal for staying abreast of current trends and consequently, the Witch missed the memo regarding the exponential rise in diabetes and food allergies. Hansel, who suffered from coeliac disease, and Gretel, afflicted by diabetes, were hardly impressed when she failed to produce any gluten or glucose-free treats and promptly moved onward. II In a moment of carelessness they would come to dearly regret, the removalists dropped the mirror. The Queen raged at the sight of her beloved treasure smashed across the marble floor and promptly had all responsible beheaded. Sans looking glass, sans niggling voice of doubt, Her Highness’ delicate selfesteem and body image flourished. She even deigned to give beauty tips to that unfortunate-looking but pleasant enough step-daughter of hers. III Little Red Riding Hood, dressed head to toe in a resplendent crimson hue, couldn’t help but admire how verdant the forest was; as far as the eye could see, a lush backdrop of green. Silently pondering the beauty of nature, she arrived at her Grandmother’s without encountering a single soul. Two days later, on a long-overdue visit to the optometrist, the Wolf who oft lurked about that same forest was diagnosed with red-green colour blindness. IV Career-driven and ambitious were not the characteristics Rumpelstiltskin had observed in the miller’s daughter when they struck a deal, but really, he should’ve factored the fear and desperation as a product of a seemingly unavoidable execution. The miller’s daughter—now the Queen—went on to earn a law degree, an MBA, two PhDs and sit on four different boards, but motherhood was a qualification she did not choose to pursue.

Dissolving the Mind-Body Problem

Explaining away the “explanatory gap” between mental and physical phenomena Rachel Macleod

Australian materialists John Smart and David Armstrong are renowned for developing the view that mental states and processes are identical to brain states and processes. More simply, Smart and Armstrong wholly deny we have a nonphysical mind or psyche. While this materialist view has become the mainstream position in the philosophy of mind, it still faces a particularly thorny problem. Intuitively, it seems there just has to be more to our minds than neurons and synapses. Our complex mental lives appear fundamentally different from and irreducible to physical phenomena. This problem is commonly known as the mind-body problem. More specifically, philosophers have used the term “explanatory gap” to refer to the mysterious chasm between the phenomenal properties of subjective experiences and the objective descriptions of the physical processes that constitute these experiences.1 The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate that materialism can successfully account for the explanatory gap. I will deploy the phenomenal concept strategy in order to explain away the explanatory gap, thereby dissolving the mind-body problem and reinforcing materialism’s status as the predominant view in the philosophy of mind. Before we continue any further, let us take a closer look at materialism. Materialists are committed to the view that there is nothing more to the world than matter. Everything is material; there are no non-physical entities or realms. Smart and Armstrong are particularly concerned about the implication of materialism for the human mind. They hold it is highly implausible that everything in the world except for mental phenomena can be explained by physics; it would be simply absurd for the human mind to be subject to an entirely different set of laws than every other worldly entity.2 Smart and Armstrong therefore hold mental processes are just brain processes; each mental phenomenon is identical to a physical phenomenon.

Rachel Macleod

At this point, it is crucial to recognise the difference between meaning and reference. Two or more concepts can have different meanings but refer to the same object. For example, we may have a practical concept of water as a clear fluid we drink to hydrate ourselves and a scientific concept of water as two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. These two concepts do not share the same meaning but refer to the same entity in the world. The materialist view of the human mind hinges on this crucial distinction. Materialism does not claim mental states and brain states are identical concepts that mean the same thing; it does not attempt to translate sentences about “pain” or “happiness” into sentences about physical processes. When I say, “I am happy,” it does not mean the same thing as “I have a lot of serotonin circulating in my brain.” Instead, materialism is a theory about the things in the world our words refer to. These two sentences mean different things but they have the same referent: they both refer to a physical process occurring in the brain. As we have already considered, the most serious problem for materialism is the mysterious explanatory gap that exists between mental and physical processes.3 There seems to be a chasm between physical facts and felt consciousness. To demonstrate the explanatory gap let us consider the following simplistic materialist identity: The visual experience of blue = Brain state B For many philosophers, it seems the right side of this identity does not fully account for the left side; phenomenal experiences appear to have qualities that brain states do not. Even if our mental processes are just brain processes, they appear to possess irreducibly psychic properties. It is this intuition that has led many philosophers to reject materialism and pursue substance dualism instead. 4Both Smart and Armstrong were aware of the problem posed by the explanatory gap, although they did not specifically refer to it using this term. Writing in Sensations and Brain Processes Smart states: It may be possible to get out of asserting the existence of irreducibly psychic processes, but not out of asserting the existence of irreducibly psychic properties.5 Writing later in A Materialist Theory of the Mind Armstrong states: [Materialism] holds that what we are aware of are mere physical states in our brains. But we are certainly not aware of the mental states as states of the brain. What then are we aware of mental states as? Are we not aware of them as states of a quite peculiar, mental sort?6 If materialism is to retain its predominant position in the philosophy of mind, it is imperative that it account for the irreducibly psychic properties of experience.

