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Friday, February 28, 2003
We live in interesting times
NetFuture #142 by Steve Talbott
The important thing to realize, I continue to believe, is that our unhealthy impulses need not prop up centralized authorities in order to get us into trouble. The deeper threat today is found in the potentials for an unprecedented sort of distributed tyranny -- a tyranny with no one particular in charge. Those we like to point at as "responsible" -- politicians, corporate officers, bureaucratic functionaries -- tend more and more to be faceless instruments of "the System", with little choice but to carry out its dictates. But all the rest of us, too, find ourselves implicated, by a thousand connections, in the workings of the System as a whole.
Suppose I sat down and tallied all the implications of a trip to the store for milk -- from car and fuel use, to farming practices and genetic engineering, to the style of operation of retail, wholesale, and distribution businesses. I would find that virtually nothing going on in the world is more than a "degree or two of separation" from my casual trip. Altering any one of these connections hardly seems worthwhile -- the disruption to my own life would be so great, and the difference to the System so vanishingly small -- yet changing everything at once is impossible. So a kind of paralysis sets in, which is exactly what allows the ever more tightly woven web of automatisms embodied in machine and software to direct us according to its own, self-propelled logic. The aggressively universal ambition of all such logic is the tyranny I fear.
...
Every logic is abstracted from our thinking or speaking; every mechanism is abstracted from our behaving. I believe we have needed the comforting structure, the experience of clarity, that our externalized logics and mechanisms have afforded us -- but only as a confidence-building step leading to exploration of the deeper significance of our life together. This significance always lies "off-grid" in the sea of meaning from which all worthwhile logics and mechanisms crystallize and into which they must dissolve again in order to be revivified. The risk is that in our fascination with the certainties of the grid we will forget everything except square-cornered obedience to a dead logic -- forget that only by plunging into the reality between the lines can we gain a fresh draft of life. (more)
The Prosperous Few and the Restless Many, by Noam Chomsky
So social policy, even in a country as rich and powerful as the United States, is mortgaged to the international wealthy sectors here and abroad. Those are issues that have to be dealt with -- and that means facing problems of revolutionary change.
There are doubtless many debates over this issue. All those debates assume that investors have the right to decide what happens. So we have to make things as attractive as possible to them. But as long as the investors have the right to decide what happens, nothing much is going to change.
...
To challenge the right of investors to determine who lives, who dies, and how they live and die -- that would be a significant move twoard Enlightenment ideals (actually the classical liberal ideal). That would be revolutionary.
Further reading on centralized control: Blueprint for a Prison Planet.
Tuesday, February 25, 2003
Critical Mass, the trailer
They put in their hours at corporate jobs.
(Scene: Cube farm. Khakis, coffee mugs, toys on computer monitors)
And lived and loved off the clock.
(Scene: Eating at Applebys. Pro basketball game.)
Until…
A geek followed his talent.
Ever since he was a boy, Evan wanted to program computers.
(Scene: comfortable middle class home. Evan at desk under his bunk bed. Poster of Stephen Hawking on the wall.)
“Look mommy. I press this key, and the computer projects my allowance in three years, using the historical rate of yearly increase!”
(Scene: Little boy Evan beaming into camera shifts to young man Evan, staring intently into camera, revealed to be a computer monitor as camera moves.)
It was a time of coming of age, it was a time of romance, it was a time of expanding economies. It was the age of the Internet!
(Scene: San Francisco loft, strewn with paper, books and magazines, and computers. Wires, brick walls, second-hand furniture. Several very young and trendy boys and girls sit around a large table strewn with takeout containers and Styrofoam coffee cups)
“This is crazy! Gillette wants razorblades.com up by Tuesday, Pillsbury wants a Flash of a dancing doughboy, and K-Mart thinks bluelight.com is their ticket to ride. How are we gonna manage all these projects?”
“I don’t know…something to log our thoughts on Web pages, maybe, for everyone to access when and where they like….Like a web log?”
It was only the beginning.
“Hey, these blogs are pretty cool. Let’s offer this for free download.”
"But we could charge.."
"Nah, get them hooked first, then we can charge for upgrades, server space…besides, we’re making boatloads of money. Let’s give something back."
