Peter (Jonathan Latimer) Coffin

This book presents a philosophy that potentially marketable identities are cultivated by the neoliberal capitalist system crafted from certain ego-centric ideas such as individualism. These constructs leading to a custom reality built of these and other ideas meant to commodify the majority if not the entire life of an individual for the benefit of the powerful. Frankly, I do agree with the author's assertions.
I do watch his youtube channel and much of what is in the book is covered in his videos but individually in the book they are collected and presented in whole. The text was easy reading and his concepts are well thought out and plainly and clearly stated. His use of current examples and popular references such as to South Park and Black Mirror help to make his meanings clear but may seriously date this work in a few years in that sense. I especially liked his example of context when asking the reader to imagine their take on the Black Mirror episode San Junipero if the couple were rich, affluent, and straight, basically at the top of society.
My grounding for this work would be [b:The Metaphors We Live By|34459|Metaphors We Live By|George Lakoff|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388194058s/34459.jpg|34433] and the ever popular [b:Simulacra and Simulation|22613|Simulacra and Simulation|Jean Baudrillard|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1493479268s/22613.jpg|850798] so I feel pretty comfortable with the perceptual reality of the individual. So if that is concept is something that you're not familiar with or even comfortable with then before reading this you might want to start with the more difficult material first mentioned previously. If you think this book is right up yer alley then I would add them as suggestions. I do highly recommend this book.… (more)