Dissolving the Mind-Body Problem

The explanatory gap appears to be a particularly tricky problem for materialism. However, this problem can be swiftly resolved by the phenomenal concept strategy. Before we consider this strategy, we must first discuss the nature of concepts and more specifically, phenomenal concepts. Concepts are mental representations of worldly entities that we exercise every time we undergo cognitive mental states. A phenomenal concept is the concept of a specific type of perceptual or sensory experience.7 For example, the phenomenal concept Blue Sensation is the concept of the specific type of sensation one gets from looking at blue things such as the sky or the sea.8 Importantly, phenomenal concepts are different from all other types of concepts because they are perspectival; they are tied to a particular experience-specific perspective.9 We can only possess the phenomenal concept of an experience if we have actually had that particular experience.10 To possess the phenomenal concept Blue Sensation we need to have had the experience of looking at something blue. This means phenomenal concepts are isolated from physical and descriptive concepts.11 No amount of information about the colour blue or how the human eye perceives the colour blue can allow an individual to possess the phenomenal concept Blue Sensation. Furthermore, phenomenal concepts are conceptually irreducible; they cannot be reduced to physical or descriptive concepts.12 If an individual possesses the phenomenal concept Blue Sensation, it will appear to be entirely distinct from the descriptive or physical concepts through which it can also be represented. The phenomenal concept strategy involves applying the distinction between phenomenal and non-phenomenal concepts to mind-brain identities to demonstrate there is an epistemic rather than an ontological gap between mental and physical phenomena.13 To demonstrate the phenomenal concept strategy, let us return to the materialist identity we considered earlier: The visual experience of blue = Brain state B The phenomenal concept strategy demonstrates the two components of this identity are known through two distinct concepts. When we think of the left side of this identity we employ a phenomenal concept whereas when we think of the right side we employ a physical concept. More specifically, when we think of the visual experience of blue, the phenomenal concept we deploy triggers in us a visual image of blue and we actually go into brain state B. However, when we think of brain state B, we deploy a physical concept that does not trigger a visual image of blue. This means there is an epistemic gap between mental and physical phenomena; we know about mental states and brain states in very different ways. This epistemic gap, reinforced by the irreducibility of phenomenal concepts, leads us to falsely believe mental and physical phenomena are different things. However, our phenomenal and physical concepts share the same worldly referent: physical brain processes. While there is an epistemic gap between mental and physical phenomena, there is no ontological gap; possessing physical or phenomenal concepts is just a brain process. Thus, the materialist ontology holds: mental processes just are brain processes.

Rachel Macleod

When we apply an understanding of phenomenal concepts to materialist identities it is clear there is an explanatory gap between mental and physical properties. However, this explanatory gap does not threaten materialism, as it is epistemological. The explanatory gap arises from the fact that we can know any given physical brain state in two ways; we may understand it using a phenomenal concept as the experiencing subject or using a physical concept as the objective inquirer. These phenomenal and physical concepts do have different meanings. When I say, “I am happy” it does not mean and cannot be reduced to the physical concept of high serotonin levels, as phenomenal concepts are always conceptually isolated and irreducible. Yet, such phenomenal and physical concepts do share the same worldly referent: a physical brain process. Thus, we can explain away the explanatory gap as epistemological rather ontological, thereby dissolving the mind-body problem and reinforcing materialism’s predominant status in the philosophy of mind.

Richard Double, Phenomenal Properties, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 65 (1985), p. 383.

John Smart, Sensations and Brain Processes, The Philosophical Review, 68 (1959), p. 142.

Richard Double, Phenomenal Properties, p. 383-384.

Ibid., p. 385.

John Smart, Sensations and Brain Processes, p. 142.

Armstrong, A Materialist Theory of the Mind, London: Routledge, 1968, p. 78.

Daniel Stoljar,Physicalism and Phenomenal Knowledge, Mind and Language 20 (2005), p.469.

Ibid. p. 470

Michael Tye, Phenomenal Consciousness: The Explanatory Gap as a Cognitive Illusion, Mind 108 (1999),

10.

Peter Carruthers and Benedicte Veillet, The Phenomenal Concept Strategy, Journal of Consciousness

11.

Ibid., p. 184.

p.709. Studies 12 (2007), p. 213.

12.

Michael Tye, Phenomenal Consciousness: The Explanatory Gap as a Cognitive Illusion, p. 713.

13.

Peter Carruthers and Benedicte Veillet, The Phenomenal Concept Strategy, p. 213.

The Bul’: A Lament Luke Patterson

Ach! Daffodils planted just before the spring– their chore and obedience seems light against the hard gnarled stumps of fallen limbs. See my carrion eye– this frigid stare sharper than the prick of thorns that rim the shoddy tattered drapes that frame my doleful leer; sharper than the tip of this brassy nib’s crazed etching of my burlesque wound? Prized sod– Ol’ Bul–below my gaze, frail and yellow, toughen, turn to dust: your little thirsty sea I have no tears for you… Yes, I waited– for your reply to resound out across the 26 gig shallow springs– Then I sighed like a lover had said another’s name. Oh Joy you have left me! That night with none to blame– but you– I lit a blue match on the border of nighthood, the college oak obscene– dipped her shoots like new rings on haggard twigs and snuffed it.

A Sexy Way to Hate

Gonzo Pornography in the 21st Century Imogen Dewey

“At the end of the day, I’m selling naked girls. People want to buy naked girls.” – Joe Francis (creator & owner of $40 million franchise Girls Gone Wild) The effects of pornography on individuals and society are increasingly fiercely debated as it rapidly becomes normalised within the culture and economy of the 21st Century West. Pornography is most often defended, both by its producers and consumers and from some feminist perspectives1 on the grounds of sexual liberation and free speech. For anti-porn feminists,2 however, these grounds do not encompass the increasing extremity and violence eroticised in today’s “adult entertainment”; instead they find that pornography “debases and dehumanises men and women.”3 Pornography’s pervasive presence in popular culture, where it has equated itself with sex, ensures that the violence 4 it contains and promotes remains disguised and thus all the more potent. This essay contends that pornography is physically5 and ideologically harmful, promoting a uniformly aggressive sexism that reduces both women and men to their lowest common denominators within dangerous and degrading stereotypes. Since the scope and variation of pornography make it difficult to evaluate as a homogenous entity, this essay focuses mainly on the genre currently dominating the industry:6 gonzo video pornography,7 whose expanding popularity8 exemplifies the pornography industry’s constant pushing of boundaries in competition for a “new edge.” In this essay, the commercial context of the industry will be examined and key arguments in defence of pornography assessed, before moving to elaborate the 1.