(Scene: rapid succession of all types of people in all types of settings typing on computers and clicking mouses)
Blogland was born!
"Evan, there’s a blog called Fucked Company, and Bush Sucks, and It’s My Life, and Who’s With Me, and Out of Bondage and Bags and Carousels and WTF is it Now Joker. And, and, and… fuck Evan, it’s like push button publishing for the people out there…It’s anarchy!"
Yes, they came from all walks of life, but mostly from cube farms and home offices, to log their thoughts. And they found their thoughts diverged significantly from the thoughts of…
Bush Co., the corporation in charge of running the Free World.
Bum, bum, bum…bumpa-bum bumpa-bum. BUM, BUM, BUM bumpa-bum, bumpa-bum….
(Scene: big office, pictures of Reagan and Nixon and many other old white guys on the wall. A man in a suit is facing the window, back to the camera. He looks pensive, until the camera swings around to reveal a gameboy. Enter functionary.)
"‘bout time. Now take a memo. Ahem…. Them blogs must be stopped! ….Whoooweee, killed ‘em all."
"Yes sir."
"What the fuck are you still doing here?"
"Is that it? How?"
"Don’t bother me with details, just do it! Make it happen!"
Dark forces were gathering, a culture was dying, but bloggers were watching, talking….
(Scene: Two friends in a boxy, nondescript apartment, a cheap couch, small table, and desk with shiny new powerful computer.)
"Dude, the dark forces are gathering. Our culture is dying."
"I know, but blogging rocks!….you see my latest post ?"
"Yeah, it was killer. Reality TV show called Free Will. Like that."
"Maybe we really do want to destroy ourselves. It’ll be a hell of a show."
"Where are the peacemakers, the voices of reason? Where is the voice of more than self-interest?"
"Drowned, man. Drowned out. A few flickers in Blogland is it. Thank Evan’s pointy head."
"Hey, we still haven’t gone to a basketball game this season."
"Don’t you remember your post about the great spectacle, the relentless advertising at the arena, the waste of time involved in watching millionaire pituitary cases scramble for a ball?"
"Oh yeah. Good point."
They were friends who’s despair was great, but who’s brotherhood was greater….
(scene: late night, same apartment. Empty beer bottles, overflowing ashtrays.)
"What are you doing?"
"Starting a metablog: Your Life. Your Planet. Blog it!"
"Hmmm.."
"Anyone can participate, if they submit the story of their life, including all the heartbreak, missteps, dreams, triumphs, defeats, moments of transcendence, embarrassing events, ugly, small acts, regrets, loves, hopes, most beautiful spot on the planet and why, and favorite album. And they must pledge to turn off television and use the time to do something community oriented, and blog about it."
"You mean, like, blog your life as if it’s real?"
"Yep."
"Sounds cool, but we’ll never get enough doing it to matter….unless…we advertise it on TV....talk about ironic."
"Never happen anyway. Bush Co. owns the media. Just a matter of time until it owns and controls the Internet."
"How will we ever get the numbers to tip the scales in time?"
It’s was a race for control, it was a race for humanity, it was a race for….
Critical Mass
(Scene: mushroom cloud with large question mark in the center)
In Theaters this Summer.
Monday, February 24, 2003
How Bush buys positive war spin
It's war. The nation's president is mad with imperial delusions. There is a burgeoning anti-war movement whose message of morality and peace screams for just a smidgen of fair attention from the media. Liberties face vicious attacks from the very leaders who have sworn to defend the Constitution; the press responds with yawns and shrugs. Courageous dissenters stand up against the power of the administration, and are derided or ignored by disdainful newspapers and TV chattering heads.
At Atlanta's media Coxopoly, the issue is simple. Follow the big bucks. Pentagon spin is accorded the status of holy writ, the president is granted unconditional support -- and Cox executives who disagree are forced to choose between their principles and their jobs. The president gratefully responds with legislation that squashes press competition, and enriches Cox and other media conglomerates to the tune of billions of dollars.
