Market forces T-shirt
I recently posted a new T-shirt design called “Market Forces”. I had been pondering this design for a few months, choosing the elements of the design and deciding how best to combine them. After toying with various images, I finally went for the F15 warplane over the sergeant stripes. I wanted to create the appearance of a military insignia or patch, while playing on the phrase “market forces” by using the word “forces” in a military sense, and at the same time challenge the idea that markets exist in some kind of bubble isolated from external influences.
As readers of political writers such as Noam Chomsky will know, the US, as well as many other countries with strong military powers, have used force on many occassions to remove democratically elected leaders (as well as those who have gained power in undemocratic ways, of course), in order to “protect US interests”, for “national security reasons” or to “bring democracy” to the country in question. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are the most current examples, but they are just the latest in a long list. When you stop listening to the politicians and look at the facts, and look at the outcomes of these wars, incursions, secret-ops, “occupations” and invasions, it is clear that in most, if not all cases, a lot of money is made. “Regime change” and all the other euphemisms used to describe the imposition of force upon a weaker country inevitably result in access to new raw materials (oil, metals, food, water) and the “liberation” of “markets” to which eagerly awaiting government-supported corporations can sell their services and products.
Government and industry are notionally institutionally separate, yet they are peopled by characters who over time move from one to the other and back again, and who through meetings and partnerships, both formal and informal, create a web of influence that drives decisions that benefit the interests of the most powerful in society. These decisions, on an international level, can sometimes require the use of military force.
The market forces design is on a similar subject to the US World Tour shirt but personally I think it works better. It’s more subtle and I think it gets the point across more succinctly. I’ve had a good reaction to this design so far and I’d welcome any more thoughts on the design, or the theme of the design, whatever they may be.
