<\/p>\n
Rebellion has become the official aesthetic of consumer society. The anointed cultural opponents of capitalism are now capitalism\u2019s ideologues.<\/em><\/p>\n Everyone loves a good rebel; a confident jerk who isn\u2019t afraid of rules, an apathetic hero with some \u2018tude. But what happens when it\u2019s no longer clear what any of them are rebelling against\u2014when rebellion stops being the exception and starts becoming the rule? Few seem to have noticed\u2014we\u2019re all too busy swooning over Han Solos and Ferris Buellers, and making not one but six movies about Steve Jobs\u2014but it happened long ago. The original counter-culturists, most often associated with the Beats, had something to rebel against; enemies of conformity, they railed against the evils of mainstream corporate culture\u2014you know, the guys who wanted everyone to buy the same Chevy and watch I Love Lucy<\/em> every week. But soon, Hollywood was making movies like Rebel Without a Cause <\/em>and later the films of John Hughes, and corporations from food tycoons to clothing giants were selling products with ads that championed non-conformity. Such corporate endorsements of rebellion may have excited some and angered others in the past, but today they are so thoroughly ingrained in our media that we accept them without consideration.<\/p>\n One such modern example is the movie Iron Man<\/em>, which passed by with general critical acclaim and box office success (though not before ushering in the corporate behemoth that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe). It follows Tony Stark, an arrogant playboy and gazillionaire-tech-inventor, who gets captured by terrorists on a trip to Afghanistan and builds a big metal suit to escape, later perfecting the suit and turning himself into the superhero known as Iron Man. Stark is presented to us as a rebellious figure from the outset, first seen drinking a glass of bourbon and wearing a suit in the back of a military Humvee driving through the Afghan desert (not a setting most would choose for such lavish dress and activity), and then seen gambling with women instead of accepting a prestigious award\u2014the rich philanthropist equivalent to cutting class. After this, we see him seduce a journalist, and the next day, keep a plane waiting for him for three hours without apology (rebels do not apologize for their actions). Later, in the terrorist cave, the other inventor in captivity tells Stark of the time they met at a convention, noting, \u201cif I had been that drunk, I wouldn\u2019t be able to stand, much less give a lecture on integrated circuits.\u201d Showing Stark\u2019s disregard for basic norms and rules that govern society, like not being inebriated at important public events, clearly characterizes him as a rebel. So why does this matter? The movie offers good evidence of how rebellion has become the dominant aesthetic of corporate culture, and how corporate culture now uses rebellion and ideas like it to surreptitiously further its goals.<\/p>\n One of these ideas, or themes, that plays out heavily in Iron Man<\/em> is individualism. Original rebels like Ginsberg championed individualism in response to mid-century capitalist conformity; that is, until corporations started to champion individualism for the sake of profit. The more consumers believe in the importance of individuality, the less they believe in the importance of groups, of the public, of solidarity. While countercultural hippies rejected mainstream corporate culture in favor of social solidarity and connection, corporations now espouse this same rebellion to erode social solidarity, the one thing challenging their power. This has only intensified in the recent age of technology, in which every guy coding in his garage is heralded as the world\u2019s savior, as opposed to some dusty old government or any kind of social movement. Boy, that does sound familiar\u2026 Iron Man<\/em> is all about Tony Stark making stuff in his garage, and how he\u2019s gonna change the world, all by himself. Upon his return from Afghanistan, he refuses to go to the hospital (a public service), opting to operate on himself instead. The movie then takes pains to show us that Stark works alone in his garage, with no other people helping him; instead he works with robots he\u2019s created, conversing with them and in fact relying heavily on them, his companion Jarvis saving his life on multiple occasions. Besides one press of a button from his assistant Pepper in the end, Iron Man solves everything alone in the movie. To escape captivity, he builds an armored suit and breaks out. When he realizes all the harm his weapons are causing, he, unbeknownst to anyone, decides to shut down Stark industries\u2019 weapons division. When he hears about the terrorist attack on the town of Gulmira, he flies there himself and kills all the terrorists. When it comes time to fight a bad-guy-iron man, he does the heavy lifting, fighting him almost entirely on his own (until trusty Pepper presses the magic button he tells her to press). On multiple occasions, he deceives and hides his weapon from the military. He also lives on a secluded rock and owns a private jet. All of these details build the corporate lone-wolf persona of Iron Man, something business always likes to see more of.