To receive full credit, these blog assignments must be posted by SUNDAY night, March 21 at midnight. If you post late, please email me your post directly at sdebross@uvm.edu as soon as you are able, and I'll give you partial credit.
1.Culture Jam
Please read pp 72-136 of "Culture Jam: How To Reverse America's Suicidal Consumer Binge - And Why We Must". Share FIVE KEY OBSERVATIONS/REFLECTIONS (concepts, personal stories, research) you learned about our consumer culture as it relates to your life, and one question you have after finishing the reading. (Be sure your question begins with these three words on your blog post: "My question is...") Meditate on your media! Dig deep!
2. The Corporation
Please blog your initial thoughts and reactions to the first half of the film. What stood out for you? Why do you suppose we in the United States aren't familiar with much of this film's content? Are we dumb? Distracted? Are there larger institutional or structural forces at work? Share your musings with me!
BOOK:
ReplyDelete1. I found the first section of this set of readings interesting, where they focused mainly on media and the influence on appearance. I have always had a problem with how media drives people to dress and look a certain way, and I still can’t put my head around the idea of how people can let a silly little ad influence the way they dress. I liked the quote “We let them seduce us and possess us, and from our relationships with them we derive a certain sense of security”, with them referring to the media, it is frightening to believe how people trust so much in clothes and appearance for security.
2. The idea of “cool” and what it now means caught my attention when reading. Cool use to mean unique, spontaneous etc, and now its if you are NOT unique and different. To be cool now you need to fit in with everything, if you aren’t wearing the newest style of jeans or the hottest pair of sneakers, you aren’t cool. Since I tend to stay away from the mainstream styles of dressing, music, movies, and other things, I still find it cool when someone is out there doing something out of the ordinary. You don’t need to have the newest designer clothes to be cool. And this just reminds me of 7th and 8th grade in middle school when all the “popular girls” wore matching Juicy Couture Velour Jump Suits….still makes me want to gag when I picture these girls all in the same outfit and how they were technically the cool popular girls.
3. Within the section of we’re not feminists, it made me think a lot. Thinking back on how people were into feminism and had such strong opinions within this, it’s weird to think that it’s not like that anymore. Is it because there are bigger issues to deal with? Is it because people think women are equal to men now? It’s weird to think about this and how other activism ideas can just disappear like that. What will happen when people stop caring about the environment? It’s important to remember and keep aware of these ideas. Even though it may seem that everything is alright within a group, there can still be so many problems hidden within the group that still need help.
4. I have never heard the term MEME before and still cant completely understand the idea. I understand that it is a trend within something, but to me that just seems like everything in life and how things pass down and ideas are spread.
5. Cyberjamming is a term I am familiar with and very aware of. They said how cyberjamming is evolving at a dizzying pace, which is so true. Where will things go after the latest things? What will happen after the fad with twitter wears out? What will happen when you start needing to pay for more use of websites? It’s interesting to think this way and try to imagine how things will grow from where we are today.
My question is how far will media and the internet go before we need to start paying in order to keep these companies in business?? Surely companies make tons of money off of advertisements, but when will we need to start helping out here in order to keep all of it going? I know for a fact that when this day comes, I will delete all social networking I have within the internet because I don’t need anymore advertisements hanging out on the sidebar of my computer.
MOVIE:
ReplyDeleteI am finding this movie extremely overwhelming, yet I am enjoying it and finding the contents of it extremely interesting. The part that still stands out to me is the part where they were showing the companies and the amount they were sued for. I thought that it was crazy and surprising how so many companies can be sued for so much. I feel that the general public is not educated with this kind of content because 1) we aren’t told many things regarding companies and their work behind the scene, 2) companies don’t want to tell us things, 3) we simply don’t care. I do believe we are dumb regarding all of this, but its because of the content we are given, and how we are hidden from so many things. I feel that if we wanted to be more educated with these kinds of things, we would put that out there. I know I like to be aware of places and companies I get things from, and I know where to avoid. But this is all done from my own research, or from other people's research. I feel that if more people searched deeper into companies and stores, they would get more educated, but it just seems like many people don’t care about things, and they just want the products.
Book Observations
ReplyDelete1. Our Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare topped of in terms of progress in 1975! Holy shit! How is this happening? I suppose it is most likely from people who think that it is “easy to substitute other factors for natural resources.” We are depleting our resources and the economy is only benefiting from things that are hurting us. How is this okay? That is one of the scariest statistics I’ve heard in a long time.
