Thursday, March 31, 2005
The New Futile System
A paragraph from Noam Chomsky’s book Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance (The American Empire Project)
What remains of democracy is the right to choose among commodities. Business leaders have long explained the need to impose on the population a "philosophy of futility" and "lack of purpose in life," to "concentrate human attention on the more superficial things that compromise much of fashionable consumption." Deluged by such propaganda from infancy, people may then accept their meaningless and subordinate lives and forget ridiculous ideas about managing their own affairs. They may abandon their fate to corporate managers and the PR industry and, in the political realm, to the self-described "intelligent minorities" who serve and administer power.
* * *
My Take On the Matter
From the moment children in the United States can comprehend their surroundings they are bombarded with advertisements for toys, junk food, video games, movies, and on and on and on. When I was a child there were few commercials that so relentlessly targeted children. The mindset of my parent’s generation was one of moderation. My family of six wasn’t destitute but we children knew that other than rare occasions such as Christmas or a Birthday we would not get gifts. Junk food too was a treat doled out along the same moderate guidelines. We rarely had Coke or sugar coated cereal and if we did we burned it off playing outside. I can think of only a few fat kids that I went to school with threw my entire career in public schools and even these were not morbidly obese like some of the children I see today.
At the age of nine I remember wanting a new bike because mine had been a hand me down from an older neighbor and was getting rusty and worn out and it was PURPLE! To my chagrin I didn’t get the black dirt bike I saw in the Sears catalog. Instead, my mother and father bought me a new dirt bike seat, handlebar grips, handlebars and paint and together we fixed up my bike. Could they have afforded a new bike? Probably but that wasn’t the point. The point was that I didn’t need a new bike mine was fine, it got me around. Did I feel less fulfilled because I didn’t have the new bike? I might have been slightly disappointed but I was too busy being a kid to dwell on it. I found happiness in other things; sports, reading, playing games, exploring the world, not in “fashionable consumption.” My generation had not yet equated consumption with happiness because the PR industry and corporate managers had not yet waged war against our consumer souls.
Worrying about the newest trends as a child takes the fun out of being a child. Mindless hours playing video games and stuffing their faces with ice-cream are not substitutes for the feeling one gets when they hit a homerun in a baseball game or when they’re reading a book that is so good they can’t put it down. I remember a lot of books that gave me that feeling and a lot of homeruns I hit but I don’t hold one memory of playing a video game and having the same feeling elicited.
I feel bad for kids today because they are victims of a system and government that does not have their best interests in mind. They don’t get to truly enjoy what it is like not to have worries. Should a five year old really have to fret over the fact that she doesn’t have a pair of Nike sneakers? I would think not but you know that there is an epidemic of children out there that do worry about such matters. Is it a wonder that so many people are depressed in this day and age? How do we combat these blues? How about prescription drugs! That is a topic for an entirely different article but is more evidence of government’s close relationship with corporate America.
I am thankful for my childhood of moderation. To this day I rarely eat junk food and although I have fallen victim to some of the PR industries gimmicks (I do have a book buying habit, which as far as habits go I guess isn’t too bad.), I haven’t mortgaged my life away so I can have a Hummer and stainless steel kitchen appliances.
Is it possible today even with good parenting for children not to fall prey to this trend of consumption? I would hope so but admittedly it is a hard battle for parents to wage. They are up against industries that spend billions of dollars to suck their kids in to the buying machine. I don’t envy their job.
As we grow older the insatiable quest for consumption is fed by the credit card companies, who feed our addiction for the product advertisements we are inundated with. They know we’re addicted to buying and they feed off of us and it is obvious from the passing of the bankruptcy reform bill (which benefits credit card companies only and not the people of this country that it is supposed to protect) that government is complicit in the feeding of our buying addiction and with the passing of the legislation has effectively ensured that some portion of credit card debt will have to be paid back and a “clean slate” will be much harder to come by. People will effectively become indentured servants to these credit card companies and the credit card companies will thrive as quality of life continues to decline. Does this sound hopeless? It sure does to me.
I for one want my life back. It is not hopeless and I do believe I control my own destiny and I have started to curb my spending. Freedom from the oppression of “intelligent minorities” and their greed is a matter of choice and while I still have choice I chose not to support them like the mindless consumer they believe me to be.
What remains of democracy is the right to choose among commodities. Business leaders have long explained the need to impose on the population a "philosophy of futility" and "lack of purpose in life," to "concentrate human attention on the more superficial things that compromise much of fashionable consumption." Deluged by such propaganda from infancy, people may then accept their meaningless and subordinate lives and forget ridiculous ideas about managing their own affairs. They may abandon their fate to corporate managers and the PR industry and, in the political realm, to the self-described "intelligent minorities" who serve and administer power.