Carol 1994; Lumby 1997; Strossen 1995

Dines 2010; Jeffreys 2008; Walter 2010

Dines 2010, 23

Both physical and ideological

For example, within the industry

Adult Video News 2005

Hereafter gonzo

Characterised by lack of plot and extreme and body-punishing sexual acts

Imogen Dewey

negative repercussions of the production and dissemination of pornography at individual and societal levels for both women and men. The aggressive gender politics that pornography imposes is often obscured by the industry’s social and commercial ubiquity. Dines observes that “soft-core” pornography has been so widely assimilated into pop culture that it essentially no longer exists. The seamless integration of pornography into capitalist society has made it both invisible and invulnerable.9 Playboy10 today seems tame, but calculated “diversification” sees it continue to earn “in excess of $800 million”11 even as Internet piracy of copyrighted material threatens to cripple others in the industry.12 Despite this threat, pornography continually facilitates its own expansion through its symbiotic relationship with high-end technology. Massive profits in cable TV13 and “phone porn”14 have economically legitimised pornography, allying it with major corporations.15 In an industry that has shrewdly fostered an insatiable and unfulfillable desire for the “real” and “authentic” within its highly choreographed and artificial depictions of sex, external regulation16 is heavily resisted in areas like health and safety; “movies where condoms are used just don’t sell.”17 Politicians are reluctant to get involved,18 and thus the industry remains exceptionalised. Despite the fact that “our entertainment industries … are our culture,”19 there is little critical debate about any form of pornography, and its harms go unnoticed by many. As a genre, gonzo is unapologetically brutal—nearly 90% of scenes contain at least one aggressive act (verbal or physical) against female performers20 portrayed as “whores” who always “want it,” “love it” no matter how painful, humiliating or cruel “it” may be.21 Male actors in porn are equally degraded, depicted as “amoral

And in a society where the Playboy logo is almost (but never completely) detached from its origins, porn stars write books and run reality TV programs, and teenage magazines provide advice for sex tips and pubic grooming, it can seem unrealistic if not naïve to attempt to identify and single out a specific area of this ubiquitous and amorphous industry. 10.

Dines cites the beginnings of the pornography industry in the first Playboy of 1953 wherein the “sexualising of consumption” (Dines 2010, 10) flawlessly laid the ground for the commodification of sexuality. 11.

Dines 2010, 22

12.

Kaufman 2009

13.

Conservatively estimated at $282 million from adult video-on-demand and $199 million from adult pay-per-view in 2005. 14.

Generating $775 million in Europe in 2007.

15.

Dines 2010, 52. As Dines discusses in her book, these include not only cable networks, but major hotel chains and investment companies. 16.

Usually demanded of other similar scale enterprises

17.

Larry Flynt (Butler 2011)

18.

Butler 2011

19.

Dines 2010, 47

20.

Dines 2010 xxii

21.

Gonzo has made extreme acts such as “double anal,” “bukkake” and “ass-to-mouth” commonplace within the adult video industry. Outside of this, Jenna Jameson, arguably the pin-up girl for the “porn dream,” describes “total degradation” for women in even the tamest aspects of the industry (Jameson, Untitled n.d)

Imogen Dewey

life-support systems for erect penises.”22 And yet one of the commonest defences is of pornography as a liberated means of exploring sexuality—“modern sexual progressivism.”23 Australian academic Lesley Cannold rejects the idea of pornography as harmful,24 insisting “if you don’t like it you don’t have to watch it.”25 Hustler mogul Larry Flynt describes his work as “helping young men through puberty” with an attitude of “relax, its just sex.”26 But both of these perspectives seem utterly at odds with a genre dominating the internet, typified by producers who “like to see women pushed to the edge,”27 who “Really show what (they) believe men want to see: violence against women…to get even with the women they can’t have.” – Bill Margold (veteran porn actor & producer)28 This confirms Dines’ theory that many people, particularly women, have a concept of pornography “twenty years out of date.”29 Many dismiss the anti-porn position as anti-sex,30 but pornography is an industry shaped more by “the contours of marketing (and) technology”31 than concerns of sexual emancipation. Gonzo cannot be dismissed as “harmless fantasy.”32 Its titillating extremes are “played out on real women’s bodies”33 and fantasy, cruelty and debasement are made real at the very least in its production. Perhaps the clearest argument for pornography is that based on free speech. Against this, however, influential feminist academic Catharine MacKinnon holds that pornography is an inherently political act, wherein “the free so-called speech of men silences the free speech of women.”34 Commentator Susan Easton raises the possibility that the right to create material essentially for leisure purposes in which “degradation and domination are eroticised”35 may not merit the same protection as political expression or religious belief. Thus, in view of 22.

Dines 2010, xxiv

23.

Carol 1994, 199. Commentator Brian McNair goes as far as to suggest the pornography is a sort of index of women’s rights, stating “women throughout the world…are subject to oppression in direct proportion to the severity of sexual censorship prevailing in their society” (McNair 2002, 56)—but there appears to be no compelling evidence to suggest any type of causal link. 24.