2. This quote through me for a loop…”many times a day, each of us comes to a fork in the path. We can do one of two things: act the way we normally, reflexively act, or do something a little risky and wild.” In fact I just had a conversation with my boyfriend the other day about this. We were talking about what we do to relax, and how we could just sit and watch television or we could go outside and try to explore and exercise our brains. More people need to be having this conversation and thinking about what they should do with their lives, for real!!
3. Cool is not consumer America!!!! Is it? I want cool to be someone who makes a difference and not someone who drives a BMW. Our landlord drives an Escalade, common!!! There is no reason why people can’t be cool by riding bikes and helping the world and drinking more tea! America is an outrage.
4. I love that some culture jammers are making a difference. Seeing the victory in the tobacco industry and then seeing how jammers are moving on to new global issues is so exciting! I’m so happy to hear how the jammers are getting more organized and are growing in numbers. Rock on culture jammers!
5. I seriously want to create a gripe site… but then when I think about it, will it do any good? Will it do good to create publicity for a company we don’t like, isn’t any publicity good publicity? After thinking about this it makes me nervous because I want to start some culture jamming of my own but I don’t want to inadvertently help the company that I want to hurt. What can we do that is full proof?
Movie Observations:
ReplyDeleteEvery single component of this film stood out to me, however most of all, I kept thinking about all the companies I have no idea about. I had no idea that some of the companies I thought were good companies are just as shady and evil as Monsanto and Nike. I feel like most of America does not know about these issues because these companies are in control of everything, including what the public knows and wants to know. People don’t want to hear about the companies that they ‘love,’ they just want to keep shopping and shopping because the companies that they should be hearing about have created these horrid opinions in their minds. I feel like there are larger institutional forces at hand here. It is not that we are dumb, we just suffer from corporation mind control, SCARY! I don’t think we are distracted either because somehow America is able to watch somewhere around 4 hours of television per day; we could spare some time to learn something new. I think we are just swept up in this devotion to the psychopathic corporation. This movie is terrifying to me. Where should I shop? Where do I get the things I need without giving into this horrible corporation run society.
Culture Jam:
ReplyDeleteAt first I thought this assignment was to write about five observations or concepts, however it is more of what we have seen in our life.
The first observation I had was on Page 76 and it talked about how diet coke was used to unclog sinks. This quote tries to bring awareness to the fact that when people try to lose weight they drink diet coke, however it isn’t healthy. I found this very interesting because there are always a few teacher back at the high school I attended that always drank diet coke. I also worked with a girl over the summer who also was obsessed with diet coke, and she was skinny. At the time the weight loss or being slim may be worth it, however we do know that overall this is not good for people, yet it is still being consumed, mostly by unawareness and the balance of being skinny and fitting American lifestyle by still drinking soda.
The second observation I had was on page 89 how emergencies were good for the economy. They talked about this in the movie we saw last class, but I also noticed it in my town at times. When the bridge needed to be painted it created more jobs. A building burned down in my town, someone is going to have to a build a new one. Destruction is good by this view because it forces us to have to build and consume more, providing jobs and increasing our economy.
The third observation I noticed was about the concept of cool. It talked about how marketers picked up on the concept of being cool and reversed it. There used to be that kid that everyone wanted to be, but just couldn’t. Now it is whoever has the latest and hippest clothes or items, it gives possibility for everyone to be cool, as long as they consume products. I saw this in my high school where all the same kids considered cool would all wear the same clothes and all have the same fancy new cell phones…however I thought they were all kind of stupid because all they did was text 24/7 to eachother, go to the mall, and get drunk…not one thing productive or meaningful.
The fourth concept I observed was how the author talked about how super liberals dream in a fantasy world and give crazy speeches. At a certain point they are very childish because they are too over the top. I feel like some people like my Dad and some people I know on campus work this way. I am very realistic and try to think of what is possible and think of that as ideal, instead of what a perfect society would be.
Lastly, I found the idea of an ad being much more effective than a huge protest. A huge protest may gain attention, it may not. While one knows an ad will reach several people because of how our society is. In an ironic way, we just need to convert our advertising geniuses and use more media to battle cooperation’s and media.
Film:
ReplyDeleteQuite a few things stood out to me. The first things that truly stood out to me was how we give corporations the right of a person, but what kind of person. I had to think that one out a lot and in true honesty I don’t think they are a person. Or, if we give them a person, their person is their average worker, which may not be who the company wants as a person. I found the case histories very interesting. Mostly the one about the underpaid child workers who were making shirts where a cut of the profit would be give to children.
