KASSIE MACKAY| Culture
SEEDS OF REVOLUTION SEWN
A second-year Anthropology student fed up with the power structures of Western capitalism has this week taken matters into her own hands.
From her Kelburn flat headquarters, Millie Richardson has eschewed the norms of consumer culture and embraced Marxist maxims by purchasing the iPhone 13 in ‘Midnight’ for only $979 – a massive $450 less than the recommended retail price.
While carrying out this rebellious act, Ms Richardson ignored the reality that were it not for the wonders of free market competition, the iPhone she had just bought would not actually exist.
Supported by comrades at an online telecommunications retailer, Richardson executed the deal without raising the suspicions of local bourgeois oppressors: flatmate Dan, a LAWS major who “can definitely afford to pay full price” and father Dick, whom she says “won’t get a text alert if the purchase is under a grand.”
Richardson’s actions come in the wake of an enlightening semester of lectures at Victoria University, focusing on power and the economy. Though yet to finish reading any set texts, Richardson feels the course has opened her eyes to the structural inequities that exist in Western economies. “I think I’m probably a Communist now…or at the very least, a Greens-Labour swing voter.”
Although yet to acquire any means of production, Richardson considers her discounted iPhone purchase to be “a small win for the proletariat” – one which she hopes will take her generation a step closer to toppling the bourgeoisie for good.
More to come.
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