The ever-excellent Random Walks captures the enraging and worrisome absurdity of the Gap expropriating anti-globalization anti-corporate sentiment to market its jeans.
“…(D)ue to the tremendous power of corporate advertising over consumers, Gap might just pull it off, trivializing the movement… and selling jeans at the same time.
The effect that this new marketing could have on the movement is tremendous. If Gap
succeeds, it will mean that every protest that is staged will be building on their new
image, in effect turning protestors and activists into living, walking ads for Gap.”
I hated Archie Bunker. I hated all TV during the All In the Family era, come to think of it, but I especially hated Archie Bunker. Getting a little confused between the character and the actor (“The finger pointing at the moon is not the moon”, the saying goes), I didn’t think too much about Carroll O’Connor’s passing until I read this arresting quote, also from Random Walks:
“As James Baldwin wrote, the white man here is trapped by his own history, a history that he
himself cannot comprehend and therefore what can I do but love him?”
R.I.P. O’Connor.
