A Response to Kalle Lasn's Culture Jam

Culture Jam is an outrageous, insightful, interpretation of pop culture, and the writer’s desire to help us understand the manner in which we must free ourselves from its influence. Kalle Lasn, the writer, helps us to see that we are being or have been programmed to think in certain ways. This thinking, then, affects our actions, and we ultimately act on the subconscious needs that have been systematically programmed in our brains. He does not abandon us with this realization, though, he guides us through the steps toward deprogramming our thought process. He continues, as he assists us in recognizing that we can regain control of the environment we are in, and take back our right to establish a healthy, productive culture. This recovery of culture will require effort. According to Lasn, it will require a form of revolution, inspired by a rage that he thoughtfully defines.


The book follows the seasonal progression of Autumn, Winter, Spring, and Summer, as if to say that our minds are dormant, like the vines in Fall and Winter, but through our mental progression we will blossom and flourish, as the vines through Spring and Summer. It is an excellent metaphor that guides the reader through Kasn’s mindset and the formulation of his thoughts. In order to fully understand this progression, let’s consider a few basic and elemental points that are raised in each season.


Autumn, a period of quiescence and inactivity for most biological processes, and Lasn equates this with our systematic mental programming, a span of time that has caused us to give up ourselves and allow our surroundings to control our mental state. One of the key ways in which this is accomplished is by a loss of mental diversity. Lasn calls it “Infodiversity”. He stresses that we are being subjected to the same basic package of ideas, news, and images, and that this lack of diversity will inevitably lead to “inefficiency and failure.”(Lasn,26) Our actions, guided by this controlled mental state, have made us nothing more than automatons, like Frank Sinatra in the Manchurian Candidate, waiting to react when our mental triggers are pressed.


We then move to Winter, a season of hibernation, or a season where we have unknowingly begun to huddle together in mass. We have fed into the mental state of Autumn and our actions portray this acceptance. Lasn helps us to realize that we have unwittingly joined a “cult” as it were, a cult of followers whose leader is nothing more than a brand or logo. Has it brought us happiness or satisfaction? Lasn states emphatically, “Cults promise a kind of boundless contentment-punctuated by moments of bliss-but never quite deliver on that promise.”(Lasn,54) Reflecting on that perspective, one recognizes that our mental manipulation often moves us to conform to what is popular and trendy. We close our eyes to real issues, being concerned more with conformity than individuality.


No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow, and for Lasn it does as well. Lasn’s Spring is a time for growth, for sprouting a mentality of revolution, a revolution that will take back real culture and rein in this perceived mass media culture we have been subjected to. He encourages the reader to “jam” or stop the flow of controlled culture. He provides an elementary, simplistic, time proven manner in which to accomplish this by stating, “This is how the revolution begins: A few people start slipping out of old patterns, daydreaming, questioning, rebelling.” (Lasn, 108) Based on his opinion, rebellion or revolution follow acts or patterns of creativity, id est “daydreaming” and “questioning”, each of them the basis for tremendous shifts in human evolution and human progression. For Lasn, Spring truly is a time for growth, a growth that will bring a metamorphical change in the human experience.


Inevitably, Spring turns to Summer, and Summer is a time of flourishing and maturity. So does Lasn’s take of our human progression. This facet or portion of the book begins with an essay on Rage. Lasn is not encouraging that the reader go crazy and take up arms against his oppressor, no, he speaks of rage as the catalyst that enables us to change, to advance, to succeed. He helps the reader to be aware of this emotive response and act on it. For some, it will be an epiphany. Lasn describes this when he writes, “Once in a while, in a flash of insight, you understand that something is terribly, terribly wrong with your life, and that a rude and barren future awaits unless you leap off the couch right now.”(Lasn, 143) It is this reaction that will move the reader to maturity, as they progress through their own personal revolution against the manufactured culture they have been programmed to accept as their own.


This book is defintly worth reading. It is an easy read for those who are beginning to understand that there is something wrong with the way that our society over consumes. I enjoyed how enlightened that I felt after reading the book. I have become a more conscious consumer by not supporting certain products and becoming critical of what I watch on television. A disadvantage of this if that I am finding it difficult to purchase products to replace the ones that I do not want to buy and longer and I am also criticizing the shows that I used to enjoy watching.


A particular part of the book that I enjoyed was from the Global Economic Pyramid Scheme section. Most of us have heard of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the measure of economic growth. But Lasn points out that there is a flaw, it does not measure any value to biking, eating less beef, growing a garden, volunteer work or disappearing forests. Lasn suggests that "a more accurate measure of economic progress is the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW), developed by Herman Daly and John Cobb in 1990." (p. 89) ISEW is " when pollution, depletion of non-renewable resources, car exhaust-related health costs and other social and ecological costs are subtracted from the GDP." (p.91) I think that Lasn has a very valuable point here, why measure just the good that is happening in the economy, what about the resources that we are destroying.


Lasn covers the problems, how we are affected but leaves out an important part. What can people do about he problem? He just barely nibbles at the answer to this question. I would like to know who is profiting from the products that I am purchasing, who owns what. But without alot of research that I don't currently have time for, I won't find the answer to this question myself. I guess ironically enough it comes down to needing the "convenience" of having the information presented for me to read.


I really enjoyed reading this book. I feel that I have just opened the doors onto learning about why our society is so dysfunctional in many ways. I think that we need is to be able to use goods in moderation. We also need to become aware of how and what we are consuming. We need to conscientious of the products of material items that we are buying into. Because I feel that I have only grasped a small portion of the ideas that Lasn presents in this book, I will reread this book again.


Many construe Lasn’s portrayal of the world in which we live to be pessimistic and cynical. Yet, upon reflection, one can discern that he speaks from the heart as if he, himself, has made the “seasonal” progression outlined in his book, and he simply desires that the reader wake up. For some, this book may be too edgy, its content too caustic. That is expected in a world where the majority of people would simply take the blue pill. But, for some, this book moves the reader through a progression that will inevitably lead them to take hold of the red pill and accept the consequences of seeing the world the way it truly is, in a way clearly and concisely described by Kalle Lasn.