SUBSERVIENT CHICKEN IN DECLINE

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a note on the Subservient Chicken, a disturbingly weird-ass promo from Burger King. Now some girl draws our attention to a Yahoo News report that tells how, after it’s fifteen minutes of cyber-fame, the chicken is officially in decline...

Between April 11 and April 18, the number of people who visited the site at least once from their home computers surged more than two-and-a-half times to 407,000, according to tracking firm Nielsen/NetRatings. Since then, traffic has trailed off, with just 186,000 people visiting the site from home in the week ended May 2. Miami-based Burger King has remained mum about the chicken's future but said consumers should not expect to see his image at one of its restaurants.
"That would be far too mainstream," Burger King spokesman Blake Lewis said. "The chicken doesn't do mainstream."
http://www.subservientchicken.com

FROM THE EMAIL

kaymo writes at length...

Who the hell are these people? wonders Doc 40. In Mother Jones this month I see that 61% of Americans now profess to believe that the Biblical story of the creation of the world/universe in 7 days is literally true. We already know that Americans have rejected the sciences of biology, geology, paleontology, astronomy, cosmology, genetics, etc. etc. since a huge majority of Americans reject "Evolution" in favor of one flavor or another of Creationism. The same rejection ultimately has to include Physics, Math and even Chemistry, since all scientific inquiry is tending to move along the same rails towards similar conclusions. (As long as the Higgs Boson really does exist! If not, oh boy....) What does this mean? One could say that these Americans have chosen a
kind of childish wilfulness, a deliberate refusal to see the world as it is. In doing so they have joined the Islamic fundamentalists, Hindu nationalists, Ultra orthodox Jews and sundry other groups that have deliberately closed their eyes and turned their faces away from the "enlightenment" and the process of scientific inquiry.

Being "enlightened" is hard for some people. It means having to give up notions of being "special", "chosen", and somehow "beloved" beyond others by the lord or lords, depending on your religion. It means having to accept that rationally there are no races, that the very idea of race is a misnomer, although there are slight genetic differences between ALL humans who originate outside of Africa and the various groups that originate on the mother continent. For some reason the idea that we're all pretty much the same and that we're also animals, horrifies a
certain (large) percentage ofAmericans as well as other peoples. This is an area deserving of some
determined work with MRI scanning, psychiatric observation and genetic cross referencing. It might even turn out to be an inheritable genetic trait. Maybe they could come up with a drug or two that would turn it off. One moment a raving religious racist, the next a rational human
being. Part of Bush's popularity is that he shares in the wilful childishness. Not much of a student at school, lacking much of a knowledge base of the world and not caring either, he presents himself as one of them, and they love this.

Other politicians have taken note. We will see more of this and for the possible end consequences I would suggest further reading of works like Ian Kershaw's two part biography of Adolf Hitler. Appealing to the irrational, the mischievous child, the wilful believer in his or her specialness and superiority is a potent political method. Combine it with tons of money from the ruling elite and you've got a successful strategy that no amount of rational good sense can overcome. Bush
doesn't have the personality to take advantage of the situation a la Adolf Hitler, but someone else, as yet unheard of, probably does.

And the Buggers respond to the last post...

Thanks for putting The Buggers positions #2 and #3 on the Funtopia site. I'm really honoured and appreciate your comments. The Buggers had already planned to dedicate a position to you and John Sinclair as seminal figures to revolutionary art in the West, probably the next position. They will make up for the omission of The Who in that same position as the mutual influences of American and British counterculture will be mentioned. I understood that Ron Asheton saw The Who perform when he was in London in the 60s and took the idea of destroying instruments home.
The Buggers would like to start that position with a brief analysis of the title PHUN CITY (the absurdist/anarchist combination of fun plus the association with Vietnam). Before they mention that I'd like to make sure it was you who invented it*. Let me know, if you can find the time. As to desexualisation and De Sade ... you're obviously right. But that will take some more time to work out. The Buggers have been going on about (de)sexualisation a bit too often now.

*The Phun City name and logo (see Funtopia?) was a joint effort by me and the late Edward Barker

CRYPTIQUE – I eat more chicken any man ever seen.