* * *
My Take On the Matter
From the moment children in the United States can comprehend their surroundings they are bombarded with advertisements for toys, junk food, video games, movies, and on and on and on. When I was a child there were few commercials that so relentlessly targeted children. The mindset of my parent’s generation was one of moderation. My family of six wasn’t destitute but we children knew that other than rare occasions such as Christmas or a Birthday we would not get gifts. Junk food too was a treat doled out along the same moderate guidelines. We rarely had Coke or sugar coated cereal and if we did we burned it off playing outside. I can think of only a few fat kids that I went to school with threw my entire career in public schools and even these were not morbidly obese like some of the children I see today.
At the age of nine I remember wanting a new bike because mine had been a hand me down from an older neighbor and was getting rusty and worn out and it was PURPLE! To my chagrin I didn’t get the black dirt bike I saw in the Sears catalog. Instead, my mother and father bought me a new dirt bike seat, handlebar grips, handlebars and paint and together we fixed up my bike. Could they have afforded a new bike? Probably but that wasn’t the point. The point was that I didn’t need a new bike mine was fine, it got me around. Did I feel less fulfilled because I didn’t have the new bike? I might have been slightly disappointed but I was too busy being a kid to dwell on it. I found happiness in other things; sports, reading, playing games, exploring the world, not in “fashionable consumption.” My generation had not yet equated consumption with happiness because the PR industry and corporate managers had not yet waged war against our consumer souls.
Worrying about the newest trends as a child takes the fun out of being a child. Mindless hours playing video games and stuffing their faces with ice-cream are not substitutes for the feeling one gets when they hit a homerun in a baseball game or when they’re reading a book that is so good they can’t put it down. I remember a lot of books that gave me that feeling and a lot of homeruns I hit but I don’t hold one memory of playing a video game and having the same feeling elicited.
I feel bad for kids today because they are victims of a system and government that does not have their best interests in mind. They don’t get to truly enjoy what it is like not to have worries. Should a five year old really have to fret over the fact that she doesn’t have a pair of Nike sneakers? I would think not but you know that there is an epidemic of children out there that do worry about such matters. Is it a wonder that so many people are depressed in this day and age? How do we combat these blues? How about prescription drugs! That is a topic for an entirely different article but is more evidence of government’s close relationship with corporate America.
I am thankful for my childhood of moderation. To this day I rarely eat junk food and although I have fallen victim to some of the PR industries gimmicks (I do have a book buying habit, which as far as habits go I guess isn’t too bad.), I haven’t mortgaged my life away so I can have a Hummer and stainless steel kitchen appliances.
Is it possible today even with good parenting for children not to fall prey to this trend of consumption? I would hope so but admittedly it is a hard battle for parents to wage. They are up against industries that spend billions of dollars to suck their kids in to the buying machine. I don’t envy their job.
As we grow older the insatiable quest for consumption is fed by the credit card companies, who feed our addiction for the product advertisements we are inundated with. They know we’re addicted to buying and they feed off of us and it is obvious from the passing of the bankruptcy reform bill (which benefits credit card companies only and not the people of this country that it is supposed to protect) that government is complicit in the feeding of our buying addiction and with the passing of the legislation has effectively ensured that some portion of credit card debt will have to be paid back and a “clean slate” will be much harder to come by. People will effectively become indentured servants to these credit card companies and the credit card companies will thrive as quality of life continues to decline. Does this sound hopeless? It sure does to me.
I for one want my life back. It is not hopeless and I do believe I control my own destiny and I have started to curb my spending. Freedom from the oppression of “intelligent minorities” and their greed is a matter of choice and while I still have choice I chose not to support them like the mindless consumer they believe me to be.
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Fingertip in Chili Remains a Mystery at Wendy's
Yummy please pass the toes.
Check it out here.http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/business/article.adp?id=200503300734099900190073409990019
Yummy please pass the toes.
Check it out here.http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/business/article.adp?id=200503300734099900190073409990019
Monday, March 28, 2005
Chihuahua Terrorizes Ind. Postal Workers
I love these feisty little suckers. Chihuahuas have guts.
Check it out here:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Little-Terror.html
Anyone who is familiar with me knows that I have two Chihuahuas. The fiercer of the two is a very small thirteen year old named Flea (They were pictured on my blog back in Nov.). Last Halloween I let the dogs out and was doing some yard work out back when I heard some sort of ruckus in the front of my house. I hurried around to see what all the noise was about and saw Flea chasing a pack of ten or fifteen screaming Halloweeners down the street. It was perhaps the funniest thing I've ever seen. I guess those kids won't be coming back to my house next year...
