The Indian prisoner is set free. He is “allowed“ to speak his mind. He gets a smile back. He is on MTV.
The face of the emperor is replaced with the leering clown face of Ronald McDonald.
It’s now an all-laughing, all-cheering peaceful world isn’t it? Full of attractions, spectacles, love and fireworks. It’s the empire of Walt Disney, The World of Coca-Cola.
I know it’s somewhat cheesy to degrade the postcolonial debate to coco-colonization. However, there lies the danger in need of assessment, and the road to that curls around the homeland of citizen Mickey.
The new colonial emperors are not controlling the routes to gems, cocoa, silk and gold. They got control over kamasutra, feng shui, the kimono and the nasty ninja. Independence is just a mere consolation. The “irrational, depraved, (fallen), childlike”[1] oriental is an eye candy now. His culture is a huge commodity to be consumed instantly. He has always been eccentric alright, but never been a standard fetish in this scale.
On the other side, the discourse of the emperor remains clearly the same. “You can not decide what you want. We know what is best for you.” Only now Balfours wear a cute mask.
The enormous palace of Coca Cola in Atlanta, rightfully called “The World of Coca-Cola” has an interesting attraction behind its giant walls, along many of other “cool” ones. This pretty room displays products from all over the world which the Coca-Cola Company has been producing and proudly marketing for years. It has the sour cherry juices with exotic flavors, the sweet flower juices from China, and 18 other brands consumed internationally. Not so surprisingly, the refreshing fountains of cool spirits are the most popular attraction for the tourists (mostly Americans). They taste the difference in little cups-just a sip not more-curiously. Hesitant but still really astonished faces sometimes spit out the strange juice, sometimes appreciate the fragrant aroma from the far side of the world. This little experience of the other is all they can get in the huge building. Not so surprisingly again, the only purpose of the alien zone is to convince the coke fans that the real thing is what they have been drinking for years. The real magical taste of the dark bottle. But still, the allegedly uniting strategies of the brand managers remain strong.
Coca Cola respects and embraces different cultures. It unites people with one modest bottle, a sip and a mouthful of love!
In Coca-Cola's utopian internationalism, it is not nature, but to the universal consumption of a commodity--Coke--which ties people together. Its implication is that if every person in the world drank Coke, we would all live in peace and brotherly love.[2]
So far so good…Now the giant companies want the people of the world to be juggled up in brotherly happiness, we can all feel peaceful about our pathetic existence in this small world. “A small world” indeed. As Walt Disney was so enthusiastic about, “a small world” is what peace is all about. The big guys now how to rule now. The motto transcends the notion of “divide and rule”. It becomes to “create your own”.
It is simple.
First you need the capital, of course. When you got loads and loads of money, you go and pick some remote place on earth to invest, which should be real cheap. You build your own cute little sweat shop, employ thousands and become the king of the place. Everybody loves you. Why, because you shine like a star in these poor people’s lives as the god-like being who gave them jobs to bring supplies to their homes, just enough to survive.
Then you go back to your home, which is probably in sunny California, and work on your campaign to announce how you want the children of the world to be all happy and healthy. You build your whole strategy on “we are the world” crap and ta-ta! Oh, you’re as cute as Santa Claus, chubby as an easter egg, an all so powerful like a real knight with the shiny armor. Kids love you. (First kids then the republicans perhaps.)
That’s probably the way things work around Roland McDonald, the magical wizard in charge of Coca-Cola and our dear Mr. Walt Disney.
But, that’s not all folks! As I said before you need to build/create you own little empire to succeed and amaze your crowd. This is your primary objective as the emperor.
Take Uncle Walt for example; he was dreaming of this small land of peace in his death bed, for god sakes! He deserves credit for his good intentions, if anything…
The Disneyland is just a theme park. Forget about the simulation formula weaved around it. Even the creators were shocked to realize that it was just a theme park. When they saw the filthy strip clubs, cheap motels, smelly burger stands start poping up around place, they were so frightened to ruin the dream for their beloved customers (should I say citizens?) that they decided to build a town! No filthy stuff, no dirt, even no mud on the shiny pavement. It should be all green and enchanted. And it should all be theirs, oops ours I mean. So our good old Walt came out with this project of EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow). Fancy, ha? Of course it wasn’t easy. Do you know how much hardship he had been through just to close the deal of that property with absolutely spending no money at all? It’s no joke. The place was twice the size of Manhattan Island, and he wouldn’t have to pay any taxes for it. Now, that’s a good bargain. Can only be made possible by a genius like him. He wanted to build this place for his people. "It will be a planned, controlled community," he explains, "a showcase for American industry and research, schools, cultural and educational opportunities." Great!
"In EPCOT," Walt promised, "there will be no slum areas because we won't let them develop." It just keeps getting better!
