"The basic themes of anticonsumerism can be found in One-Dimensional Man: over-identification and symbolic reliance on consumer goods for personal satisfaction, the creation of desire and the fulfillment of wants instead of basic needs, the irrational expenditure of labor in pursuit of continuous consumption, the waste and environmental damage sustained in order to produce such goods, and the corresponding illogic of planned obsolescence. The inherent multidimensionality of the individual and one’s experience is thus eroded, and with it the capacity for critical thought and opposition. Following the austerity of the Great Depression and the sacrifices of World War II, America’s postwar economic boom and its ascent as a global superpower created an impression of abundance, no matter how unevenly it was actually distributed in society, fueled by technological and scientific advancements—so much so, that it was even possible to proclaim an impending “post-scarcity” society. That plenitude was not universal and that freedom was an experience enjoyed by a privileged majority did not go unnoticed by a younger generation, who were not yet initiated into the trappings of mainstream society. Accordingly, any revolution would come not from the working class realizing its alienation from its own labor, as classic Marxism theorizes, but rather, as Marcuse argues, from a new youth movement that resists its inculcation into such a system in the first place and joins together with the dispossessed already operating outside of it."

"The Barricade and the Dance Floor: Aesthetic Radicalism and the Counterculture" is republished from Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia (Walker Art Center, 2015; Andrew Blauvelt, ed.). The exhibition is on view October 24, 2015 through February 28, 2015, before traveling to the Cranbrook Art Museum and University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.

Previously, Hippie Modernism: How Bay Area design radicals tried to save the planet