ah-zf writes:

"A local alternative Rock band in Ithaca, NY was just recently approached by coca-cola to appear on a commercial spot, shot in Ithaca, while performing one of their original songs. The band is made up of 3 girls, all Ithaca highschool students. And, of course, they accepted.
In accordance to this 'big break' they'll be signed to one of the many record companies whom coca-cola supports, get to be on TV, perhaps gain a national fanbase, and live happily ever after...

*click*

Oh, wait a minute, this scenario seems vaguely familiar somehow. Maybe even some of that philosophical shit is involved. You think?Now, i'm thinking of somebody here, barbie-doll in appearence, digital and glowing, like some corporate god or plastic angel sent from beyond the wires, who suddenly hit the top of simulated-space, and not being able to comprehend the nature of her world, or of herself, suddenly plummeted downward like a falling star (or a cancelled sitcom, or a discontinued aphrodisiac) perhaps gaining mental ground only in some "remembering the 90's" 60-minute nostolgic orgy of dead-history.

Price check on "Dead Star #10239458503"
Price check on "Skyhigh, and fucked"
Price check on "Does anyone even care anymore?"

Alright, i'm going to have to check the records. Here we are. Britney Spears. Would you like paper, or plastic?
(better check the expiration date on this one...) Don't worry, a new shipment is on the way.

Thank you for shopping at Amerika, Inc.

The absolute worst thing you can do if your deemed 'abnormal/special' in the eyes of the media/state/community is to become famous.
Shortterm gain, longterm rape. (do you like support groups? Hey, they got free coffee.) With the ever-growing insurgent wave of identicality, uniqueness and identity becomes a form of capital. And we're not just talking about the hideous trends of rebellion-marketing, or adherence to a social norm, whatever it may be. (although this very important variable plays a large role)
Like an evil eye scouring the wastelands of the real, the media takes and exploits any "glitch in the system" and puts it on stage in side-show decor, displaying the freakish nature of tangible meaning - be it in the hopes or talents of children, the horrible,
the perverse, a cause worth fighting for, and consequently, in the degredation and death of the very thing that has been sucked
dry from the parasitical feeding of the spectacle.

Don't miss our big sale on Your Life, now 15% off. Would you like a coupon?

Abnormality itself is the primary sustenance of the unreal - itself, having no means of deviance from programming, it becomes
jelous of us. Like a machine craving human emotions. It robs us of our singularity, our love of life, our Slack, as the Subgenii say.
You can't stop and smell the digital roses. You can only sit back and think about how great it would be if you could.
And, wouldn't you know it, those who are actually able to "stop and smell the roses" are met with cynicism, judgement, and angst.
Enter "The American Dream", that smirking jester/magician of smoke and mirrors, parlor tricks, clever prose presented as higher ideals.
(Hey kid, whats that behind your ear? Hoho! A dollar! Your on your way to building a vast fortune, my lad.)
Hopefully, you can see where all of this is going. In all respects, a conspiracy of regurgitation.

Homosexuals are weird and go against the moral majority.
Enter Queer Eye, Will and Grace, Homo Comedian Night on ComCen, 'archetypification'.

This band is unique in sound or context.
Buy them out, spread them out, use them up. Enter a hundred other clone-bands attempting to cash in.

Rednecks are weird, and the consensus shows that conservativism is on a high.
Enter 'Blue Collar TV', popularity rise in Jerry Springer, the trials and tribulations of trailer trash.

This person, subculture or group are abnormal/radical/violent/insane.
Endless speculative reports. Cultural icon, the new enemy. Archetypification.
Colombine, Al-Quaida, Troubled youth, Communism, Terrorism, Anarchism. Them. You. Me.
The Other, in all possible coordinations of meaning.

If you oppose, you are valuable psychological capital.
If you agree, you are the perpetuation of said system.

The Normals (tm) feed off the abnormal - being the very Herde and slimy devil's advocates that they are.
As with the aforementioned draining of difference, now we see Celebs turning to shoplifting, obscure religion, body augmentation (and mutilation), any attempt to reclaim abnormality into their lives.
Naturally, WE will never give in to the flatness and sanitation of the masses and celebrities, so, as many of you know, they must be made to awaken - "every person a special kind of artist, not every artist a special kind of person."
But I tire of professing eventuality at the moment, best stick to the Now.

Whats this? The Politics of Insanity? Hold on...
I leave you with this: Just as immediatism must be 'useless' to the spectacle, we ourselves must teach ourselves a kind of mental cryptography. Forget about all that 'working towards a goal' shit, more so, DO NOT become disapointed or depressed when said thing avoids you - the spectacle also loves broken dreams like candy.

We must become the nobodies, the ghosts, losers. Revealing our flames only to those who are "capable of bearing witness to our condition -HB".

Insanity disguised as childishness. Subversivity masked as 'passing phase' or teenaged angst.
Hey, they're already doing most of the work for us, in some cases.

And while underneath the psychic shell, the bomb grows to meet it's newly acquired free-space.
Transforming the very being into some horrible, finally something too much for the state/media to stomach, alien, savage and perverse to the point of galactic oblivion - perhaps invisible at first, revealing a faint shadow in the corner of the eye, then the whole of the beast is finally in perfect view, in perfect light, the money shot, "Your simply gorgeous, dahling! A Star is Born!"

And with a smile itself the stuff of thunder and brimstone, that perfect voice beyond the wire falls silent, forever.

But wait a minute, 9/11 was pretty intense, and that's been being fed on in ecstacy, en mass, without hesitation.
Herein lies the difference: the terrorists themselves were The Other (in the radar, so to speak, more image now than anything else) and terrorism itself is a virus born out of our social condition. The only hope of insurgence lies in The New System proliferating within The Old.
Via TAZ, or whathaveyou. This fight involves the homeland, and every empire falls by the hands of it's populace."