Unfortunately, Walt’s great idea had never come to life as he imagined. Later Disney executives and smart lawyers realized that “permanent residents of Disney World would threaten the company's control”.[3]
Same old story isn’t it. As Walt Disney puts it beautifully in his speech on July 1955; “I don’t want public to see the real world they live in while they are in the park. I want them to feel they’re in another world” The crippled reality of the leering clown replaces the fact that you’re being used, abused, brain washed, sucked to the last drop and thrown away as a disposed trash.
Of course, whole world knows about all these. Why do you think people get scared of the clowns? How they resist then? The answers is simple: From the inside. It’s not a hot and bloody independence war. It is a struggle to keep your cultural identity right where it belongs. Your very own existence, your beliefs, likes, dislikes and freedom above all, is now not forced to replaced, but more dangerously tend to dissolve in someone else’s.
And it is all so complicated know. The war from the inside, beyond the sewers of the mainstream challenges you to keep it silent and secret. Because when you put something out there which voices your pure concern for the ongoing neo-colonial abuse, it might air on MTV right away!
“MTV, like Google with all encompassing credo, “don’t be evil”, defines the face of the new multi-nationals. The clown face of McDonald is replaced by the smirk of the geek chic and knowing grin of the street smart kid. Contemporary MTV trades on the new cultural terrain of “massclusivity”, exclusivity for the masses.”[4]
There is nothing attractive about it. It is just there. When we throw out the tulle curtain before the truth, can it still be found? Are secrets the complementaries of truth? If we come to the point where we realize that all our searches was in vain, and there is no truth to be found, only the obscene reality of visibles, will we create our own phantasms, dark illusions of secrecy to re-weave the curtain which used to make us think that there was something behind?
Yeah, yeah…Zizek was right again…
“Now, we are forced to strike back, to deal with real enemies in the real world... However, WHOM to strike? Whatever the response, it will never hit the RIGHT target, bringing us full satisfaction.”[5]
[1] Edward Said “Orientalism” p.40
[2]Ted Friedman The World of The World of Coca-Cola Communication Research, Vol. 19 No 5, October 1992, pp. 642-662
[3] Hidden Kingdom Disney's Political Blueprint, Joshua Wolf Shenk
[4] On Air: The Visual Messages And Global Language Of MTV, edited by: Sophie Lovell Gestalten Verlag; Book&Dvdrm edition (March 30, 2006), p. 33
[5]WELCOME TO THE DESERT OF THE REAL By Slavoj Zizek, 09/15/2001
The face of the emperor is replaced with the leering clown face of Ronald McDonald.
It’s now an all-laughing, all-cheering peaceful world isn’t it? Full of attractions, spectacles, love and fireworks. It’s the empire of Walt Disney, The World of Coca-Cola.
I know it’s somewhat cheesy to degrade the postcolonial debate to coco-colonization. However, there lies the danger in need of assessment, and the road to that curls around the homeland of citizen Mickey.
The new colonial emperors are not controlling the routes to gems, cocoa, silk and gold. They got control over kamasutra, feng shui, the kimono and the nasty ninja. Independence is just a mere consolation. The “irrational, depraved, (fallen), childlike”[1] oriental is an eye candy now. His culture is a huge commodity to be consumed instantly. He has always been eccentric alright, but never been a standard fetish in this scale.
On the other side, the discourse of the emperor remains clearly the same. “You can not decide what you want. We know what is best for you.” Only now Balfours wear a cute mask.
The enormous palace of Coca Cola in Atlanta, rightfully called “The World of Coca-Cola” has an interesting attraction behind its giant walls, along many of other “cool” ones. This pretty room displays products from all over the world which the Coca-Cola Company has been producing and proudly marketing for years. It has the sour cherry juices with exotic flavors, the sweet flower juices from China, and 18 other brands consumed internationally. Not so surprisingly, the refreshing fountains of cool spirits are the most popular attraction for the tourists (mostly Americans). They taste the difference in little cups-just a sip not more-curiously. Hesitant but still really astonished faces sometimes spit out the strange juice, sometimes appreciate the fragrant aroma from the far side of the world. This little experience of the other is all they can get in the huge building. Not so surprisingly again, the only purpose of the alien zone is to convince the coke fans that the real thing is what they have been drinking for years. The real magical taste of the dark bottle. But still, the allegedly uniting strategies of the brand managers remain strong.
Coca Cola respects and embraces different cultures. It unites people with one modest bottle, a sip and a mouthful of love!
In Coca-Cola's utopian internationalism, it is not nature, but to the universal consumption of a commodity--Coke--which ties people together. Its implication is that if every person in the world drank Coke, we would all live in peace and brotherly love.[2]
So far so good…Now the giant companies want the people of the world to be juggled up in brotherly happiness, we can all feel peaceful about our pathetic existence in this small world. “A small world” indeed. As Walt Disney was so enthusiastic about, “a small world” is what peace is all about. The big guys now how to rule now. The motto transcends the notion of “divide and rule”. It becomes to “create your own”.