I do not think American’s are dumb, but I think we are easily too wrapped up in the world of consumerism and don’t jump out to look at the truth. There also are not enough people to get the message out, and it is tough for a few thousand people to fight a company like Monsanto or Nike. Even so, if they get a message out about how Nike underpays workers, Nike then runs an ad about how their employees rated them #1 in the country (but really only surveying U.S. workers). Once that ad is ran, American’s no longer think about the underage workers, because Nike’s make one jump high like Michael Jordan.
I don’t think I can take these films much longer, they scare me each time. I watched Consuming Kids again for my Unlearning Consumerism class today, starting to worry me.
The end,
See you all Tuesday.
Culture Jams
ReplyDelete1)"When a girl starts feeling like a pig it's very easy to convince herself that she is."(pg.78) The issue of body image is frighteningly truthful. I myself was someone who used media as a mirror for what I should look like. I remember, like the characters that Lasn describes, looking through the pages of People magazine and Seventeen comparing myself to all of the models and celebrities. I was always too fat and my hair too bland that I tried diet pills and dyed my hair starting at a very young age. Even now as an adult and in a loving relationship I find my old body complex coming back to haunt me. At least I didn't develop a true eating disorder like many of my friends did.
2) Lasn complains of the loss of food sensuality. Packaged, branded, and processed foods have replaced real foods. Butter, and I mean real butter is something that our society has been conditioned to scorn. However, this was a food item that was considered a luxury for many of our ancestors. Butter, dare I say it IS sexy, and we as media manipulated Americans instead see it as artery hardening, waistline plumping gobs of evil. While we are convinced that devouring synthetic alternatives like margarine is just fine. We have our heads on backwards.
3) I just really loved all that Lasn had to say in the chapter entitled,"Your Corporate Connection." The whole portion in which he mourned the loss of community at the hands of the auto industry. Can't agree more. He says that our love for cars has made, "the beating heart of community hard to find." I was just thinking about this today as I road my bike all over the Champlain Islands. Why aren't things closer together so we could walk or ride our bikes to get things? Well because the auto industry wouldn't make money off of us.
4)In the section called, "Ecological Economics," Lasn further backs up my previously mentioned sentiment regarding cars. Walking and riding a bike doesn't contribute to our GDP so expansionists don't have any interest in it. These expansionists/economists believe that we should create as much wealth as possible which will then allow people to endeavor into a life of ecological awareness. Really out of touch.
5)The Situationists are a group that I had never heard about prior to reading this book. Although their mission is a bit too radical for my taste I do like that they promote non-conformity to consumer culture. They also, and I really like this, believe that culture should spread in a lateral direction as apposed to a vertical direction.
My question is without being categorized as "radical" or an "extremist," how do we remove ourselves from medias grasp? Especially in a world that is run by technology?
The Corporation:
ReplyDeleteI have to be honest and say that I myself new very little about corporations. Well, except that they are controlling our lives.
Now I see that they hold the same rights a individuals? I don't understand how that ever flew in a court of law, but I guess it did. It's kind of like calling the Washington Mutual building in New York a human being. What these laws really seem to be doing is protecting these giant companies from holding anyone person accountable for wrongful actions.
In the movie stock traders were portrayed as being completely detached from the realities outside of the stock floor. This is troubling too me, and further reiterates my belief that if your making tons of money you gotta be selling your soul to the devil. I have friends who work in finances in NYC and I have always found that they are in fact truly detachment from what they do at work verses what they believe during the weekends. Kind of like that CEO of Shell who believed in doing good things for the world, but once in his work place he became blinded by dollar signs.
People don't want to know what they are doing or supporting is bad. That is probably why most people wouldn't choose to watch this movie, because they don't want to be burdened with the guilt. Reality is a hard pill to swallow.
Culture Jam.
ReplyDeleteThe cover image for this section of the reading shows three young women bearing company logos as tatoos on their arm. I thought the next chapters would focus once more on corporate advertising and consumer connection to images but the reading went much deeper than that. It was very interesting to read about people's corporate connection and obsessions down to the very principles and lifestyle they live.
The first few pages focuses on the girl who makes herself vomit, the man who has distorted his vision of sexual attractivness, and a steroid user. People would not seem to notice but each of these examples is proof that media and bombardment of corporate messages create unhealthy human behaviors.
The section I found most interesting is the "Global Economic Pyramid Scheme." After taking ecological economics it was breathtaking to realize that there is an alternative to conventional economic theory. It is crazy that humans are basing their economic system on a model that needs to continue to grow and that their are no environmental or social limitations to growth. This model also does no account for negative externalities, so there is no price for pollution or environmental injustice. The system is crazy, we are grasping to this ancient statistic called GDP that does not account for anything accept "goods" and "services." It is crazy when oil spills are good for GDP, Wars? good for GDP, meanwhile volunteering and riding your bike to work are terrible. As Lasn explains this is a certain doomsday scenario, that is going to hit much harder than black Tuesday or Friday.
