“the paradox of antimaterialism”

From a review in Disinformation, a very-frequent-read of mine:

the marketers are merely doing what they’ve been doing for nearly four decades: profiting off the twitchy, urgent need to be hip, cool, ahead of the pack, and, most importantly, to adhere to the countercultural ideal of “thinking different” (e.g., Apple computer) or “breaking all the rules” (e.g., Vans shoes).

To elaborate on the Apple example. Isn’t it ironic that people make the “conscious” choice to support Apple, rather than some huge multimillion dollar corperation? It strikes me as preferring Pepsi over Coke, in some ways. Of course, Pepsi tastes better.

‘They call this “the paradox of antimaterialism” — namely, that anti-materialist values have become one of the biggest moneymakers of consumer capitalism. “Cool people like to see themselves as radicals, subversives who refuse to conform to accepted ways of doing things,” Heath and Potter write.

The book review in the L.A. weekly did well to point out that there is a certain “Leftist critique of the Left” at play here.

Heath and Potter maintained that growing [organic vegetables] or buying ["yuppie food"] does not really strike a blow against consumerism; it just creates a market for more expensive vegetables — thus exacerbating competitive consumption rather than reducing it.

And then there’s the argument that even this argument is just the trendy, aristocratic kind of argument to make if you’re some kind of cynical-hipster (cynister?)

Enough! Let’s start over here. Is there anyone, anywhere, who is examining the efficacy of the Left in more interesting and worthwhile ways?