A self- described feminist who claims that most “regular” porn is “really quite sweet and quite hilarious,” that porn cannot be seen as degrading to women because so many women consume it (Q & A 2011). 25.

Q & A 2011

26.

Flynt (Butler 2011)

27.

Dines 2010, 70

28.

Dines 2010, xxvi

29.

Dines 2010, xviii

30.

Particularly when commentators like Cannold assume that an objection to gonzo falls into “old tired traps…[where] women are the victims, men are the predators” (Q & A 2011)—and originally, feminists like Ellen Willis accused the anti-pornography movement of moral authoritarianism and sexual puritanism. 31.

Dines 2010, 49

32.

Bader 2007; Lumby 1997; Carol 1994

33.

Dines 2010, xvi

34.

Mackinnon 1989, 205

35.

Easton 1994, 34

A Sexy Way to Hate

the destructive effects of gonzo at both individual and societal level, arguments based on sexual freedom, free speech, or the idealistic “fantasy” principle seem to have little weight. The most visible harm in gonzo is to the (mainly female) performers in its production. Although anti-censorship feminist Nadine Strossen claimed in 1995 “no sexual imagery can be given one universal meaning,”36 and that the antiporn movement “overlooks the boundary between fantasy…and behaviour,”37 the lack of similar claims today reveals a reluctance to defend, or even critically examine, an industry that remains largely unchecked. Gonzo is explicitly nonsimulated, leaving little room for ambiguity. Websites like Anal Suffering and GagFactor epitomise an industry desperate for new extremities to attract desensitised consumers, presenting women’s bodies “already at the brink of their physical limits.”38 Dines notes few gonzo performers are strong enough actors to conceal physical pain,39 despite commonplace use of anaesthetic and dissociative drugs. 40 For many viewers this appears to add to the appeal—the pain is “real.” Films like Anal Hell 5 appear to be sold entirely on the premise of “the agony and torment of shear [sic] blistering anal penetration.”41 Most girls “get their first experience in gonzo”42 but the “shelf life” of female performers in an industry that forces them to irreparably stretch and damage their bodies, simultaneously insisting on “fresh” “tight” “virgins” is logically very limited. Performers face significant medical risks: recurring STDs, genital tearing, and increasingly, anal prolapse. 43 An ex-“actress” denounces the industry for “playing Russian Roulette with our lives,” and a recent BBC report of the Californian industry highlights a “brutal, coercive world” closely linked with prostitution and racketeering. 44 The mainstream media glosses over these aspects, and its glamorised view of pornography45 persuades economically vulnerable women that this indisputably harmful sexual exploitation is a route not just to prosperity, but also to celebrity. The consistent message of pornography, especially gonzo, is that desirable women are available and interchangeable. Sexual acts, particularly anal sex and “money shots,”46 seem without exception to “mark the feminine as all-powerless and the masculine as all-powerful.”47 It presents a “sexuality of humiliation and 36.

Strossen 1995, 155

37.

Strossen 1995, 146

38.

Dines 2010, xvi

39.

Dines 2010, xxviii

40.

Butler 2011

41.

Adult Video News 2010

42.

Jameson 2004, 132

43.

Dines 2010

44.

Butler 2011

45.

Often through “stars” like Sasha Grey, now modelling for American Apparel.

46.

Which vary, but always involve the woman being covered in semen. This too has become more violent and excessive in gonzo, filling eyes, covering faces and prompting gagging and sometimes vomiting (Dines 2010, xix). 47.

Dines 2010, xxvii

Imogen Dewey

use,” inverting values so that “what is defined as degrading to a human being… is exactly what is [presented as] sexually arousing.”48 MacKinnon observes that pornography would not function without gender hierarchy, as power imbalance is precisely the source of titillation. According to radical feminist Andrea Dworkin, pornography is “synonymous with sex for the men who [make] it and [use] it.”49 This, too, cannot be dismissed as fantasy. Images play a “major role in the systematic dehumanisation of [any] oppressed group,”50 and in a media-saturated society, pornographic images are unspeakably potent in defining a female identity that “exists for the end of male pleasure.”51 This attitude is powerfully ingrained from adolescence through association with intense sexual gratification. Few people would suggest that the physical and ideological violence of gonzo is naturally appealing, however several techniques are used to erode consumer empathy: women in the gonzo archetype “seek out” brutal sexual encounters in a way “good” girls would never do,52 are verbally segregated with labels defining female sexuality as depraved and “dirty,” and cumulatively dehumanised to the extent that violence is portrayed as being desired.53 Gonzo uses class, age and race disparities to compound its focus on disempowerment and eroticised submission. Though a thorough content analysis is beyond the scope of this paper, these images do not occur within a social vacuum, and “gonzo’s” potential to normalise pathologised racial stereotypes54 and sexual fetishisation of children needs to be scrutinised. The effects of this depiction of women are not, as some suggest,55 limited to pornographic fantasy—women of all ages struggle to define themselves against a media-sanctioned identity that “emphasises sex and de-emphasises every other human attribute.”56 The celebrity cachet57 of the new female ideal encourages young women to engage in “the very behaviours that get them labelled a slut”58: to be “hot,” or risk invisibility.59 In our culture pornography, particularly gonzo, has articulated only “one way of being female,”60 based overwhelmingly on submission and sexual availability. 48.

MacKinnon 1989, 211

49.

Dworkin 1981, xxxvii

50.

Dines 2010, 87

51.

MacKinnon 1989, 209

52.

