Buying In - (Page 30) 30 rob walker Outlaw feels helpless and seeks the experience of power even if only in the ability to shock or defy others.” Helpless? That isn’t usually part of the equation when we think of our individualistic outlaw heroes. But think again about those Zephyr outlaws: a downtrodden neighborhood in the era of Vietnam, race riots, Watergate, stagflation, and oil shocks was a good place and time to feel helpless. The 1970s are often thought of today as a time of bad disco and worse haircuts, but it was also the moment when the Sex Pistols found an audience that responded to the concise howl No future. “We surfed,” one Zephyr original later said, “while America went down the tubes.” But, of course, one can feel helpless in a middle-class suburb, too—just as Templeton and his broken-home outcast friends might have. The real attraction of the Outlaw isn’t just individualism, it’s defeating helplessness with self-reliance. In addition to serving as an exemplar of authentic living, the skater is depicted as a person who makes something out of nothing—and expects help from no one in doing it. The skater outlaw personifies the sense that deep down, each one of us is unique. joining is over But you will recall that this is only half of the fundamental tension of modern life. The other half is feeling like part of something bigger. Most discussions of the skater outlaw don’t dwell on that side of what seems like such an individualistic pursuit, but it’s there, and it’s crucial. When marketers talk about the desire for the modern consumer to express his or her individuality, they flatter us and pander to us—and they frighten us. Because we know what
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