No, I'm not talking about next month at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. I'm talking about 1970-'72. (more)
This, the media, is where the war for whether war is acceptable is fought and won. We stand in relation to the media as the people of Iraq stand in relation to our techno-military juggernaut. (also posted to American Samizdat)
Envisioning a political cluetrain manifesto
49. Org charts worked in an older economy where plans could be fully understood from atop steep management pyramids and detailed work orders could be handed down from on high. Today, we have corporate plutocracy, tomorrow anarchy, the day after, democracy.
50. Today, the org chart is hyperlinked, not hierarchical. Respect for hands-on knowledge wins over respect for abstract authority.
51. Command-and-control management styles both derive from and reinforce bureaucracy, power tripping and an overall culture of paranoia.
52. Paranoia kills conversation. That's its point. But lack of open conversation kills companies, and the people will no longer be bought off with corporate rhetoric about a free market, and less government, and less Democracy.
53. There are two conversations going on. One inside the company and outside the company about the Market. The second conversation is about poetry, freedom, representative government, and human excellence.
54. In most cases, neither conversation is going very well. Almost invariably, the cause of failure can be traced to obsolete notions of command and control. Only the death of the Corporation will solve this. ~ Wealth Bondage
Friday, February 21, 2003
Happy one-year blogiversary
To Tom Shugart and INSITEVIEW (clever making your title all-caps Tom ;-)
Through his blog efforts, Tom makes my life richer. Thanks, Tom. Here's a virtual toast to you. Salud!
Everyday revolutionaries
It’s all I’ve ever known.
That one sentence, that one scene from the film Running on Empty is haunting me. I watched it Wednesday night, just me and a couple of Guinness. It affected me, the ending especially, no doubt because I have children of my own.
If you don’t want me to spoil it for you, stop reading right now.
Ok. The end. No, there’s a whole story that leads up to that moment, and you need to hear that first. There’s a family. That’s the main thing; that’s really what this film is about – family. Bonds. How love is selfish, and then, when it’s really large, unselfish. And love has consequences, and if you can face them you can make the world a better place.
This family, mom, dad, two boys, age 12 and 17 or thereabouts, is close. They’re a tight unit; they have to be, because they are on the run from the law, from society. The kids accept it; it’s all they’ve ever known. Their mom and dad were active in anti-government activities in the 60s and early 70s. They planted a bomb in a Napalm factory. They wanted to make a statement: chemical warfare by its indiscriminate nature is wrong. Not in my name. Unfortunately, there was an innocent bystander who got injured – blinded and paralyzed. He wasn’t supposed to be there; the revolutionaries don’t believe in committing the very crimes they are trying to stop.
The film opens with the family hitting the road on a moment’s notice, one step ahead of law enforcement agents. About the only thing they take with them is a practice piano keyboard.
River Phoenix is the teenager, Danny. I remember that his acting talent was well-regarded, but I can’t remember any standout performances. But this is one. I kept thinking of James Dean. The filmmakers were aware of the similarities too, as he’s often seen in a windbreaker (blue instead of red), and a poster of Dean is visible in one scene.
This movie is his story. His life. And, naturally, it’s just beginning. He’s an extremely talented musician. Piano. Classical piano. His dad, Judd Hirsch, is a rocker of course, that’s the music of the people and the soundtrack of revolution. His mom is also a talented musician. Or could have been, before her life was derailed. By her own actions, she’s aware of that. The parents are adults, not interested in the blame game. They want to get by and raise the best kids they can. In that, they are succeeding admirably. And that is brought out in the film beautifully.
But…they’re running on empty. But running, getting by, underground. Living through subterfuge. It’s all the kids have ever known. That line, the one haunting me, is delivered by Phoenix to his girlfriend in a moment of desperation. Despite the danger, he has to let down the facade, let this girl in to the real person, tell the true story of his young life: It’s all I’ve ever known. Being on the run. Having to put forward a false front. Keeping everyone and everything at a distance.
He’s a great kid. I hope I should do so well with my kids. This film is not so much a political story – though that’s there, it’s just part of life, something you live with. The difference is, through the actions undertaken for their convictions, all these issues are given heightened dramatic tension. Paradoxically, it’s what you’d call a quiet film. But that’s where its power lies. We recognize our own quiet lives, whether we’re active revolutionaries or not. Just giving, to raise a child, to act on your convictions, to nurture a talent, is also a positive and political act.