The new activism section is a motivating section to read because it makes one feel guilty for being part of the "slacker" generation. This section also provides guidelines for a culture jammer to follow. My question is what is the best way to convey this message to the masses? Through new activism? Politics? Is personal choices of a few really changing things?
The Corporation.
What stood out the most about this film is the initial definition of "the corporation" as having all the legal rights of a person. This is immediately problematic because the definition is implying that a corporation has the same goals and emotions as a real person and that is far from the truth. As Michael Moore suggests in the film the profit motive and greed turns corporations into wrongdoing. The statistics on Nike's profit and the difference in factory employee revenue to retail price is terrible. I already know how much companies make off from international production especially Wal-Mart. I feel this message is not resonated across the United States enough, and if people knew thing would be different.
1. The dismantling of Car Culture is a huge step forward, and one that will be hard to take. Our culture is built around the assumption that transportation is little to no problem for most people. However, I did see a glimmer of hope. On S. Union St in our own Burlington is a sign reminding drivers that there is a bike lane next to theirs, go bikes!
ReplyDelete2. Once I read about the ISEW, the GDP in comparison seems so laughably flawed that it's hard to imagine why we use it. Then I think for two seconds and realized that the skewing of economic information towards the benefit of corporate entities is just as obvious as the GDP's failure.
3. The situationist movement seems so relevant considering today's problems that it is a real shock and chill to the bones that I've never even heard of it til now.
4. Lasn's rejection of the leftist label is one that I see as personally important. A book that references Buddhism so much is so obviously influenced by it. Buddhism being the middle way deplores either political extreme, conservative and liberal, the only sensible stance I think.
5. I really like that this book isn't just a call to arms, it's a how-to manual as well. A pretty refreshing change from what often seem to amount to mere empty gestures.
The Corporation-
After studying the way the world works for the short number of years I've been on it, I've only come to a few conclusions. One of the strongest is that nothing is the result of only one factor. I think the reason myself, and the rest of the country it feels like, were unaware of a corporation's power is a combination of the attempts of those entities to mask their powers from us, and our own willful forgetting that allows the corporations to do what they please. As Culture Jam describes, both a top-down and bottom-up approach is needed.
Culture Jam:
ReplyDelete1. I absolutely loved a quote at the beginning of the reading, “Eating is a complex act. It’s loaded with moral, psychological, social, and sexual freight…Food is sin. It’s guilt. It’s joy. We overeat, then we undereat.” (p. 79). I began to think about all the negative ideas and images surrounding food in the United States, it is odd that something that should be considered so amazing has become disgusting for the majority of our country. Lasn goes on to say, “We’ve lost the sacred joy of the feast.” To begin with we are fat, over thirty percent of Americans are obese, the highest rates of any country by far. Our food is often processed, loaded with chemicals and fat, and lacking significant nutritional value.
Overeating is a serious crisis in our country and leads to huge health problems, and while not nearly equal in magnitude under eating is also a problem seen throughout the U.S. Americans are estimated to have the highest rate of eating disorders of any country. As we can see Americans clearly are dealing with many social, emotional and psychological issues around food.
It seems that Americans rarely think of the moral issues surrounding the foods they consume. For example consuming produce grown using pesticides. It is clear from sales that most American citizens do not consider themselves to have a moral responsibility to the earth. Another large moral question surrounding food is whether it is ok to eat meat. Americans eat the most meat per capita of any country. This meat-based diet is contributing to huge amounts of environmental degradation, human hunger and suffering, and of course animal cruelty.
2. “Everything human beings once experienced directly has been turned into a show put on by someone else. Real living had been replaced by prepackaged experiences and media-created events” (p. 101). This quote scares me, partially because it is so true already and because it seems we are headed in this direction faster than ever. People spend obscene amounts of time in front of the screen. It seems we are forgetting how to live in the real world and are increasingly trying to mimic the actions of those on the screen.
“One of the juiciest human target groups is…the ‘emulator.’ Emulators look for products that make them feel like somebody else-someone more important. Since no product can help you fully escape your old identity frustration mounts…” (p. 102). After reading this I began to wonder, why is our country so full of “emulators?” Although I have no knowledge of the subject I came up with a few ideas while considering it. Many people are putting huge amounts of pressure on themselves and their families to be “perfect,” or at least this strange media idea of it. Is it possible that we are always trying to be somebody else because we are not meeting these ideas of perfect? Why is it that so many of us are trying to escape ourselves? I think if people really looked at themselves and figured out what aspects they were trying to escape and why, they could also learn who they are. Rather than continuing to try to escape themselves and become someone else they could finally become who they really are.