It is simple.
First you need the capital, of course. When you got loads and loads of money, you go and pick some remote place on earth to invest, which should be real cheap. You build your own cute little sweat shop, employ thousands and become the king of the place. Everybody loves you. Why, because you shine like a star in these poor people’s lives as the god-like being who gave them jobs to bring supplies to their homes, just enough to survive.
Then you go back to your home, which is probably in sunny California, and work on your campaign to announce how you want the children of the world to be all happy and healthy. You build your whole strategy on “we are the world” crap and ta-ta! Oh, you’re as cute as Santa Claus, chubby as an easter egg, an all so powerful like a real knight with the shiny armor. Kids love you. (First kids then the republicans perhaps.)
That’s probably the way things work around Roland McDonald, the magical wizard in charge of Coca-Cola and our dear Mr. Walt Disney.
But, that’s not all folks! As I said before you need to build/create you own little empire to succeed and amaze your crowd. This is your primary objective as the emperor.
Take Uncle Walt for example; he was dreaming of this small land of peace in his death bed, for god sakes! He deserves credit for his good intentions, if anything…
The Disneyland is just a theme park. Forget about the simulation formula weaved around it. Even the creators were shocked to realize that it was just a theme park. When they saw the filthy strip clubs, cheap motels, smelly burger stands start poping up around place, they were so frightened to ruin the dream for their beloved customers (should I say citizens?) that they decided to build a town! No filthy stuff, no dirt, even no mud on the shiny pavement. It should be all green and enchanted. And it should all be theirs, oops ours I mean. So our good old Walt came out with this project of EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow). Fancy, ha? Of course it wasn’t easy. Do you know how much hardship he had been through just to close the deal of that property with absolutely spending no money at all? It’s no joke. The place was twice the size of Manhattan Island, and he wouldn’t have to pay any taxes for it. Now, that’s a good bargain. Can only be made possible by a genius like him. He wanted to build this place for his people. "It will be a planned, controlled community," he explains, "a showcase for American industry and research, schools, cultural and educational opportunities." Great!
"In EPCOT," Walt promised, "there will be no slum areas because we won't let them develop." It just keeps getting better!
Unfortunately, Walt’s great idea had never come to life as he imagined. Later Disney executives and smart lawyers realized that “permanent residents of Disney World would threaten the company's control”.[3]
Same old story isn’t it. As Walt Disney puts it beautifully in his speech on July 1955; “I don’t want public to see the real world they live in while they are in the park. I want them to feel they’re in another world” The crippled reality of the leering clown replaces the fact that you’re being used, abused, brain washed, sucked to the last drop and thrown away as a disposed trash.
Of course, whole world knows about all these. Why do you think people get scared of the clowns? How they resist then? The answers is simple: From the inside. It’s not a hot and bloody independence war. It is a struggle to keep your cultural identity right where it belongs. Your very own existence, your beliefs, likes, dislikes and freedom above all, is now not forced to replaced, but more dangerously tend to dissolve in someone else’s.
And it is all so complicated know. The war from the inside, beyond the sewers of the mainstream challenges you to keep it silent and secret. Because when you put something out there which voices your pure concern for the ongoing neo-colonial abuse, it might air on MTV right away!
“MTV, like Google with all encompassing credo, “don’t be evil”, defines the face of the new multi-nationals. The clown face of McDonald is replaced by the smirk of the geek chic and knowing grin of the street smart kid. Contemporary MTV trades on the new cultural terrain of “massclusivity”, exclusivity for the masses.”[4]
There is nothing attractive about it. It is just there. When we throw out the tulle curtain before the truth, can it still be found? Are secrets the complementaries of truth? If we come to the point where we realize that all our searches was in vain, and there is no truth to be found, only the obscene reality of visibles, will we create our own phantasms, dark illusions of secrecy to re-weave the curtain which used to make us think that there was something behind?
Yeah, yeah…Zizek was right again…
“Now, we are forced to strike back, to deal with real enemies in the real world... However, WHOM to strike? Whatever the response, it will never hit the RIGHT target, bringing us full satisfaction.”[5]
[1] Edward Said “Orientalism” p.40
[2]Ted Friedman The World of The World of Coca-Cola Communication Research, Vol. 19 No 5, October 1992, pp. 642-662
[3] Hidden Kingdom Disney's Political Blueprint, Joshua Wolf Shenk
[4] On Air: The Visual Messages And Global Language Of MTV, edited by: Sophie Lovell Gestalten Verlag; Book&Dvdrm edition (March 30, 2006), p. 33
[5]WELCOME TO THE DESERT OF THE REAL By Slavoj Zizek, 09/15/2001