And making sacrifices, so that, for someone, dreams deferred will not be all they’ve ever known. And that brings me, finally, to the ending. At his latest school, Danny has caught the eye of the local music teacher. He sees a promising talent, and encourages it. He even manages to get him to audition at Juilliard, even though neither he nor his parents have dared look beyond the next day or week of outsmarting the authorities. It’s what they must do, and it’s all they’ve ever known.
The mother, played brilliantly by Christine Lahti, gets wind of her son’s clandestine exploration of just where his talent might take him, so she starts thinking about how she might make it possible. She’s coming to terms with what they’ve done and how their kids are paying the price. Her husband doesn’t want to face it. “We’re a family unit. It’s all we have.” He says. “Look at our kids. They’re wonderful. We haven’t done too badly.” He won’t let himself look beyond the present moment.
Lahti arranges a risky meeting with her father at a restaurant. They haven’t seen each other in 14 years, since the fateful explosion. He’s unforgiving at first. She pleads her case. Just take Danny, let him go to Juilliard. When Michael is of age, I’m going to turn myself in. I’ll get 15 years. 15 years without involvement in my children’s lives. Yes, the same amount of time her father has suffered. Maybe it’s easy irony, but it works. Her father finally agrees. She says she loves him and leaves, near breakdown. Her father’s cold facade breaks, enough for him to let go with a small but forceful bark of emotion.
Full circle. The end: They’re on the run again. Get in the truck and go! But Danny has to say goodbye to his girlfriend. The family waits at a rendezvous point. Danny comes barreling up on his bicycle, gets off and throws it in the back of the truck. His dad tells him to take the bike out of the back. Danny takes it out, parks it with the kickstand, starts to get in the truck. “No,” says his father. “Get on it. Go. Your mother has made arrangements with her father. Go see him. Good luck kid.”
And goodbye.
Roll credits.
I cried a few salty tears. I’m gonna have to do that someday.
Thursday, February 20, 2003
ha ha ha ha ha, ha ha
monkey feet
small and blue
walking toward you
as the back of a building falls off
and an airplane chews the white sky,
doom is like the handle of a pot,
it’s there,
know it,
have ice in your tea,
marry,
have children, visit your
dentist
do not scream at night
even if you feel like screaming,
count ten
make love to your wife,
or if your wife isn’t there
if there isn’t anybody there
count 20,
get up and walk to the kitchen
if you have a kitchen
and sit there sweating
at 3 a.m. in the morning
monkey feet
small and blue
walking toward you.
~ Charles Bukowski, Mocking Bird Wish Me Luck
Travel to Iraq, deepen your understanding
On her site, Ruminate This, Lisa English urges us to read On a Small Bridge in Iraq. It will put a human face on the abstraction known as "Iraq" and is powerful enough to convince the unconvinced that war is not the answer. The problem is, how to get it into wide circulation? I'm doing my part here. Another idea would be to print out copies and leave them in public places. Send copies or links to the doc to your newspaper. Send it to your congressperson.
Lisa's post on this is excellent, as usual:
Contrary to US administration spin, the Iraqi's are not starving.
But they are lacking for medicine and their babies are dying because sanctions prohibit the import of antibiotics. Those antibiotics could be used in weapons of mass destruction, we say.
Die, baby, die...
They're dying from the depleted uranium our bombs leave behind, and they're angry at the United States government for bombing them instead of working with the world community to help them.
Want to know more about that 100% approval rating Saddam got from his people last year? The same one we laughed at as evidence of his tyrannical hold over the Iraqi people? Just consider the alternative viewpoint this book puts forth. Under similar circumstances, even I, would likely offer my support to the likes of George W. Bush. How about them apples? It's not coercion. It's anger at America. It's pride, as they wait for the bombs to drop, yet again.
We should get to know these lovely people and the world they live in before we allow our government to execute them through a toxic melange of bombs and sanctions.
skimble:
Goodbye, science. Farewell, reason. The New Empire of Irrationality has arrived — a perfect storm of religious intrigue, political seizure, and corporate plunder.