<\/p>\n The movie briefly asks us to see the downside of this firm individualism, when the other inventor in the cave tells Stark, \u201cyou\u2019re a man who has everything, and nothing\u201d after Stark admits to not having a family. But this construes Stark\u2019s problem as just a personal one, because he lacks close personal and familial ties with people\u2014an issue that is supposed to be somewhat righted by Stark growing closer and starting to build a relationship with Pepper. While the concern for family values may be legitimate, there is no similar concern for the lack of general community values\u2014the movie doesn\u2019t see this as an issue. Stark building a powerful weapon and flying around the world in it fighting bad guys by himself is just cool; there are no apparent downsides or consequences. Thus individualism is upheld as one of the movies biggest messages\u2014something that can\u2019t be written off, as characters like Iron Man especially inspire millions of children and adults alike every day.<\/p>\n This being said, individualism is not the only modern corporate value evident in the movie. Much of conventional business thought today circles around breaking the rules, taking risks, forging your own path, etc. etc. As author Thomas Frank puts it, \u201cperpetual revolution and the gospel of rule-breaking are the orthodoxy of the day.\u201d[1]<\/a> Tony Stark couldn\u2019t embody these ideals any more fully. When presenting his weapons in the beginning, he says, \u201csome say it\u2019s better to be feared than respected. I say, is it too much to ask for both?\u201d Here, he is consciously trying to break with convention as part of a bit to sell his product, and it works. Then, when he is captured by terrorists and told to make them a missile if he wants to live, he breaks the rules and builds an armored suit to escape. The correct response to this scene: \u201cwow, he really thought outside the box there!\u201d When he returns home and gives a press conference, he asks everyone in the room to sit down on the floor as he gives his speech sitting in front of instead of behind the podium, evoking the casualness and perhaps even pseudo-Eastern philosophies so cherished by today\u2019s corporate moguls. Later, when testing out the flying capability of his new suit prototype, he decides to go outside on full power, responding to Jarvis\u2019 warnings by saying, \u201cSometimes you gotta run before you can walk\u201d\u2014a line he could have substituted for any number of corporate slogans encouraging risk-taking and subversion of norms. The end of the movie then bookends this theme quite fittingly: Stark is given note cards to read at a press conference to dispel rumors about the suit and keep the peace\u2014after some consideration, he decides to ignore the cards and triumphantly declare himself Iron Man. How much more symbolically could he stray from convention, forge his own path, and be a risk taker? Once, these concepts represented a daring, countercultural perspective. They may still seem that way to the average viewer, but by now, as demonstrated by movies like Iron Man<\/em>, they have been so fully adopted as part of the corporate doctrine that they subvert very little.<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to dismiss all of this as over-analysis, that it\u2019s just a film rendition of a comic book hero, an entertaining story detached from reality. But understood in context, Iron Man<\/em> is fully representative of a larger phenomenon in our culture\u2014one where corporations now champion individualist rebellion in opposition to social solidarity\u2014and the lack of anyone to notice or care is exactly the point. One of the major victories for corporate culture that has come out of their adoption of rebellion has been their power over rebellious icons\u2014not to be overlooked, because everyone loves a good rebel. Corporations like Walt Disney now produce and control the biggest rebellious icons of our day, and they have the power to make them the corporate individualists they want to see. Behold, Iron Man, children\u2019s idol and patron saint of CEOs.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n An earlier draft of this essay was read by Geoffrey Salmon.<\/p>\n I have written this essay in the style of Thomas Frank.<\/p>\n