Thomas Frank & David Mulcahey, Editors: Boob Jubilee: The Cultural Politics Of The New Economy

At a time in the late '90s when free-market libertarians were declaring the end of history and the triumph of capitalism, the lefty contrarians at The Baffler were reminding readers that history still teaches valuable lessons, and that the modern economy looks kinder when viewed from the top. Nowadays, that principled skepticism looks not only sane, but also prescient. The magazine is entitled to a hearty "I told you so," and it takes one in the form of Boob Jubilee, an essay collection that picks up where 1997's Commodify Your Dissent left off. Jubilee explores all of The Baffler's pet themes, particularly the absurdity of business culture, corporate co-option of subcultures, and the right's suggestion that the working class' true enemies are academics, minorities, corrupt union bosses, and cultural elites. At its best, Boob Jubilee combines righteous outrage with an anarchic sense of fun. In Paul Maliszewski's "I, Faker," a beaten-down business writer creates a series of Tyler Durden-like alter egos whose straight-faced satires get published by clueless business magazines. At his most Swiftian, Maliszewski switches words around so that a torture manual used at the School Of The Americas becomes a manager's guide to dealing with employees. In a similar vein, Joshua Glenn's "I'd Like To Force The World To Sing" irreverently posits that OK Soda, Coca-Cola's disastrous attempt at creating a carbonated beverage to tap into Generation X's legendary ennui, was in fact a sinister conspiracy to create a new breed of Stepford neo-conservatives. Boob Jubilee delves into corporate co-option of indie rock with Mike O'Flaherty's humorless "Rockerdammerung," which possesses the dreary predictability of a hipster complaining that the scene used to be cool before all the frat boys and suburbanites ruined it, but that piece is an anomaly in a collection that bristles with lively intelligence and unabashed muckraking. If the Democratic Party were as relevant, angry, and vital as The Baffler, the country's political landscape would be far more fair and balanced.