Wednesday, February 19, 2003
Another day at the office
Let’s see, democracy has been hijacked through computerized vote tampering (Thom Hartmann has the scoop), the Supreme Court is led by a judge that believes “democracy obstructs God's wishes by imposing ordinary people as the decision-makers, and condemns the 'tendency of democracy to obscure the divine authority behind government' "(go here to read the brilliant weblog post I’ve quoted), and the American news media’s scant coverage of the largest day of war protest the globe has ever seen is cast as misguided support for our hated enemy.
Yep. Situation normal, all Bushed up.
Hartmann: If You Want To Win An Election, Just Control The Voting Machines
Six years later Hagel ran again, this time against Democrat Charlie Matulka in 2002, and won in a landslide. As his hagel.senate.gov website says, Hagel "was re-elected to his second term in the United States Senate on November 5, 2002 with 83% of the vote. That represents the biggest political victory in the history of Nebraska."
What Hagel's website fails to disclose is that about 80 percent of those votes were counted by computer-controlled voting machines put in place by the company affiliated with Hagel. Built by that company. Programmed by that company.
"This is a big story, bigger than Watergate ever was," said Hagel's Democratic opponent in the 2002 Senate race, Charlie Matulka (www.lancastercountydemocrats.org/matulka.htm). "They say Hagel shocked the world, but he didn't shock me."
Is Matulka the sore loser the Hagel campaign paints him as, or is he democracy's proverbial canary in the mineshaft?
Dave Johnson: Self-Government
How far have we come from the country I used to know - from the things I learned in my high school civics class? If our system were functioning properly Scalia would never have been nominated to a seat on our Supreme Court. If our system were functioning properly he would never have been confirmed. If our system were functioning properly Scalia would be impeached. Article VI, Clause 3, of our Constitution, says: "judicial Officers ... shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation to support this constitution." How could it possibly be more clear that Scalia does not fulfill his oath of office? It's a testament to how far we have come from our self-governing roots that we are not in the streets demanding the resignation of such individuals. It is a testament to the strength of the forces in our country who oppose democracy and want to impose theocracy/corporatocracy! This is the battle we are engaged in with the right.
Does President Bush's view of the law resemble Scalia's? Do you remember when Bush attended a secret meeting with the Christian Far-Right's Council for National Policy and emerged with the entire right-wing communications apparatus -- the "Mighty Wurlitzer" -- lined up behind him? What did he promise them? What about the snippets leaking out of the White House concerning Bush's belief he is chosen by God to lead the Christians against Islam? Scalia himself endorses the idea that God authorizes Christian revenge, when Scalia writes, "government carries the sword as "the minister of God," to "execute wrath" upon the evildoer." Is that Bush speaking, or Scalia, or do the two really sound like one?
Tuesday, February 18, 2003
Is your money that good?
Friday, February 14, 2003
Time to exercise a little citizenship
I’ll be hittin the streets tomorrow to attend the Atlanta peace rally and to add my voice to the dissent over Bush’s war, to be expressed in New York City and throughout the world.
This is a first for me. But I believe, as Peter Lee expressed in the piece below, that this peace movement is about more than the Iraq invasion, it’s about the future of American democracy.
Last night, just to keep myself somewhat apprised of the electronic media propaganda, I tuned into CNN for a few minutes. They had a series of reports under the cute and clever title of “Fear Factor,” as if to acknowledge that news and entertainment are indistinguishable.
A reporter in New York was talking about preparations for a chemical attack, the run on gas masks, chemical-proof suits (we’re talking high-end here, duct tape and plastic sheeting are for the poor). They run footage of a mother and 2-year-old daughter, with the mother fitting a gas mask over her daughter’s head.
The reporter wraps up the story with a little commentary, a little “let down my reporterly objectivity for a moment” moment. He tells the anchorwoman: That image of a mother removing a child’s pacifier to have her try on a gas mask, if that doesn’t make you mad.
He meant at that evil man Saddam, of course. No need to mention the name.
I made the proper connection though. Would any of this be happening without a warmongering President? I don’t think so. Yeah, I’m mad, and I’m not gonna sit back and watch anymore.