3. I found the section on “cool” very interesting. The section starts with the author saying how cool used to be the person who was an individual, nowadays marketers have changed the idea of cool, it is those who are all alike, “that bear the unmistakable stamp of American” who are cool, and not the individual. It is sad that we have made so many people feel that they can only be “cool” if they look and act a certain way.
What is even sadder is that (in my opinion anyway) this idea of cool that dominates our society is NOT COOL. Girls are encouraged to be beautiful above all, we are not encouraged to be nice, or smart or opinionated in any way. Men are often shown that cool is aggressive, loud, and unemotional. “Legitimately cool people instinctively understand that the psychology of subservience-getting corporately seduced-is a chicken-ass way to live.” (p. 114).
4. In the section “We’re Not Academic” the author criticizes “Most academics just ramble. Far too few raise a fist or a voice.” (p. 117). I both agree and disagree with the author here. We certainly cannot underestimate the value of our own consciousness on issues as well as raising awareness in others. Professors should help us understand the various issues and points of view, not tell us exactly what to think or how to act. However, as a student I often find myself frustrated with all the information I am given but I am rarely awarded an answer. We learn about so many things that are wrong but never told how to change them or even pointed in the direction of action.
ReplyDeleteMy question is how can our country change? Is it possible to reverse what has already been done? And if so, how do we begin?
The Corporation:
Everything about this movie is disturbing, fascinating, and truly frightening. Many people are unaware that a corporation has the same legal rights as a person. It was interesting to see how precisely many corporations fit the definition of a psychopath. The movie informed us that corporations are legally obligated to try to make money for their investors. We all know that most corporations are selfish, but this shows that they are literally legally required to be selfish.
One thing that was really interesting to me was the idea that while a company may be doing terrible things and considered evil, those who work for it are not necessarily on the same side. While it is counterintuitive to think someone would work for what they are against it actually makes perfect sense. Corporations hold enormous power, and effect things on a large scale. Therefore by working for this corporation if employees, specifically high up employees can influence small areas of policy it can have an enormous effect. We cannot get rid of corporations so we must work to change them for the better.
Observations:
ReplyDelete1. Immediately, on pages 73-75, I was struck by the stories of young adults so affected by how sexuality is perceived in the media. In order to sell products, the beauty industry has lead us to believe that if we have the correctly proportioned body (skinny) and the right clothes (expensive, useless ones), than we will be worthy of love. Each of our insecurities are targeted, so that our bodies aren’t one entity which allows us to live our lives and have fun, it is a set of features that are supposed to look a certain way. Of nearly all of the topics we’ve discussed in class, this is the one that frustrates me the most. I have a couple of friends who deal with eating disorders, and body image issues. These days, it seems like everyone is on a diet. I even feel that the “sexy woman” image is not even considered attractive by a lot of men, and yet women completely buy into it. We are being conditioned to believe certain features are sexy. What would we find attractive if there wasn’t media to influence us???
2. “Gone the connection between the actual growing of food and its consumption (pg. 80).” Immediately I thought of the film Food, Inc.- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqQVll-MP3I
If anyone in class has not seen it, I would highly recommend watching it. In essence, agriculture has become industrial and mechanized to the point that cement factories, machines, and chemicals are more involved with producing food than are land and people. The majority of people have been so distracted by modern entertainment or whatever, that they’ve not stopped to think mindfully about where their food comes from. More than that, huge corporations, like Monsanto, keep details of food production and safety away from the public eye. I notice this conspiracy on a daily basis. I have found that most people are convinced that cows “need to be milked”. They don’t even consider the fact that, just like humans, cows are mammals, which means they lactate if and only if they have offspring to feed. The dairy industry has become mechanized to the point that hundreds of cows are kept in cement barns 24/7, feed corn (which they can’t digest) instead of hay, are artificially inseminated and kept pregnant all the time, and the calves are taken away at birth to be slaughtered for veal. There is absolutely nothing natural about the process, and the only reason they can be milked is because the natural recipient of that milk, the calf, is taken away.
