Subduing the Subversive

Ray, of the blog Silent Vowel, writes about the subversive, and popular, UK graffiti artist Banksy and the selling of his art for auction:

How can subversive art resist the all-consuming power of capitalism, which reduces satire and political commentary to a commodity? Anything that is visually unique is reduced to style; and its message ultimately put aside. Mass production results in loss of meaning. It’s why we have Che Guevara’s image on T-shirts produced in Asian sweatshops and why the word “punk” appears next to skull and cross-bones symbols on little girl’s tops in K-Mart.