Thursday, February 13, 2003
And to complete today's High Water trifecta of despair
From The Smirking Chimp, Situation Normal -- All Bushed Up, by Peter Lee:
Schopenhauer preached creative destruction. So far, Bush has mastered only the "destruction" part, where the ability of the country to progress is undermined by a determined program of political and economic sabotage.
In some way, it's the perfect political machine, one that feeds on and creates pure hopelessness. If we are convinced the government is totally corrupt, overextended, underfunded, and unresponsive, we'll tune out. It's a prescription for passivity, not revolution. All that we can hope for is that the President's cronies don't trample on us too much in their headlong scramble to enrich themselves.
It's bad enough that Bush hopes he will leave America fiscally and morally bankrupt, with a security policy caught in a spiral of escalating aggression and peril. What's even worse is that he is creating an imperial state that rends the lives and aspirations of its enemies and its citizens with equal indifference.
And he is relying on the fact that a generation will grow up in this country knowing no other way than "Situation Normal -- All Bushed Up" and imagining no other future.
On February 15, let's remember that we aren't just marching on behalf of peace. We're marching for our country -- and its future. (more)
A-list material, get it here folks. Via the always-worthwhile maruthecrankpot.
It's Alright, Ma
It's just Thoughts on the Eve of the Apocalypse. Bill Connolly's site is all over the building war insanity. Visit and watch the clothes fall from the emperor. Kudos, Bill.
It's amazing that our leaders pledge to wage war for our own safety when it is generally accepted that a war on Iraq will put the world in a much more precarious position. Iraq is under massive surveillance; it has UN inspectors crawling around its territory (with more likely to come), and, basically, can't sneeze without facing massive reprisal. By any measure, Hussein is being properly contained, even if you think he represents some larger threat to the region (most of his neighbors do not).
Follow the money
Wealth for a few, bondage for you
WTO | Trade Statistics:
The richest fifth have 80% of the world’s income and the poorest fifth have 1%; this gap has doubled between 1960 and 2000. (United Nations Human Development Report, 1999)
In almost all countries that have undertaken rapid trade liberalisation, wage inequality has increased—20-30% fall in wages in some Latin American countries. (UNCTAD 1997)
Even in the First World, the gap between upper executive and worker salaries has never bigger--it is in fact many times bigger than it was twenty years ago. (UNCTAD 1997)
Wages of unskilled labour declined by ~25% between 1984 and 1995. Unskilled wages in the US have fallen by 20% (in real terms) since the 1970s. (UNCTAD 1997)
Trade liberalization is negatively correlated with income growth among the poorest 40 per cent of the population, but positively correlated with income growth among higher income groups. In other words, it helps the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. (Lundbeg and Squire World Bank 1999, Chapter 3.)
At the start of the 19th Century, the ratio of real incomes per head between the world’s richest and poorest countries was three to one. By 1900, it was 10 to one. By 2000, it has risen to 60 to one ($29,000 to $500). (“The Assessment: The Twentieth Century – Achievements, Failures, Lessons,” Angus Maddison, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, winter 1999, cited in Martin Wolf FT 26/1/2000) (more)
Are you weary yet?
Wednesday, February 12, 2003
Homegrown
I am a teen rebel
I am a salaryman
I am a suburban father of two
I am a loving husband
I am a devoted son
I am an America lover
I am an America hater
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then, I contradict myself
I am America
struggling to be born
I am canned culture
I am wild and free
I care, I hurt, I grieve
I believe in the holy spirit
moving through the late-night dens and garages
of peaceful neighborhoods
I am knee jerk opinions
I am thoughtless
I am yes no good evil
CBS or NBC
I am hoping I look good to my paymasters
I am stealing company time
America
flows through me
and beats against dead walls
I am dying
to be free
Tuesday, February 11, 2003
Lost in America
Do not rent How I Got Into College. Oh, you weren’t planning to? Never heard of it?
It’s a late ‘80s teen comedy, one of a slew of them comprising a mini-genre exclusive to a time and place – America, the 1980s, with some late-70s product thrown in. You know, Animal House, Caddyshack, Back to School.
So you want me to tell you about how it sucked? It didn’t. That’s not why you should avoid it. It’s actually sweet, innocent, romantic, playful, inventive, joyous, and feisty. That is why you should avoid it. Life in these united states in this early 21st century bears little resemblance.
