Bradley in DC
10-19-2007, 07:37 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/18/AR2007101801578.html?wpisrc=newsletter
Where Soy and Chai Meet Che and Mao
By Michael Gerson
Friday, October 19, 2007; Page A21
At the newly opened coffeehouse near my home in Northern Virginia, caffeine is intended to fuel the revolution. . .
. In the world of marketing, radical politics seems to be a symbol for rebellion, anger, individuality and artistic self-expression -- the main preoccupations of youth culture. I have never been in a coffeehouse that displayed posters of Ronald Reagan or Margaret Thatcher.
Some on the left are suspicious of this trend, which social critic Thomas Frank calls "commercialized dissent." "It is," he told me, "symbolic of the eternal revolution of the market" and its "constant search for the new." "The ideology expressed is generally not liberalism; it is the ideology of the market, libertarianism." Political trendiness of the Body Shop and Whole Foods variety, in short, has little serious emphasis on economic or social justice.
But there also should be concerns on the right. On its current track, the emotional branding of the Republican Party among the young will soon be similar to Metamucil. The party's emphasis on spending restraint and limited government may be substantively important, but these themes are hardly morally inspiring. And the Iraq war is a serious drawback among younger voters -- except, of course, among those 20-somethings with buzz cuts who actually fight the war. Appealing to cause-oriented consumers will require addressing issues such as global poverty and disease, global warming, and economic and racial justice. This reality of the market is also a reality of American politics.
The most complicated question is why, as a rather serious-minded conservative, I am often found in bohemian coffeehouses, comfortable among the revolutionaries. Maybe it is because politics doesn't always predict lifestyle. Maybe because there is a bohemian impulse inside every writer, searching for a little quiet rebellion. Maybe I just like good soy lattes. Whatever the reason, and whatever the T-shirts say, I'll be back.
michaelgerson@cfr.org
Where Soy and Chai Meet Che and Mao
By Michael Gerson
Friday, October 19, 2007; Page A21
At the newly opened coffeehouse near my home in Northern Virginia, caffeine is intended to fuel the revolution. . .
. In the world of marketing, radical politics seems to be a symbol for rebellion, anger, individuality and artistic self-expression -- the main preoccupations of youth culture. I have never been in a coffeehouse that displayed posters of Ronald Reagan or Margaret Thatcher.
Some on the left are suspicious of this trend, which social critic Thomas Frank calls "commercialized dissent." "It is," he told me, "symbolic of the eternal revolution of the market" and its "constant search for the new." "The ideology expressed is generally not liberalism; it is the ideology of the market, libertarianism." Political trendiness of the Body Shop and Whole Foods variety, in short, has little serious emphasis on economic or social justice.
But there also should be concerns on the right. On its current track, the emotional branding of the Republican Party among the young will soon be similar to Metamucil. The party's emphasis on spending restraint and limited government may be substantively important, but these themes are hardly morally inspiring. And the Iraq war is a serious drawback among younger voters -- except, of course, among those 20-somethings with buzz cuts who actually fight the war. Appealing to cause-oriented consumers will require addressing issues such as global poverty and disease, global warming, and economic and racial justice. This reality of the market is also a reality of American politics.
The most complicated question is why, as a rather serious-minded conservative, I am often found in bohemian coffeehouses, comfortable among the revolutionaries. Maybe it is because politics doesn't always predict lifestyle. Maybe because there is a bohemian impulse inside every writer, searching for a little quiet rebellion. Maybe I just like good soy lattes. Whatever the reason, and whatever the T-shirts say, I'll be back.
michaelgerson@cfr.org