3.I liked the section Two Schools of Thought which started on page 86. I was excited to see a good discussion of Ecological Economics because some of the most infamous experts in the field do their work right here at the UVM Gund Institute. It is so clear to me why neoclassical economics (capitalism) is inherently unsustainable. In order for capitalism to work, there must be constant economic growth. Growth requires input of natural resources, which come from a finite planet of scarce resources. The environmental and social impacts aren’t taken into account under capitalism. In a society where corporations are completely interlaced with the government and the media, it is not at all surprising that the effects of capitalism (externalities) are hidden, or made to seem insignificant. Disasters are even considered positive, or beneficial, because they lead to an increase in GDP. An obvious example of externalized costs, yet very controversial, is the current war between the US and several countries in the Middle East (it seems like new countries are attacked every time I pick up a news paper). I think we can agree that at least a significant piece of motivation for the US government is access to oil sources. The US is completely dependent on foreign oil, and will do basically anything to make sure that we can get it. Billions of dollars are spent, thousands of young men and women from this country are taken away from home and productive lives, and thousands of civilians in other countries are killed in vain. Needless to say, the cost of a barrel of oil is much more than what lies next to the dollar sign. At what point will human life hold enough significance to change the materialistic, selfish consumption paradigm of the western world?
ReplyDelete4.My favorite section was The Revolutionary Impulse. The author compares the culture jamming movement to that of civil rights, hippies, anarchists, and other countercultures. “What we all have in common—besides a belligerent attitude toward authority—is a willingness to take big risks, and a commitment to pursue small, spontaneous moments of truth (page 99).” I can really relate to, and draw inspiration from, the idea of ‘spontaneous moments of truth’. The key to changing people’s perspective isn’t necessarily to be a radical, but rather to be someone everyone can relate to, but invoke critical thought at key times.
5.I loved the section on new activism. The examples of simple little actions were really inspiring. I have done a lot of guerrilla activism, and it is really liberating. I was really excited to see Edward Abbey quoted: “Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.” I have had that quote handwritten and taped to my bedroom wall since I was fifteen. It is something that I try to live by each day.
My question is: How can the public go about placing restrictions of corporations, when they have so much money invested in the government? Is democracy effectively dead?
Culture Jam, 73-136:
ReplyDelete1. “This nice ripe, red tomato, a Flavr Savr,” is genetically speaking part flounder.” Really? This is crazy. We need to just grow tomatoes and other vegetables as vegetables. They are delicious the way they are and don’t need to be fiddled with. And of course, this technology is owned by Monsanto, who else? I also found the study done by UCLA on supermarket brussel sprouts to be quite interesting as well. The study found these brussels sprouts had almost no traces of vitamins. No wonder Americans suffer from obesity and malnutrition at the same time. We take perfectly good vegetables and genetically engineer them so they have no nutritional value whatsoever, and then we wonder why we are so sick. The drug companies then swoop in and feed us full of medications to compensate for our sicknesses that probably derived from the “food” we are being fed.
2. A quote from Robert Solow in The Global Economic Pyramid Scheme section absolutely blew my mind. He stated that “If it is easy to substitute other factors for natural resources, then …the world can, in effect, get along without natural resources, so exhaustion is just an event, not a catastrophe.” And this man is a Nobel laureate. It is this kind of thinking that is going to dig planet earth into an ever deepening hole. Even if we could physically get along without natural resources, which I don’t believe we could, the psychological effects on the human psyche, without any nature or natural resources would be a catastrophe in itself. Imagine a world without trees, or any other natural resource. Humans, although we seem to forget it, still need some sort of connection with nature to keep us sane. Take that away, and I don’t want to see what the world would be like then.
3. I also found another concept in this same section to be quite interesting. “Our current economic system cannot tolerate any reduction in consumption. We simply cannot deal with that idea. That is our rigidity. And that is the kind of rigidity that brings civilizations down. For a species to survive in nature they must be flexible and adaptable to the environment and the changing world around them. If they can’t change the environment will prevail, not the species. If humans can’t change the way we think and make the necessary changes to adapt to the rest of the world, then we are silly to think we will come out triumphant.
4. I also found the idea of how cars have “ …eroded our sense of village and the vitality of our neighborhoods” to be really interesting. The introduction of cars has decreased societies need for more face -to -face interaction. As the author put it, “ The arteries may be alive, but the beating heart of community is hard to find.”
5. I also agree that “…chronic TV watching is America’s number one mental health problem, and that a society in which citizens spend a quarter of their waking lives (more than four hours a day) in front of their sets is in serious need of shock therapy.” It’s so true. There is so much out in the world to actually experience. But since pretty much every aspect of life has been televised, people don’t feel the need to actually go out and see for themselves. They don’t know what they are missing. Furthermore, chronic television watching is probably one of the causes of so many of the other mental health problems in our society today.
