Rebel, Rebel?

This week I've started a new book entitled Nation of Rebels: Why Counterculture Became Consumer Culture, written by Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter.

The basic premise of the book is pretty much how it sounds - how various countercultural movements have eventually been absorbed and commodified over time. And, for being rather overarching and glib at times (this, after all, is an enormous subject with many interpretations), it is definitely a read I'd recommend to all you kidlets who frequent this here blog.

And, in doing so, my curiosity is piqued. What do you all as individuals define as a countercultural stance? Where do you feel yourself rebelling, and how? Who do you hold up as your personal heros and villains in society? What do you feel you can achieve by taking the stances you have, and how would you view the world you live in if a significant number of folks did the same? From what sources do you find your angers and solace come, and why?

I realize that the above is enough fodder for an entire essay, never mind a small paragraph or two in the Comments section here, but do your best. What does rebellion mean in a capitalist society when say, the death of Kurt Cobain gets figured in to the unit-shifting of Nirvana's catalog at the record label? Why is suicide so marketable? Why is thinking for yourself seen so often as an act of extroverted behavior?

Get back to me, kidlets. I value your thoughts, I want to win the hearts and minds of my readership.