Perhaps a technique of producers to alleviate consumer guilt—Dines notes the presence among online communities of the myth of pornography as “a calling” (Dines 2010, 66). 53.

Both by the female character and the male protagonist—and consequently by the viewer.

54.

See Dines 2010: particularly Asian (as horny/submissive) or black (savage/domineering) women with troublingly colonialist overtones—sex trafficking is often implied to add a further dimension of helplessness (Dines 2010, 125). 55.

Lumby 1997; Rubin 1993; Strossen 1995

56.

Dines 2010, 118

57.

The cruel irony noted here by Dines (Dines 2010, 103) is that the wealth of “celebrity sluts” like Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian acts as a “kind of upmarket cleansing cream” utterly unavailable to most women, who often find their social identities destroyed by the double-standard of the pornographic ideal. 58.

Dines 2010, 116

59.

Dines 2010; Jeffreys 2008; Levy 2005; Walter 2010

60.

Dines 2010, 112

A Sexy Way to Hate

Gonzo is fundamentally underwritten as a challenge to masculinity, to push further, to be rougher, and its destructive impact on the construction of contemporary male identity should not be underestimated. Feminist scholar and activist John Stoltenberg states “pornography institutionalises the sexuality that both embodies and enacts male supremacy.”61 It is generally accepted to be the principal (if informal) form of male sex education, and thus the harmful attitudes and practices outlined above are absorbed at an impressionable stage. As they become more extreme, so does the sterile and aggressive version of masculinity they promote. The pro-porn attitude in Lad-Mags targets a teen audience and imbues sexual bullying with connotations of “cool” through the celebrity of figures like Howard Stern.62 Men may be depicted negatively in pornography, but for teenagers anxious to cement their masculine identity, the gonzo man’s sexual violence to his female counterparts aims comprehensively to demonstrate that he is in no way “effeminate.” Thus in the process degradation is sexualised: the initiation into male sexuality is linked to a commercialised desire that views all encounters with women through the prism of sexuality63—clearly a problematic situation. It should be emphasised that contemporary anti-porn feminists do not draw the simple causal line between pornography and rape so often attributed to them;64 however, South African feminist Diana Russell does point out that for a man to rape he must not only be predisposed, but have his social inhibitions against this desire undermined.65 The violent aesthetic of gonzo can be seen both to undermine the stigma against “reluctant” sex and indeed to create desire for it. The extreme emphasis on pain in gonzo desensitises consumers to female pain; in its world, everyday women are always up for anything, rendering concepts of consent meaningless. Their “readiness” intentionally flirts with the illicit, with incest and “teen” pornography—and their disturbing commonalities with real child pornography66—gradually becoming mainstreamed. The thrill of the illicit is also mobilised in prejudice against non-white men. Whether by exclusion (of Asian men) or the dangerous reduction of black men to predatory animals, these attitudes negate decades of civil rights advancement. Thus it is clear that societal effects of gonzo, though centred on, are by no means limited to women, and must all be considered in terms of their real world implications. The harmful effects of gonzo have, moreover, begun to manifest themselves in the intimate sphere of the consumer. Research suggests pornography’s “constant presence” in young men’s lives is diminishing their capacity for intimacy 61.

Stoltenberg 1989, 129

62.

Dines 2010, 46

63.

Dines 2010, 89

64.

I.e. Robin Morgan’s infamous statement—“if porn is the theory, rape is the practice”

65.

Russell 1998

66.

Dines 2010, 144. Dines discusses parallels within “teen” and “cherry” porn with real life grooming techniques used by pedophiles, focussing on the problematic way in which gonzo tends to shift culpability away from the perpetrator of the sexual acts (Dines 2010, 148, 154), and also examines links between porn addiction and sex offenders (Dines 2010, 94).

Imogen Dewey

and true sexual fulfilment: real life cannot possibly “measure up.”67 Dines describes the sex of gonzo as “hate making,”68 but its messages of violence, subordination and contempt are absorbed unnoticed into developing sexuality, barely disguised within a culture of “boys’ humour” and “hot fun.” Again, gonzo is not naturally enticing, and techniques discussed earlier work to alienate men from the risk of the distressing realisation that women may not like working in pornography. No one wishes to be “turned on” by abuse, but it would be impossible to reconcile the indignities suffered by the “actresses” with one’s own mother/sister/lover/friend without facing this trauma. Gonzo viewers may thus compartmentalise their views of women into the familiar Madonna/whore dichotomy—an extremely unhelpful model for developing equality in future relationships. Dines notes even this division erodes as consumption increases,69 and points to the sinister emergence of exploitative consumer behaviour research designed to encourage addiction.70 The generic sexuality of pornography is designed to make men feel like “sexual losers,”71 as despite its promises, it inevitably fails to instruct them about authentic female pleasure. As a final point, it is worth considering the tendency of “fringe” pornography to enter the mainstream with astonishing speed—as discussed, gonzo has already long been acknowledged as a dominant genre by the industry itself. It is clear when considering the tendency of mainstream pornography to filter into popular culture72 that this should not be considered an exceptionalised “fantasy” zone. Pornography’s unshakeable economic prominence has quietly endowed its repressive definitions of sexuality with cultural validity. While it is women who are made more vulnerable to physical harm, both sexes are implicated in interrogating and challenging pornography’s definitions of sexuality. Instead of the sexual exploration and satisfaction it promises, pornography, and gonzo in particular, hijacks the development of genuine sexual identities for women and men, replacing them with a violently limiting model that is harmful across both individual and social spheres.

– See End Matter for Bibliography.

67.

Walter 2010, 111

68.

