ABSTRACT

To conclude, while the state responds to the reconfigurations and transformations associated with the late modern condition by imposing what it believes to be more ‘rational’ forms of control and authority, the market takes a very different approach. Rather than attempting to curtail the excitement and emotionality that, for many individuals, is the preferred antidote to ontological precariousness, the market chooses instead to celebrate and, very importantly, commodify these same sensations. Whether via the ‘vicarious televisual cheap thrill’ of ‘Real Crime’ TV shows (Baudrillard 1983), the ‘Gothic’ pleasure derived from membership of one of the many serial killer ‘fan clubs’ that abound on the Internet,30 or the fun experienced whilst traversing so-called ‘digital crime environments’ (see above), images of criminality are now firmly tied into the production of youth culture/identity and inscribed in numerous forms of related entertainment and performance. The full ramifications of such a situation are, of course, still unfolding, but, as articulated by Presdee, we must now confront a situation in which:

... individualism, greed, destruction, dishonesty, fear and violence are woven, through the processes of production and consumption, inevitably into all our everyday lives. Now crime, in the form of a commodity, enables us all to consume without cost as we enjoy the excitement, and the emotions of hate, rage and love that crime often contains. (2000: 58)31

... the work ethic has been replaced by a consumer ethic; the savings-book culture of delayed gratification has been replaced by the credit-card culture that ‘takes the waiting out of wanting’. (Bauman 1997: 24)

Historically, the insatiability of desire has been regarded as a symptom of a certain moral pathology (be it sin or decadence), or as a sign of status amongst social elites. However, a unique feature of late modern consumer culture is that insatiable desire

30 On the ‘Gothic’ (and its relationship with transgression) in contemporary culture, see Davenport-Hines (1998).