I watched it at a friend’s house over the weekend. We’d seen it when it was new. I loved it then, and I loved it all over again. The difference is, I once believed it. It’s what I’d want life to be like. Hell, I could have written it. Not then, but now.
I guess I’d make it more cynical now. Or I’d write it knowing of its naivete, but wanting to inspire nonetheless.
How I Got Into College is about having dreams and following them, even if that simply means following a girl. It’s about love of something larger than yourself – in this case, a small liberal arts college. It’s ultimately about two American Dreams. One typically cold and calculating: money and power are the ultimate goals and any means in pursuit are justified; the other about celebrating individualism, diversity, equal opportunity, and the life of the mind.
So don’t rent this film and subject yourself to a stark reminder of how far and how fast we’ve slid into the chasm of the former, morally bankrupt dream, and how distant seems our belief in true higher learning, our better instincts, and openness to change.
In How I Got Into College the good guys and girls win. Right now, America, by contrast, is lost.
Monday, February 10, 2003
Yep
Douglas Rushkoff:
No, our votes no longer will be counted. (The midterm election's computerized exit poll data didn't even work this time - as if to announce that there will be no checks and balances on the "official" results of elections. Still no excuse not to vote, but it will take obvious landslides to force those in power to admit defeat.) All this notwithstanding, we remain the most accessible high-leverage point in this still dynamical system. And we, the American people, are still the best chance the world has of averting the upcoming horror.
I no longer feel that voting is the main channel of feedback we have available to us as Americans. If not voting, then what? Protest. Good, old-fashioned, in-the-streets protest. Protests stir unrest. They create visible signs of dissent - whether or not they are reported by the mainstream right-wing propaganda engine masquerading as the US press. The bigger and more participatory the protests get, the bigger the cognitive dissonance between what people perceive going on in the world around them and what they see on TV or hear from their "leaders." The less people believe, the less they can be controlled. And then the whole charade begins to unravel. (more)
Friday, February 07, 2003
The Captain and Candidia
(We join Candidia Cruikshanks, CEO of the largest, most powerful company on the planet, Amerika Inc., in the middle of a pitched battle with her arch nemesis, Captain America.)
Captain America: Candidia Cruikshanks you are a vile villainous vamp and you shall not prevail!
Candidia: Hahahaha. Talk to the hand.
Captain: I’m through talking to the hand; I’m resorting to my most potent weapon. It’s power is so awesome I am loathe to use it, but I feel I must. I refer to ….the will of the masses, massed together in massive mobs!
Candidia: You are so predictable, dear Captain, and so incredibly unaware. Have you not seen my new weapons? Have you not noticed as I’ve consolidated my power? How I control the monolithic media? Do you really think the will of the people, as expressed in puny protest demonstrations, will make a difference, when the Average American will never know their true intent?
Captain: But I am their Captain. And my people have the power to strike at your heart…yes, even to halt commerce. And have you seen our signage? The cleverness! We can break through your cursed media smokescreens.
Candidia: I’m quaking in my stilletos. Really, you are endearing. Especially in how you force me to bring out my big club – the USA Patriot Act! Hahahahaha. What a name. What a stroke of genius. Now there’s cleverness! My club has the power to slam you and all your influential thinkers into the federal pen, with no hope of fair and equal treatment. Those laws do not apply! They have no power!
Captain: The people are many, Candida. More than you realize have the power to stand up to this villainy. I am but a figurehead, easily replaced.
Candidia: And equally easily locked up, you and your cohorts. It’s big business, Captain. Prisons, bombs, destruction, construction, and entertainment. Marketing synergies too strong to ever be broken.
Captain: But we can -- and do -- break through. My sidekick, Howard Zinn, was on NPR this morning talking about the need to question our governmental leaders. Ha! Zinn! On national radio!
Candidia: Poor deluded fool. I almost feel sorry for you. Must I remind you of Rush? Sean? Bill? Neal? Besides, my Harvard (carries a little weight, no?) professor, Peter Gibbon, was up to Zinn’s challenge. Did you not see how dear little Margot cut off the debate about our right to bomb innocents in Afghanistan? Can you stand it, Captain? The simplistic nationalism of Gibbon’s book, A Call to Heroism: Renewing America’s Vision of Greatness, is a product of one of our finest institutions of higher learning!