Dines 2010, xxiv

69.

Dines 2010, 67. Literature reveals the common experience of boys and men distressed at their inability to separate the porn world from their own sexuality even should they wish (Dines 2010; Levy 2005; Walter 2010); some men eventually find gonzo “more real” than anything else (Dines 2010, 92), a crippling sexual fate. 70.

Dines 2010, 58

71.

Dines 2010, 89

72.

Dines 2010; Jeffreys 2008; Levy 2005; Walter 2010. A widely recognized phenomenon outside the scope of this essay: coined “Raunch Culture” by Ariel Levy, manifesting in general attitudes - specifically for example in aspects of beauty practice (waxing, plastic surgery), and popularisation of ‘hobbies’ like stripping and pole dancing.

Rosy Eyes Joseph Constable

When I feel inside A short, sharp jolt, I know that present life Has briefly come to a halt.

Or is it something more, Even longer still ago? When never did I bore Of the sun, high or low?

My mind becomes a screen, My thoughts project the past. They saturate my soul, Emphatically they last.

As I lull in this park, I can see myself in awe At the height of this elm. And depth of ocean floor.

Like an optimistic owl Returning to its nest, I too return homewards Supposing I am blessed.

I tune myself to marvel At the boats that slowly hum. I can hear myself screaming: “Ready or not, here I come.”

And where is homewards for me? Summer dives into the sea, Awakened by its glitter, So innocent, so unbitter?

Anon these thoughts refile Far away, many a mile, Within the caverns of my mind, In the darkness left behind.

Comrades by my side, In the haze we sparkle, Engrossed in conversation Of ladies made of marble.

These rose eyes will return, With gusto still unknown. But now its time to face again The boats that creak and drone.

De nobis fabula narratur The Quintessential College Shaun Flint

As Will Shakespeare used to say, “All the world’s a stage.” And in our own little world of Trinity, this statement retains much of its significance. We enter this college and then exit some years later, having acted out our time in a play of five ages. First, of course, is the fresher, perhaps a little unsure of his lines, but with obvious parallels to the “mewling and puking” infant of Shakespeare’s poetry. We all have our recollections of those first few months of Trinity life. It’s the fresher who stays up until dawn after Commencement Dinner, who locks himself out of his room the morning after and who decides that an early morning dip in the Yarra might be de rigueur after a Ball. Then the second-year, acting with confidence and style, like the mover and shaker she so obviously is. She’s on the committees of all the clubs and plans with fresh-faced determination to be a force within college. At the meetings, she’s the one interjecting with the original, if slightly wacky ideas. She seeks out the things that need changing, the events that need organising, and is ever ready with plans to put things right. It’s the second year who rushes madly from moment to moment: entertaining on Lygon Street the one night, fundraising for the musical the next. Needless to say, Trinity looks on benignly with a nod and a wink, and then continues on its ageless course as it has for the past century. And then the third age, heralding the true ruler of college. She slips into this role of responsibility with surprisingly little fuss, and soon opens her eyes to how politics really operate at Trinity. Of course, you wouldn’t know it: the work she does is without fanfare and takes place in the deep background. At this stage, she is still seen at all these events, and enjoys herself thoroughly. But now she’s careful not to overdo it because she’s the one cleaning up afterwards. And she’s also the one with the assignment due yesterday and the mid-semester exam next week. There’s no time to go to Lygon Street any more, except with her best friends and even then only sporadically.

Shaun Flint

The fourth age welcomes the elder statesman, retired and observing college politics from afar. Rarely, he’ll issue the odd public remark or tap the occasional person on the shoulder. More often, if he feels something is out of place he’ll dial an unlisted Leeper number and murmur a few words in the appropriate ear. But he always has the larger picture in mind. With his university degree drawing to a close now, he’s most concerned with obtaining the best conclusion possible. So appearances are restricted to the major black tie functions and his dates are generally with the college library. And here, you might think the story ends. But you’ll remember that Shakespeare manages to go full circle, ending his “strange and eventful history” with “second childishness and mere oblivion.” And so we too need to consider one final image: that of the graduate, seen in Trinity hardly at all. Returning only, in fact, for the Fleur-de-Lys dinner where—awash with liquor and surrounded by memories—he becomes once again the fresher, entering second childishness and mere oblivion. Although in this case, it’s an oblivion of a different sort, I fear, to Will Shakespeare’s. Reprinted from Bulpadok, 1999.

When You’ve Got It, Flaunt It

The Rise of Consumerism and Memetic Theory Daniel Gibbons

Introduction What is consumerism and why is understanding its spread important? Consumerism, the “expression of the apparently ubiquitous act of consumption” has become the dominant mode of identity in modern “globalised” culture. From the mods of 1960s England to the cosplayers of modern Japan, “without consumer goods, acts of self-definition in this culture would be impossible.” Understanding consumerism’s success is central to explaining economic behaviour as final consumption accounts for 61% of global economic activity. What is the state of current anthropological criticism of consumerism? Consumerism has been interrogated from different angles, from consumption politics to consumer identity, but its success is mostly treated as a given. The mainstream explanation is that humans always act as if “more is better.” However, this is contradicted by societies like the Tzeltal, who constrain wealth accumulation by having wealthy young men spend their wealth on feasting the community and by other cultural conventions that constrain consumption. Formal economics also fails to explain why it has spread so effectively despite being different from other modes of consumption in the ubiquity of mass-produced goods. Therefore, a better explanation for this spread is key to advancing economic anthropology. What is memetics and what implications might it have for consumerism? I thus introduce the meme, “an element of a culture … passed from one individual to another by imitation.” Memes are selected for or against, because of the nature of humans as imitators or the memes themselves and their groupings. Building on this framework, I will argue that consumerism is a meme because it has spread through imitating others’ choices. I will chart its success along three axes: production, consumption and exchange. On consumption, I will outline

