Culture Jam

Culture Jam, a book written by Kalle Lasn, points the destructive effects of Global Capitalism, and how corporations have become so powerful that they influence every aspect of people’s way of life. The author suggests that culture is no longer created by people, but by corporations with hidden agendas to sell their products. He points out that people are manipulated in their core values and are constantly under siege from the media until they are “branded” - a US pandemic that is affecting countries around the world. The author also implies that our American style of consumption is not sustainable and is killing our planet. He invites the reader to join a cultural revolution against the “Corporate Cool Machine” in order to save our world ecologically, culturally and free ourselves, starting by “Jamming our Culture”.


According to Lasn, “America is no longer a country.” Corporations have become so powerful ever since the U.S. Supreme Court deemed that a private corporation was a “natural person” under the U.S. Constitution and therefore entitled to protection under the bill of rights. Because corporations have enormous financial resources, they actually have more power than any private citizen to defend and exploit their rights and freedom more vigorously. They can lobby for legislations and regulations according to their interest and pay off governments when they abuse or break the law; they run the show. In fact, according to the author, nowadays, corporations’ control 42 percent of the world’s wealth, and 51 of the world’s hundred largest economies are corporations.


I agree with Lasn that corporations are running our lives. They have more resources and power to lobby for laws and regulation than any person that I know. For example, I never understood why the U.S is the only industrialized country in the world that allows the sale of assault weapons to its citizens. After all, guns make it easier to kill and injure people; therefore, reducing the prevalence of guns will reduce the prevalence of death and injury. The answer to that question has to do in great part due to the lobby done in government by the gun industry, and how this industry has successfully manipulated information related to the negative effects of guns in our society. For instance, the industry claims that guns have nothing to do with school massacres; however, since guns have become accessible to the population, there have been several school massacres.

Lasn also mentioned that “American culture is not longer created by the people”. He describes how people belong to a branded cult without even knowing it. People have been recruited by corporations into roles and behavior patterns not consciously chosen by them, and this has been programmed into people’s DNA since childhood. I also agree with the author on that point: people are recruited into “branded cults” by corporations. A good example of Lans’ point is the “Apple Cult”. People have been recruited and branded by Apple Inc. as “unique and creative”. According to the Lasn, “the most powerful narcotic in the world is the promise of belonging”. Apple knows this and they deliver it to its followers by producing products such as the Apple Ipad that make consumers feel “unique and creative”.


Because children see this “branding” since early years, it is almost as natural and normal for them to continue being part of the cult. For example, children associate good feelings to products that they enjoyed during their childhood. If a child enjoyed a box of Kellogg’s cereal during his or her childhood, this child has already been branded and will consume this product whenever they want to bring those memories back. The author points out that people don’t feel that they belong to any cult, since no one is “forcing them to do anything” and they don’t feel “oppressive”. However, the author suggests that there are rules that, by consensus, all cult members speak: the corporate ideas people suck up from advertising. In other words, corporations use advertising as a way to manipulate consumer’s emotions and print their ideas on their minds until they are “branded” and become part of the cult.

“America coolness is a global pandemic” and “ecologically speaking, the world is already ‘full’ and further expansion will lead us into an ecological nightmare, a prolonged and possibly permanent age of despair”, according to the author. He describes how growth is unsustainable without the pursuit of ecological sustainability. In other words, a new economic model is needed. A model that doesn’t measure growth only by GDP, but also takes into account ecological damages in our planet, measures unpaid or volunteer work - a system that distinguish economic benefit for social gain from economic benefit for social loss. I also happen to share the author view on this point. We need a system that measures not only the "good", but also the “bad”. For example, how can we possible measure the ecological consequence of the British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico with our current economic models?


Lasn asked the big question: “Is Economic Progress Killing the Planet? He dares world leaders to answer that question. After reading Culture Jam, I would have to answer that question with a profound “Yes”. We are killing our planet. We need to embrace Lasn’s message and “uncool consumption”, as well as take control of our ecological and economic well being by “Jamming our Culture”.