On the eve of WrestleMania 41, I wanted to talk beriefly about the end of my viewing of WWE content.
Professional Wrestling is somewhat unique among entertainment, the always on continual production common only with comic books and soap operas, a unique, never-ending fliw that continually repeats and reinforces the tropes of the medium for a new audience generation.
So while I’ve watched on and off for over 40 years (a side-effect of growing up in a wrestling hotbedike Calgary) I’ve taken breaks from watching it before. Certain incidents (with the WWE) have caused me to quit, though I usually come back after a few years, curious to see what’s going on after hearing buzz from my friends. These incidents, like Owens death, Chris’ death, Katie Vick, or HHH’s WM win were always tied to either a sadness or disgust with the product.
Which is why I think this time is my last.
The problems that WWE has have never really gone away, and much of this is replicated across the industry. But naturally the biggest player, with the most money attention, show this off more starkly than the rest.
Ultimately, it’s the close ties of the owners with the ongoing events in the United States, and their somewhat closer role in brining it about, that drives me away.
i can’t watch the product without being painfully reminded of what they’re associated with.
so, even though I might like to see it, I won’t support it in any way any more.
The recent reveal by a number of Chinese companies that they were behind the manufacture of goods for high-end luxury brands like Hermes and Lululemon, and that consumers were vastly overpaying for the goods relative to the actual cost of materials and labour that went into their production led me to recall the idea of a Veblen Good, and the role that they play in Conspicuous Consumption.
Of course, the very idea of Conspicuous Consumption leads one to infer that we might have other versions of that formulation. What is the opposite of it? What would that look like? Much like our look last summer at Nescience and Excession, we can break it down…
Conspicuous Consumption: this is the place where your Veblen goods reside, items used for displaying ones membership in the leisure class (and up). The material goods that are part of this are fairly well-studied and understood, but there are some other “lifestyle” options that some might not recognize as Conspicuous Consumption as well. The whole “trad” movement (trad life, trad wife, etc.) would fall in here, as would various overconsumption movements like quiverful or polygamous groups.
And the form of Conspicuous Consumption can vary as well, based on culture: CC in urban areas, with designer goods, may look different than CC is rural ones, where an outsized RV or a boat, or even owning horses, serves the same purpose as having a backyard swimming pool or a kid in hockey (as opposed to soccer or something).
Inconspicuous Consumption: This is where basic needs are met, or if you’re in a luxury market or a higher tax bracket, you have the good sense not to let on too much. This can be where the consumption “just happens”, or it is subsumed in the background, and is just shown through use (I’m thinking of music instruments or computer gear here specifically) and lacks the branded hyper-specific consumption seen above.
Inconspicuous Non-consumption: The land of ghosts, the place of no comment and no return. Of people passing by and saying “not for me”, and go about their lives not doing things. This is fine of course, you’re not owed anything, but it can sometimes be tough on the producers’ side to understand why people aren’t picking up what you’re putting down. Still, this is relatively innocuous as far as positions go.
And finally, the worst:
Conspicuous Non-consumption: This is the the realm of aggro and internet arguments. The land of `1-star Yelp reviews. The place where the haters dwell, where hate-watching was born. A place where the vegan crossfitters who don’t even own a TV will let you know all about their life choices. This place is the worst.
I hate that I’m stuck here.*
But there’s so much of it. Because if consumption is a performative act, then not-consuming something becomes performative as well, as the antithesis of it. I feel like it arises from a desire, and a lack, so there’s likely something very Lacanian about all of it. The desire, of course, is in both wanting something to be better, so choosing not to use it becomes an element of identity, and then a desire for recognition of your explicit choice not to do something, which may be something that the Non-Consumer has chosen on what they perceive to be moral, ethical, ideological, or other grounds.
The decision not to watch TV (as an example), or eat meat, or any of these other actions that are assumed as something that everyone does, as part of the culture one belongs in, needs to be communicated to others (and sometimes reinforced for the self) to let them know about the “rightness” of one’s actions. If one truly didn’t care about using Generative AI (for a different example), one would just go about one’s day not using it, like with the rest of the Inconspicuous Non-consumption above.
It’s the telling that’s the key.
And because it takes on that tone of preaching and/or proselytization, it becomes irksome quickly. Hopefully it isn’t the sole defining fact about one’s identity, and that it can be something that is only mentioned in passing when relevant, rather than constantly shouted from the rooftop.
*: with respect to certain things, like Substack being awful, and Spotify too, and a fair few other things. Feel free to let me know if I get too preachy.
For now, this is just mirroring our videos that are currently on YouTube (which are themselves just there because Google shut down Google Podcasts and migrated everything there). So if you want the original material, you can always get it my subscribing to the ImplausiPod, available on select podcast services.
But we recognize that not everyone likes or has access to YouTube, or consumes media in the same way, so we’ll make it available here as well.
As we get a little better with the video editing, this will be the first site for original video content. Hope to bring you more here soon as well.
One of the challenges of drifting away from the academic institutions is the reduced access to academic work. This has impacted the material I’m able to draw on for research and reporting. So when a good open access database is available, such as the one provided by UC Santa Barbara, it’s nice to keep track of it, and in this case, share.
We’ll squirrel this away under the Research page for now, and add more updates to that as we go.
Was struggling a bit with the creativity over the holidays, which spilled over into the new year and the seemingly unending flood of bad news. As you can tell by the existence of this post, I’ve managed to get things moving a bit. The first step was turning off the firehose, and you can follow that link to read about some constructive actions to take towards your media health.
The second step is to keep creating. I mentioned my struggle in passing and was pointed toward this interview with Heather Cox Richardson via The National Press Club. The relevant bit is at the 57-minute mark (spoilers) which this clip below should link directly to:
The gist of her advice is to “behave with joy”, as a means of resistance against an authoritarian government. “Do the things that matter to you, and that you can bring to the people around you.” “We can meet the moment, and as scholars, be honest”, and that by doing the best (scholarly) work we can, we contribute back to humanity.
Which seems like a lot to ask from a blog and media channels that mostly focus on the intersection of sci-fi and technology, but it’s what we’re doing. Maybe our project is a little bit wider in scope than we initially thought.
But the big takeaway, at least for me, is that moment of reflection that I like what we’re doing here, and I enjoy doing the podcast, the blog, the newsletter, the videos (about which I hope to show you more soon!) and the various other bits we have going on here.
So, after a brief period of stasis, we’ll get back to the things that bring us joy, and find the joy in sharing them with you as well. See ya soon!