When You’ve Got It, Flaunt It

how corporations have manipulated the concept of “value” for their purpose of spreading consumerism by influencing the expression of both cultural and social capital. On production, I will explain why consumerism has succeeded because it has good “replicators” in consumer goods that can be produced with high copying-fidelity, fecundity and longevity. Finally, on exchange, I will explore how consumerism can only survive because of markets. I will conclude that the consumerist meme has flourished because companies shaping culture and promoting social reinforcement now define economic value and this system of value is propagated by the production of consumer goods and a pervasive system of market exchange.

“I do love new clothes”: Consumption Patterns and the Modern Corporation What does cultural economics say on consumerism? Is this an adequate explanation? Cultural economists view consumerism as an outgrowth of a consumer society, in which consumption has been made the centre of cultural life. Value in cultural terms is defined by how people expect the world and people in it to behave and how they judge that behaviour. Accruing cultural capital confers moral authority because proper use of objects indicates that a person knows how the world works, thus they have the right to tell others how to behave. While models of cultural economics are useful to explore how different worldviews affect decisions, they do not answer where the cultural understandings that create morals came from or how they change. How does the consumerist meme change culture to suit itself? The consumerist meme, like all memes, must seek to modify the cultural environment in which it exists more amenable to its propagation. Those who propagate the meme have accomplished this in two main ways: first, by changing the moral value of wealth accumulation, second, by privileging objectified cultural capital in the form of consumer goods. How and why have attitudes to wealth accumulation changed? The value of wealth accumulation has changed from the medieval view of public virtue arising from private virtue to the formal economists’ idea that public virtue can arise from private vice. Associated with this has been a popularisation of modern hedonism, characterized by the creation of cultural value in the self-conscious seeking of personal pleasure. Miller, for example, documents how contact with the West has made this idea spread to Trinidad, where independence signaled the potential for new wealth and thus new possibilities, which an oil boom helped perpetuate. The existence of a normative type of wealth accumulation, centered around elaborate ornamentation is evidence of a changed

When You’ve Got It, Flaunt It

material culture. Ethnography of Wall Street executives shows where this preference is spread from, as executives view wealth accumulation as vital to allow a more rigorous exploitation of resources. How have companies privileged objectified cultural capital in the form of consumer goods? Companies are actively seeking to go further, to change the nature of cultural capital itself by associating “sign values” with consumer goods through “commodity aesthetics” in which people ascribe value solely on the basis of design or promotion. This is an outgrowth of “commodity fetishism” or the mystification of human relations resulting from market trade. Consumption has become disembedded from relations of production due to the use of money and globalised production. But why how has this conception of cultural capital spread throughout global cultures? This is because neoliberals and corporations spread this meme in by encouraging people to “preach” the benefits of markets in terms of the gains they have made to others and in turn convert them. Companies engage in the adversative mode by undermining the authority of credible sources that speak out against consumerism, for example Nike’s fierce response to Naomi Klein’s book No Logo. In becoming an individual and consuming in the “right” mode, moral authority is thus gained from accruing symbols of cultural status. What can we conclude on the cultural side of consumerism? The meme of consumerism has manipulated its cultural environment through its adherents promoting changes to attitudes to wealth and privileging the cultural capital of consumer goods. But this does not explain what the effects are on smaller social groups, so I turn to social capital. What is social capital and how might social economists view consumerism? Social capital, the resources linked to possession of a network of relationships of mutual association and recognition, has always been a factor in economic behaviour. This is because it produces trust and influence that allows more ability to act in the world in groups. Consumerism is thus viewed as a way of acquiring social capital in the capitalist mode of consumption, through indirectly or directly, purchasing recognition within a group. Societies do not always act in the interests of all individuals, hence why social contract theory is a limited explanation for how societies function. The change in the social value of consumption might be better viewed as the manipulation of memes that govern social behaviours.

Daniel Gibbons

How are memes manipulated to exploit the creation of social value? These memes are manipulated by corporations who are often engaged in the production of difference, whereby even groups such as hipsters have products specifically targeted at their attempt to distant themselves from the mainstream. Commodities are so powerful symbolically that they now allow the creation of entirely new social groups, like football-club supports who no longer have any contact with the social base which the clubs represent but only the symbolism. What is the role of fashions? Companies have exploited this desire by portraying consumer goods as a way to gain social capital in terms of a categorical identity, which is in contrast to the mainly disembodied forms of social capital that had prevailed beforehand. The idea of fashionability allows for a strict dichotomy between those who consume what the group consumes and those who break the bonds of commonality. This relates to what Jonathan Friedman calls “homo consumens, whose fragmented identity is constantly rearranged by the winds of fashion” which he explains by examining how Swedish culture has come to privilege the modern. How has this logic been applied to all goods? The capitalist mode of consumption in fact relies on finding a market for surplus production by presenting luxuries as needs and having as many people as possible demand such goods. For example, despite their historically low value, diamonds have come to be valued because of the manipulation of social ideas to diamond companies’ own ends. The meme of the diamond ring as symbolising marriage and thus public commitment was presented as a need to the American middle classes. This embellishment of the use-value of goods by advertising has meant “the superfluous and the necessary have become inextricable components of today’s commodities.” The stigma against thrift is so prevalent that the “deep discount” section of the retail market seems unable to rise above 10% in industrialised economies. What can we conclude on the cultural and social sides of consumption? Economic value is now created largely by companies who have changed the nature of cultural capital and reinforced by their manipulation of social capital through promoting consumer goods as the only true markers of identity. However, this value creation cannot exist in a vacuum, which brings the topic of production to the fore, because mass-production allows for mass-consumption.