The Corporation:
ReplyDeleteIt’s crazy to follow the progression of the perception of the concept of a person, capital, and property. First slaves were considered capital and property . Then, finally with the fourteenth amendment they were considered to be people in the eyes of the government. Then over the next thirty years, everyone returned to a sort of capital and property with the recognitions of corporations as people. Its quite the nonsensical cycle. Frankly it needs to be stopped. I also found the part of the movie that delved into what kind of person a corporation to be ingenious. In my opinion, their diagnosis of a psychopath fits perfectly. Another issue brought up on the film that really bothers me is the putting of antibiotics into food. We then ingest those antibiotics through the food, however small the amount. This builds up over time, and thus, you have the birth of many bizarre antibiotic resistant strains. People get sicker and then need more medicine. People spend more money on medicine and treatments because they are sick and our economy looks like it has good progress. That should not work. Our GDP should not increase at the expense of peoples’ health. I also found this concept of the person behind the corporation not being as horrible a person as the corporation. It was interesting to hear a CEO of a company talk about how his values and beliefs are different from those he makes for the company because he has to. This seems as though we have created this sort of monster that is now beyond our control. Not good, not good. We cannot let this happen. If our economy and businesses are beyond dour control, we are at their mercy, and should not be. The creator should not become the victim. I also really appreciated the question, “Why does something gain wealth when a company puts a fence around it?” It’s interesting to think about. It goes along with why are designer bags and clothes so much more expensive? You are buying a name, nothing more. Also, there was one point in the film where a marketing woman said she was asked if what she was doing was ethical, and she replied that she didn’t know. Well, lets think about this. If you don’t know if it’s ethical or not, it probably means you really just don’t want to tell the truth. Which means that in all actuality what you are doing is not ethical, which means you should stop doing what your doing. The fact that this woman thought that by not admitting it was unethical made her actions less unethical, is just stupid and wrong. Also another person in the film made a comment along the lines of you should have faith in the corporate world because its always going to be there. This is the absolute wrong thinking a person could possible have. Why don’t you just roll over and die right now. You can’t change anything if you don’t think you can. The exact opposite of their thinking works just as well, it’s just a matter of which school of thought to choose. And I know that everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion, but in my opinion, in this case, there is a right and a wrong school of thought; the latter being the correct one....
....I think that most of the United States is not familiar with this film’s content because of a number of reasons. For one thing, corporations do a damn good job of covering their asses. They distract people with colors and material goods, and sales and fatty food, and slowly dumb them down over time to be more apt to buy into their advertisements for more stuff. Also, if people are content in how they are living, they aren’t going to seek out problems with their source of pleasure. Corporations are providing people with stuff to satisfy their blind consumer needs. You can’t bite the hand that feeds you, never mind stop to breathe, when the hand that feeds you is forcefully shoving food down your throat. I think if more people knew about the content of this film and acted on it together, a lot more could be accomplished than a few people knowing about this information, and an even fewer amount having the guts to independently act on this information. There is strength in numbers, and without numbers, all you got is a few smart, determined, outside –of-the –box-thinking people without the support to get the ball rolling.
ReplyDeleteMy question is what is it going to take for people to wake up and smell the corruption and deception flowing right beneath their feet? Where is society’s breaking point for excessive nonsense?
ReplyDeletearticle on facebook and privacy:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/technology/17privacy.html?src=me&ref=technology
My interests have never leant toward economics and management of money. The reality is that this sector of human development is inherently critical to attaining a state of societal well-being that is capable of lasting. Expansionist, or neoclassical, approaches to economics only fuel the current vision of prosperity, success and growth. These economists argue that there is no cap on what we can consume, extract, market, etc. Enough people realize the flaw in this to support the opposition: ecological economics. According to this paradigm our future is just as dim. Ecological economists claim that we have reached the limits of what the earth can provide and we are heading towards the “age of despair”. Surely a model must exist which allows for careful and controlled human expansion, preservation of our remaining earth and a sustainable future. It is easy to imagine that this model would require a redistribution of wealth that would leave North Americans devoid of their creature comforts and stuck with a standard of living much lower than many never expect to experience. It seems that we are faced with the choice of sacrifice or ignorance.
ReplyDeleteI greatly enjoyed learning of the Situationists, an international group of revolutionaries who believed that living fully meant “a life of permanent novelty.” They value impassioned moments, spontaneity, free will and acting on primal urges. There philosophy believes that this world is crushed by all the wasted potential. I believe this. If you watched a high percentage of students at UVM, which is loaded with potential energy and resources, most would be doing close to nothing. So much of our youthful energy and rebellious instincts have been squished by all the “stuff” we own, television shows we watch, media we ingest and loads of excess constraints. It is difficult to imagine what would emerge if each student in this University lived to his/her full creative and spontaneous potential. In a way it is almost painful as this seems so far from the reality we inhabit.