I love these feisty little suckers. Chihuahuas have guts.
Check it out here:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Little-Terror.html
Anyone who is familiar with me knows that I have two Chihuahuas. The fiercer of the two is a very small thirteen year old named Flea (They were pictured on my blog back in Nov.). Last Halloween I let the dogs out and was doing some yard work out back when I heard some sort of ruckus in the front of my house. I hurried around to see what all the noise was about and saw Flea chasing a pack of ten or fifteen screaming Halloweeners down the street. It was perhaps the funniest thing I've ever seen. I guess those kids won't be coming back to my house next year...
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Where's the Superior Bush Morality?
Read it here: http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050321154309990003
According to Pam Easton of the AP in her article Neil Bush's Ex-Wife Settles Slander Case Neil Bush's ex-wife, Sharon Bush, was sued by Bush's new wife, Maria Andrews Bush, for slander. Evidently Maria was Neil Bush's mistress when he was married to Sharon and at the time the affair was going on Maria became pregnant. Supposedly Sharon Bush spread rumors that the baby was Neil's when in fact it turned out to that the father was Maria's former husband Robert Andrews. The case was settled out of court.
Okay, maybe I'm missing something here but does this strike anyone else as absurd? Here Neil was fucking another woman during his marriage and his ex-wife gets sued for slander when she purportedly spreads a rumor that Neil was the father of his mistress’s baby. Which crime is worse? Sleeping with a mistress or saying that the woman your husband was sleeping with, who became pregnant during this time, fathered her child?
Where are the morals that the GOP supposedly hold so near and dear to their cash register hearts? I frankly don't give a shit if Neil Bush was sleeping with his neighbor’s pet goat but when you are on the team that continually tears opponents apart for lacking "morals" then you deserved to be viewed through the same lens. Of course if Neil runs for the presidency the GOP will use framing to cover this little moral slip up. They will do something like focus on a mistake the reporter that brings this story to people's attention made (ALA Dan Rather) or they will make up some absurd story about how Sharon Bush was a drunken witch and abused little Neil and he had to run to the arms of his mistress (Sobs and tears). Give me a fucking break. The point is that Neil is an adulterer. End of story.
Some Democrats are no better and if they really want to win an election they need to get rid of the elitist agenda and start working for the benefit of the people of this country not big business like the Republicans. That's how you distinguish yourselves, that's how you win. You don't distinguish yourselves by sucking up to the pro life crazies, homophobes, religious loons, and the extremist gun freaks (NRA put another 10 notches in the door of your gun cabinet). THEY ARE AN EXTREME MINORITY NOT THE MAJORITY! Democratic Party if you stick together and take care of the people you will win but if you try to be "Republican Lite" you will get beat at their game.
I thought we lived in a democracy but I guess I was mistaken because if we did we could oust these politicians and begin anew. For many the "American Dream" will remain a dream because the powers that be have fixed it that way. There is plenty of wealth to go around in this country but greed is destroying the chance many have at a better life. The solution isn't nearly as extreme as communism but lies in true democracy where people have the ability to rise up and become rich but not at the expense of the middle and lower classes. For those that claim to have a monoply on "morals" I ask you if it is "moral" to let people freeze to death because you cut subsidized heating or that the infant mortality rate in a number of US cities is worse that in Cuba or other third world countries because of cuts to health programs. It is time to truly adhere to morals and I don't mean censoring every fucking creative outlet in this country but to do things that benefit the whole of this country, to give chairty when needed, and to bring prosperity back to the majority in a country that is sliding down the slippery slope of tyranny. Despite what those that have hijacked religion in this country think, morals are not found exclusively in the Bible or the Koran or any religious text, they are found in the heart and the heads of those who are compassionate enough to care about what happens to their fellow man.
So, Neil and other politicians, go fuck your mistress or fifty of them for that matter because I don't care. What I do care about are the lack of morals that are robbing people in this country and other countries of the American Dream. The pig can only grow so fat before it is slaughtered. In the new morning I wake to the smell of bacon and revolution brewing.
According to Pam Easton of the AP in her article Neil Bush's Ex-Wife Settles Slander Case Neil Bush's ex-wife, Sharon Bush, was sued by Bush's new wife, Maria Andrews Bush, for slander. Evidently Maria was Neil Bush's mistress when he was married to Sharon and at the time the affair was going on Maria became pregnant. Supposedly Sharon Bush spread rumors that the baby was Neil's when in fact it turned out to that the father was Maria's former husband Robert Andrews. The case was settled out of court.
