New York Times Reading/Situationist Resistance in Today's World

Would Situationist strategies of resistance work today? Would a credit

card company be able to predict and neutralize any resistance in

advance?

            I think it’s pretty impossible for situationists to resist all forms of conformity and pre-made decisions in today’s world, and a lot of their resistance would be so unnoticed as to completely ineffective. So many things that have become an integral part of everyday life are also collecting information about us and telling us what to do.

Using the Internet for example has become so every-day, that the student who does not have a computer in the United States is at a huge disadvantage, even in the public school systems, which are supposed to be free. This student suddenly has to get into a car and go to the library to access information for homework and assignments. But what if that student doesn’t have a car, something that society is also constantly telling us that we need? Public transportation would be the next option, but what happens if the students’ town doesn’t have very good public transit, or the busses don’t run very late? Suddenly this student is jumping through hurdles to complete an assignment that a kid with a computer could get done very easily and quickly, and at their own leisure without worrying about what time the busses run, when the library closes, or if someone can give them a ride. The public school system, and higher education as well for that matter is telling us that in order to be a good student, we must have access to the Internet. But everything we do on the Internet can potentially be traced. Everything we write online is floating out in cyberspace, and it’s very hard to remove all traces of it.

            In some ways boycotting or resisting something like the internet could end up being more detrimental than it is worth, especially for students. But to break down this hypothetical even further, society tells us that to be a good student, we must have a computer. Alternately, society also tells us we must constantly be good students, or we will never get a good job. But the definition of a “good job” has been completely convoluted by an obsession with money and it’s ties to happiness that the definition is constantly changing.

            If someone chose to go without education, they would likely not have a high paying or extremely thought provoking job. This would be detrimental to quality of life in that it would be hard to pay for things like a house, electricity, and food. But who says having things like a house, electricity, and food are absolute necessities? Society tells us. Who says that the low paying job isn’t a good job? Maybe the person is very content in their low paying job. Society tells us.

            This internet example applies to credit cards. How do you realistically function in society without a credit card? Art you at a disadvantage? Probably. But if you do get one, how do you resist company profiling and psychoanalysis? You don’t. It’s impossible.

            Resisting everything is impossible. The thought process that goes along with this question is infinite. I could write about it forever. I’m sure there are some people out there who have resisted things like internet, but how do I know? It doesn’t show up on my google newsfeed, on facebook, on tv, or in the newspaper. So it resisting really affective? In some regards, I would say no, because making a statement without anyone noticing is not really making a statement at all.