When You’ve Got It, Flaunt It

“Work must not Cease”: Mass-Production and Consumer Goods as effective Meme Vehicles What is the capitalist mode of production and how does it relate to consumer goods? The capitalist mode operates around a system where ownership of property is established through transfer from previous owners and every person has the right to use what they own without consulting others, within legal constraints. Production is driven by the demands of the market, with an emphasis on creating surplus to trade with others and where the value is determined by what others will exchange for them. Perhaps the defining feature of the capitalist mode is its tendency to reproduce itself on an increasing scale. However, this system’s function does not directly explain why consumer goods are so effective as vehicles for spreading the meme of consumerism. Why then are consumer goods good “meme vehicles”? Any meme needs to be transmitted and its vehicle thus needs to have three characteristics: high copying-fidelity or the ability to be copied accurately, high fecundity or the ability to make many copies and a level of longevity adapted to its environment. High copying-fidelity is ensured by industrialised production technologies, which can produce millions of copies of the same good. This form of production also relies on disembedding production from social relations, for example the Kubo system where they own the means to complete production but do not own products because consumption is immediate, could not sustain consumerism alone (Minnegal 1999, 361-83). Without the disembedding, fidelity is impossible because goods have different sign-values due to their relations to a specific person’s labour. High fecundity is perhaps the chief feature of the production of consumer goods, which often leads to overproduction. The longevity of consumer goods can be selected for the producer’s benefit due to planned to the building in of faults so products can only be kept for a certain period. Therefore, consumer goods are successful vehicles for the consumerist meme as they can be copied easily and in large quantities and have variable longevity. However, this neglects how goods are sold, which brings us finally to exchange.

“The Invisible Hand”: Consumerism and Market Exchange What is exchange and what is the mainstream explanation for markets? Exchange is the movement of things between individuals and groups to enhance the value of those things to their owners. It is the area where formal economics does best at explaining the rise of consumerism especially in terms of the productive efficiency of markets. On the other hand, formal economists tend to only explain the evolution of systems of exchange in basic terms by assuming that because markets are more efficient they must prevail over barter. The

Daniel Gibbons

contribution of memetics is to help understand the symbiosis between markets acting as “transmission chains for memes” and the consumerist meme itself. How do markets act as transmission chains for the consumerist meme? Market exchange is predicated on the idea that commodities have value because of the relationship between things. Trade is predicated on the substitutability of unlike goods and each participant having a different scale of values in order to produce mutually beneficial trades. For consumerism to work, markets have to be efficient at allowing a relatively free flow of goods. To do this, markets have to be embedded and naturalised within society, that is markets must have “institutedness.” As Polanyi observes, “free markets” are instituted processes that must be articulated through social, legal and political strategies. Markets also act as a distribution network for consumer goods and help to coordinate economic action. What does a market rely on? This system of exchange is predicated on social acceptance, which is why Western development projects often include help setting up market economies. Therefore, when confidence is lost in markets they cease to function and consumerism should also fail. This occurred amongst the Nentsy people of Northern Siberia when the bank accounts the Soviets had given them became valueless due to the depreciation in the value of the ruble in the early 1990s. As predicted, the herders switched from buying consumer goods off the Russians back to solely reindeer herding. Markets are an integral component in spreading the consumerist meme, in terms of providing a transmission chain and distribution network for consumer goods.

Conclusion A combination of both theoretical and ethnographic evidence shows that companies have manipulated cultural and social capital to propagate the meme of consumerism through changing the worth of wealth accumulation and the nature of identity itself. This meme is able to spread because it has an effective vehicle in the consumer good and associated production processes and an effective distribution network in the form of the “free” market. Overall, I have demonstrated that the memetic approach is helpful in analysing consumerism and have shown that consumerism is a culturally contingent phenomenon that depends on capitalist modes of production, consumption and exchange.

End Matter A Sexy Way to Hate – Bibliography

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Lumby, Catharine. Bad Girls: the Media, Sex and Feminism in the 90s. NSW: Allen & Unwin, 1997. Levy, Ariel. Female Chauvinist Pigs. Melbourne: Schwartz Publishing, 2005. MacKinnon, Catharine A. Towards a Feminist Theory of The State. London: Harvard University Press, 1989. McNair, Brian. Striptease Culture. London: Routledge, 2002. Q & A. "Sydney Writers' Festival: Transcript." ABC TV: Q & A. May 23, 2011. http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s3218450.htm (accessed June 1, 2011). Stoltenberg, John. Refusing to Be A Man. Portland: Breitland Books, 1989. Strossen, Nadine. Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex, and the FIght for Women's Rights. New York: NYU Press, 1995. Rubin, Gayle. “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality”. Abelove H et al. (eds). The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. New York: Routledge, 1993. 126-54. Russell, Diana. Dangerous Relationships: Pornography, Misogyny and Rape. California: Sage Publications Inc., 1998. Walter, Natasha. Living Dolls: the Return of Sexism. London: Virago Press, 2010. Willis, Ellen. No More Nice Girls: Countercultural Essays. Hanover: Wesleyan University Press, 1994.

Sola scriptura Sola fide Sola gratia Solo Christo Soli Deo gloria – Five solas