Can cyberpunk be purchased?

I remember roaming the net in the early 2000's and coming across cool battlestations netizens had built. I remember seeing one from an eastern european fella with multiple flat screens and crt's and keyboards strewn about. If memory serves, he had cobbled his collection of pc's and monitors together out of whatever he could find as high end pc exports to his country were limited.

I thought his set up was so cool. I wanted to forage for parts and put together a "supersystem" like him. But I didn't need to. I had a good pc. I could go to many local retailers and get every single item I could want. Even secondhand items were abundant. Why did I crave "scarcity"?

As I grew up and consumed more content in the genre (ghost in the shell, akira, bebop) I was fascinated with the story of being low-life|high-tech and making the best with what you could get your hands on. Watching characters build a great machine, with great skill, and use that machine to exercise their will on the unjust world before them felt rewarding. I wanted in, again, craving "scarcity" and a motive to overcome odds that I didn't necessarily face.

But what I can do is buy bags, t-shirts, hats and other merch to show my affinity for the media I consume. More specifically, I'm buying the emblematic representation of what I feel is truly "cyberpunk". I wanted these objects to define a part of me. That I was a part of a community/fandom/philosophy.

I witnessed others doing the same when buying David's iconic jacket at anime conventions. Their purchases created a schism inside my mind: the whole reason his jacket is cool is because it's his late mother's jacket that he memorialized by placing his crews symbol on the back. Buying it loses all the punk that the jacket originally signified right?

I could never shake the weird superficial feeling behind these purchases. It always felt a little hollow. I think I've always realized that there was a greater message and greater value in my participation with the art instead of just buying merch.

We have, in a way, lost the plot a bit. For some, cyberpunk is an aesthetic and genre to consume, rather than the warning it was always meant to be. The overall goal is to inspire the viewer/consumer to be weary of a future where corporations decide and own every aspect of your life. Ironically, that includes corporations that want you to buy the merch of the characters you love.

We are not the only group to face this idk...ego death of sorts. I saw a short video (if anyone can find this video, I would greatly appreciate it) proclaiming "the subject no longer defines the object" in reference to the studded leather jacket. The author goes on to briefly discuss the history of the leather jacket and what it meant. Airmen had bombers that meant something because of who was wearing the jacket. Then motorcyclist in both EU and US created meaning with both styles of motorcycle jacket because of who was wearing the jacket. Then the punk movement took those jackets, customized them, and gave them new meaning yet again. Nowadays, a studded leather jacket is so emblazoned with the cultural weight of the punk movement, we have yet to find a new culture strong enough to redefine the jacket; yet the jacket's meaning is quite clear and is used by the wearer to signify their punk affiliation. The object now defines the subject.

If you want to participate in this "genre" cyber is HALF of the message. The other half is punk, which by definition is anti-capitalist and anti-consumerist. This would look like making your own jacket, t-shirts, hats, to memorialize your favorite characters. Or making an alternative to social media called cyberspace.

By reading this, and being an active participant on this site, we are all contributing to the both the CYBER and the PUNK parts of cyberpunk. I hope to continue to cultivate a culture where we celebrate the humanity of one another by fostering our own collective talents. I want to wear a shirt with your band/company/group name on it, not Arasaka.

Questions for discussion:

• How is cyberpunk defined from your perspective?
• Are our cyberpunk communities too enraptured with consumerism?
• How does media play a role in the cyberpunk subculture? Is media drawing from real life or is real life drawing from media?
• Can we shift the narrative inwards to our community instead of drawing outwards from media?

Thanks for reading and I look forward to the discussion chooms!