Countercultural threats get defanged by commercial absorption

Evidence

Yet by the time Reagan became president, the hippies’ “peace and love” values had morphed into an insipid Coke commercial: “I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony / I’d like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company.” After commercialism crashed into Woodstock, designer blue jeans sold for $100, grocery stores sold chocolate-covered granola bars with fifty ingredients, and elevator-music versions of classic sixties protest songs gently rocked dentist-office waiting rooms. One could then enjoy the appealing looks, tastes, and sounds without being disturbed by those worldview-threatening messages about a simpler, less status-conscious, healthier, and more peaceful lifestyle. — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 501

Categorization

• XREF: This is cultural accommodation in action — the very mechanism the chapter defines at 499, mirroring other analyses of co-optation and commodification of dissent. — connects to: Mobilizing through commercial platforms simultaneously strengthens the order being opposed — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 587; Countercultural rebellion was co-opted as a selling tool by advertisers — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 549; A solidarity crusade collapses when its manufactured threat vanishes — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 1579 (+1 more)
• ADDENDUM: Relates to the ‘Complaints About Immodesty Go Way Back’ piece — the same defusing-by-absorption dynamic visible in dress panics becoming fashion trends.