“from
the fool's gold mouth
piece
the hollow hornplays wasted words
prove to warn
that he not busy being born
is busy dying”
----Bob Dylan “It's
alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding”
Robin Leach, host and voice-over for the 1980's
television program “The Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”
died over the weekend. At his funeral many will no doubt lament
that he passed too soon. Some of us would say that he stayed too
long. The broadcast of the program best known for celebrating excess
with a clipped British accent and raising the envy of the nation.
There was no mention of either learning nor culture; for, indeed,
money, as Caesar Disgustus so amply demonstrates, can lay claim to
neither. “Lifestyles” is most responsible for shoring up
the underpinnings of the 'Reagan Revolution” by telling Americans
that not only was gluttony to be accepted but it was to be
celebrated. By so doing, Leach helped reinforce a trend that was
decades in the making—a trend away from one's identity based upon
ones family, geographical origin, or upon what one produced to
identity as a function of what one consumes.
It has been left to the tRUMPs to teach us to what
unsavory end this poverty of learning and culture would lead.
Tracing the origins back to Coco Channel and the
coincidental rise of fascism in Europe, Rhonda Garelick draws the
parallels:
“Chanel's
alluring life became her most bankable commodity. Women clamored for
Chanel products (or inexpensive imitations) not just for their sleek
looks, but because they seemed to grant entry into the designer's
enviable world....
“Chanel
invented a business model that fashion companies still use in which
success depends as much on a glamorous life 'narrative' as on
particular garments. Within this models which I call 'immersive
dreamscapes,' customers buy not just products but also aspirational
identities. By acquiring merchandise bearing logos or signatures,
they label themselves with the desired identity.” (1)
So began the twentieth century transformation from
identity as occupation, clan or location; identity revealed in our
very surnames-- Carpenter, Baker, Smith, McDougal, McDonald, MacBeth;
Chesterfield, London, French—to identity based upon what we
consume. 'Keeping up with the Jones'” became less our striving and
soon became our very identities.
“Not coincidentally, Chanel's influence peaked
between the two world wars,” continues Garelick, “precisely
as fascism became a pan-European force. Like luxury-logo
fashion, fascism offered an alluring narrative about an exclusive
world (the myth of the superior Aryans) and a logo (the swastika)
betokening membership in that world. Chanel traveled in fascist
circles and invented her double-C insignia in 1921, just a year after
the Nazis adopted [from Christianity] the swastika, which they
treated like a fashion label, stamping it on jewelry, clothing, even
lingerie, in addition to military uniforms.
“To
be clear, wearing Chanel does not make one a Nazi. But the joint
rise of her brand and fascism came about because both tapped into
certain all-too-human, paradoxical yearnings, particularly resonant
at the time: to belong to a select elite and to lose oneself in the
crowd, to conform. Chanel was deeply in dialogue with her era's
politics—as is Ivanka Trump.
“We
can trace the descent of 'dreamscape' businesses from Chanel, to
Ralph Lauren (Bronx-born Ralph Lifshitz, peddling a dream world of
polo-playing WASP privilege), through Tory Burch, directly to Ms.
Trump, whose brand, which she announced this week is shutting down,
employs both her full signature and initial insignia...
Ms.
Trump's attraction to aspirational makes sense—it's the linchpin of
her family fortune. Donald Trump's empire was always more about
branding than building. He based his career on outer-borough fantasy
of aristocratic privilege. This is why he bought Mar-a-Lago, once
the estate of socialite-philanthropist Marjorie Merriweather Post.
This is why he created an imitation heraldic Trump family crest to
ennoble cuff links, shirts and cologne. Mr. Trump's success has
always derived from the implication that to embrace him, to buy into
his brand, was to enter his fantasy luxury universe.” (3)
No doubt a marketing strategy gleaned directly from the
pages of Playboy demonstrating that all those hours spent in
youthful masturbation were not entirely lost.
Understanding the all-too-American craving for community
and status, in a world where community is increasingly fragmented and
one's status is constantly shifting while under assault, “She
created an aspirational universe geared toward working women who
yearned for advancement, wanting to fake it till they make it. It
was a 'C-suite' feminist look—pastel sheath dresses; structured
bags conjuring Celine or Prada, but often made of vinyl; pumps and
flats that closely imitated higher-end shoes (including Chanel),
overall the brand offered watered-down simulacra of luxury goods,
accessibly priced, elite-seeming but poorly made.” (4)
Of course, Ivanka invented nothing here, merely paying
homage to her ancestral roots aping the Orangutan that produced her.
One has to look no further than TRUMP University, Trump meats,
champagne, ties and apparel, not to mention the grandiose Trump Taj
Mahal to see how thin the veneer; how transparent this facade.
“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain,”
the Wizard commanded Dorothy and her new-found friends. “He
asks that we accept increasingly fictional narratives, to believe the
literally unbelievable, enjoining supporters in Kansas City to
disregard their own senses. 'What you are seeing,” he intoned
Tuesday, 'is not what's happening'--a chilling apt instruction for
losing yourself inside an aspirational branding narrative” (5).
It isn't enough to lament the emergence of 'identity'
politics. We have always had identity politics. But heretofore our
identities were rooted in time and place, clan and kin, occupation
and production. Now they are increasingly being replaced by not only
mere consumption but by the mass consumption of the shoddy.
This is what happens when one is hopelessly lost in
adolescent masturbatory fantasy. For the glossy identities cataloged
by popular media are as real as the intimacy portrayed in popular
pornography. Perhaps Playboy was, in the larger social
context, pornography after all and Donald John Trump and family have
spread this pornography first into the business and social life of
the country and now into our politics as well.
“An'
Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh”
Impeach and Imprison
______________________
- Garelick, Rhonda. “Ivanka's Aspirations” The New York Times. Friday, July 27, 2018. Page A25
- Ibid
- Ibid.
- Ibid
- Ibid
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