Captain: Ow! That one hurt! (Appalling apologist of power are worse than crabgrass. So bloody hard to get rid of.)
Candidia: Haha! Yes, Captain, I make people feel good. Simplistic jingoism makes one feel so good and righteous. Thinking hurts, Captain. Advantage: Candidia!
Captain: (Unggghh…must resort to my last weapon. Must blog this…my friends will read it and understand…it will spread...)
Candidia: what are you doing down there, what is that, a miniature computer device?
Captain: Stand back! My power is still great! (there…hit post and publish…now, if only I can get them off their asses)
(To be continued)
Wednesday, February 05, 2003
Tuesday, February 04, 2003
Uneasy rider
The other day, on my 40th birthday, I went to see a movie starring the 60-something year-old Jack Nicholson -- About Schmidt. I’m still trying to decide if it was subtle and true or tepid and false. I want to go with the former, as Nicholson portrayed a very human, likable character without sugar-coating it and trying to win us over. But then I have this nagging sense that the film is anachronistic; sweet and soulful, sure, but just so damn insular. As our country makes clear, globalism is upon us and it’s about ruthless, predatory behavior. So I wonder how we can sit in movie theaters and work up concern over a dull mid-westerner’s struggle with retirement and loss.
Apocalypse is in the air, I wrote Friday, and after the scary “God is with me as I rain vengeance upon the world” SOTU, there’s no denying it, certainly for the Iraqis. Yet you’ll find little concern about them in our media, not for what the sanctions have done to them or for what 800 bombs in two days will do to the citizens of Baghdad. But you will find much concern about the “cost” of the war, tallied up in economic terms and in what is so obviously considered the most precious blood on the planet – ours, blessed as it is by God himself.
Ok, so “Schmidt” had no connection to the crazed ambitions threatening to plunge more people into misery, teach others a lesson in power, and increase the level of violence and hatred in the world to increasingly hard to stomach levels. It wasn’t about what should be our foremost concern: is a better world possible, or do we just accept that this is “as good as it gets”?
Is that so wrong? Maybe it’s me. Maybe getting older gives one the sense that time is running out. Certainly Schmidt realized a bit late that he’d waited far too long to do something, to reach out, to try to make a difference. But at least he did wake up.
Now I’m wondering when we Americans will wake up, bypass our “leaders” and join hands with the rest of the world to say no to war, the rallying cry for the demonstration planned for Feb. 15 in NYC, as well as other cities around the globe.
How large does the movement have to become before the world begins to put a check on unbridled, criminal use of military power? Much larger, I’ll wager. And there’s no way we can make it so in time to stop this war. I believe we misunderestimate the Bush regime.
I guess I shouldn’t be too hard on Schmidt, the man or the movie. By the end of the piece, he’s grown, his humanity has deepened. It’s a nice life-affirming thing to see, even if it doesn’t dig very deep. I’m fairly certain Schmidt would oppose the war, if he had the facts – a big if. The ace in the hole for the administration, and they know it, is their control of the propaganda pumped out by our media.
Nicholson began his career with a small part in Easy Rider, a movie from a time when the military-industrial complex was asserting its authority, senselessly murdering hundreds of thousands, and a counter culture was boiling over in the streets.
I haven’t seen Easy Rider in a long while, but I caught a clip of it in a documentary on the History Channel about biker culture. The scene has Jack Nicholson telling Fonda and Hopper that the public didn’t hate them; they feared what they represented: freedom.
Can we get past the fear – not only what could be directed at us from others as hatred, but our own in speaking out?
The History Channel aired another clip from the film: the three of them roaring down the road on two bikes, Jack wearing that silly football helmet, one of them standing in the saddle, arms outstretched to the wind, all of them wearing big ol shit-eating grins.
Don’t talk to me about the price they paid, don’t tell me about the ending. I haven’t seen the entire movie in a long time, and I don’t want to go there. This is enough for me; that moment is the message as far as I’m concerned. That spirit can’t be killed.
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