Okay, maybe I'm missing something here but does this strike anyone else as absurd? Here Neil was fucking another woman during his marriage and his ex-wife gets sued for slander when she purportedly spreads a rumor that Neil was the father of his mistress’s baby. Which crime is worse? Sleeping with a mistress or saying that the woman your husband was sleeping with, who became pregnant during this time, fathered her child?
Where are the morals that the GOP supposedly hold so near and dear to their cash register hearts? I frankly don't give a shit if Neil Bush was sleeping with his neighbor’s pet goat but when you are on the team that continually tears opponents apart for lacking "morals" then you deserved to be viewed through the same lens. Of course if Neil runs for the presidency the GOP will use framing to cover this little moral slip up. They will do something like focus on a mistake the reporter that brings this story to people's attention made (ALA Dan Rather) or they will make up some absurd story about how Sharon Bush was a drunken witch and abused little Neil and he had to run to the arms of his mistress (Sobs and tears). Give me a fucking break. The point is that Neil is an adulterer. End of story.
Some Democrats are no better and if they really want to win an election they need to get rid of the elitist agenda and start working for the benefit of the people of this country not big business like the Republicans. That's how you distinguish yourselves, that's how you win. You don't distinguish yourselves by sucking up to the pro life crazies, homophobes, religious loons, and the extremist gun freaks (NRA put another 10 notches in the door of your gun cabinet). THEY ARE AN EXTREME MINORITY NOT THE MAJORITY! Democratic Party if you stick together and take care of the people you will win but if you try to be "Republican Lite" you will get beat at their game.
I thought we lived in a democracy but I guess I was mistaken because if we did we could oust these politicians and begin anew. For many the "American Dream" will remain a dream because the powers that be have fixed it that way. There is plenty of wealth to go around in this country but greed is destroying the chance many have at a better life. The solution isn't nearly as extreme as communism but lies in true democracy where people have the ability to rise up and become rich but not at the expense of the middle and lower classes. For those that claim to have a monoply on "morals" I ask you if it is "moral" to let people freeze to death because you cut subsidized heating or that the infant mortality rate in a number of US cities is worse that in Cuba or other third world countries because of cuts to health programs. It is time to truly adhere to morals and I don't mean censoring every fucking creative outlet in this country but to do things that benefit the whole of this country, to give chairty when needed, and to bring prosperity back to the majority in a country that is sliding down the slippery slope of tyranny. Despite what those that have hijacked religion in this country think, morals are not found exclusively in the Bible or the Koran or any religious text, they are found in the heart and the heads of those who are compassionate enough to care about what happens to their fellow man.
So, Neil and other politicians, go fuck your mistress or fifty of them for that matter because I don't care. What I do care about are the lack of morals that are robbing people in this country and other countries of the American Dream. The pig can only grow so fat before it is slaughtered. In the new morning I wake to the smell of bacon and revolution brewing.
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Free Speech is in Danger
According to Patricia J Williams in her article Grim Fairy Tales she learned on NPR that "William Poole, a high school junior from Kentucky, was taken into custody and charged with threatening to commit second-degree-felony terrorism for writing a story about a horde of zombies who wreak havoc in a school. It seems the boy's grandparents had been reading his journal, found a story he'd been writing for English class and promptly turned him in. According to a police detective, "Anytime you make any threat or possess matter involving a school or function, it's a felony in the state of Kentucky."
If this doesn't worry you writers out there it should. With the new laws passed to "protect" you i.e., the Patriot Act and others, the government can and will arrest you for whatever they want and deem it some sort of terrorism. Poole should be protected by his first amendment rights but evidently this doesn't mean anything in Kentucky. Big Brother is closing in...
The last Williams heard, Poole was “dispatched to jail to await mercy and a sense of perspective.” Jail for writing a fictions story? Stephen King wrote a book called Rage in which a character named Charlie Decker brings a gun to school, kills a teacher, and holds students hostage. Under Kentucky law if King’s grandparent’s had found a page of this story sitting in King’s typewriter they could have reported him to authorities and he would have been jailed. Sound ridiculous? It is but something like that could happen to you for doing nothing more than writing a fiction story that someone considers “threatening.”
I've also read the GOP is working on strategy to go after the Internet next. They won't to control what you say and they will do this by passing laws to control content and will do this under the guise of protecting you from something like terrorism, identity theft, etc. People laughed at me when I said we would lose rights with this Patriot Act crap, that these laws were not so much to protect us from terrorism but to control what we say and do. Keep laughing and you will find yourself in jail for writing something on your blog that the government doesn't like.
Thursday, March 10, 2005
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
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