Why then don’t we just do it!? This is the question I often ask myself and oftentimes I find myself truly acting on my intuiting and living in my spontaneous form. Lasn introduces the idea of “breaking the syntax”, or discovering a new way of seeing the world. Our language is confining and barely allows for expression of the sentiments related to the necessary paradigm shifts. How then do we overcome this seemingly impassable barrier? Do we try and force our words around intuitive concepts and hopefully strike a chord with the masses or do we investigate other was of communicating which may prove more appropriate.
Lasn has provided us with a positive note amongst all this chaos and detachment; culture jammers are the underdog and thus in a prime position to take risks. The key is to actually take those risks. As Edward Abbey said, “sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.”
It is arguably insane that this country awards citizenship to corporations. You’d think those in our government and court system would be intelligent enough to realize that the 14th Amendment was intended for human beings, not business interests.
ReplyDeleteI am further dis-heartened by the sort of person these corporations are. Inconsiderate of others, content with doing harm and all sorts of other psychopathic traits. Who would want to live next to these guys!? And don’t we have laws that protect and alert us to (real) people that fit these same descriptions?
I liked the metaphor which equated maintaining civilization with trying to fly. It is extremely difficult and all-defying thing to do, but it is possible! Humanity is characterized by instances like these where the sheer will and determination of people seems to trump all.
How can AOL own Happy Birthday!? When trademarks of American culture are owned by corporations, or citizens rather, then what sort of country do we live in? A place where our most cherished traditions are owned by our absurdly wealthy countrymen who exploit and deceive us.
I was excited to hear the mention of Paul Hawken. My senior year of high school I read his book Blessed Unrest, which was a checkpoint in my awakening to the world’s problems. Imagine if there were more forums for books such as these and opportunity for conversation. Yes, these authors tour and speak but this often costs money and many cannot afford the entry fee let alone the travel expense. How can we make these sorts of gatherings available to a variety of different people.
Film: THere were many things that stood out in the first part of the film however there are several comments that absolutely blew me away. The first was that publically traded corporations are bound by law to pay the top executives the most money and to follow the bottom-line system which drives corporations to do one thing: Make money. A shirt maker earned 3 cents that retailed at $14.00.
ReplyDeleteA NIKE factory in the Dominican Republic paid workers .33% of retail price of clothing. This number blew me away and made me think very hard about the items that I have been and need to purchase in future.
The Disease Mastitis was the final straw for me. When they described the puss dripping into the milk that we drink I vowed never to drink anything that was certified local milk.
Finally the part about Shell Oil in Nigeria made me almost sick when I read that they hung 9 activists protesting Shell's Environmental Practices which undoubtedly produces some of the most harmful and largest amounts of toxic gases into the atmosphere.
Book
1.) The shiny tomato being caused by a wax that had part flounder was really messed up. If that is in a spray that preserves and glorifies a vegetable then what else is being put in our mood. This is possibly the most random thing I would think of if someone asked me what I thought was on my tomato. Flounder? It makes me think twice about what I choose to by in the off season.
2.) Every three hours a new Mcdonald's opens and one in four hot breakfasts is served at Mcdonald's. Wow. People wonder how we can change the obesity rate and how we can reverse consumerism. Knock down the golden arches. We as a country need to stop funding these types of places which have spread internationally and are infecting the rest of the world with their fat.
3.) 40% of terrestial and 25% of marine photosynthesis have been converted to human use. At this rate we should sufficiently wipe out everything in next couple of centuries if not well before. The bubble of living in harmony with the biodiversity of our planet was popped a long time ago. What little respect for the balance has been lost behind the drive to support our ever growing need to consume our resources. We rapidly consume the resources that we stand on. Imagine the jenga tower that grows and grows however structurally gets weaker and weaker while it grows until finally it collapses.
4.) In the UK a phony trader reports 1.7 million in phony trades before he is caught. Two questions sparked my mind from this. The first was how did it take two years for 1.7 trillion phony dollars to get realized? And how many other people are doing the exact same thing? How distorted are our currencies and how much money isn't real. After all its just paper.
5.) I related to the culture jammers because I feel that I too have given up. I am slowly come to the realization that other countries are not just bias against Americans. We do create a lot of the hostility that we experience visiting other places. The brand name America is one that many Americans would love not to be associated with. Yeah I am proud to be a US citizen but am I glad to be American?
My question is as follows above. I am glad to be a US citizen but am I glad to be American?