Toban Black

I wrote this statement for a blog about Coulter in Canada events -
http://counteringcoulter.wordpress.com/to-bjorn/

That statement is a response to an e-mail (quoted at the bottom of that page) from a ‘Free’ Press organization.

Here’s a bit more background -
The ‘Free’ Press Society (which was backing the Ann Coulter in Canada events) had sent out hundreds of event RSVP e-mails by mistake. The Countering Coulter blog then was set up to take advantage of that opportunity to reach people who had RSVPed for the event here in London, Ontario, Canada. Someone out here sent those people a message (much like this post) to ask them whether they would want to use the blog to communicate their concerns about the Coulter in Canada event in London, Ontario. After a guy from the ‘Free’ Press organization sent out an insulting and confusing rant about that e-mail and that Countering Coulter blog — in a message to the same e-mail addresses — I put together the reply on the blog page that I’ve linked to above.

In that writing I tried to hint at the limited effectiveness of blogging and e-mailing in general. Online activism and dialogue (via Twitter, and Facebook, and so on) are very overrated, and I didn’t mean to reinforce the rhetoric and false hopes about ‘digital revolution’ and ‘digital democracy’ (Here are some relevant posts.)

To put this another way -
Free speech only can happen when there already is equality and justice in our everyday lives (with or without digital technologies).

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George Monbiot (in this article) -
“Blaise Pascal (‘the sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his own room’) couldn’t have been more wrong.”

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(Photo by Antonia Schulz)

Public art in Berlin

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Edited exerpts from an article by Joe Bageant -

Americans “remain one of the most controlled peoples on the planet, especially regarding control of our consciousness, public and private.”

“I know it doesn’t feel like that to most Americans. But therein rests the proof. Everything feels normal; [almost] everybody else around us is doing the same things, so it must be OK.

This is a sort of Stockholm Syndrome …, in which the prisoner identifies with the values of his or her captors, which in our case is of course, [American corporations, the American state, and a wider status quo -- including] its manufactured popular[ized] culture.

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(That second photo was taken by Mel; the first was posted by Faith Benedetti)

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That image is from one of many kill-or-be-killed
first-person shooter video games.

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A related article –

Liliana Segura on AlterNet -
“Gun Crazy: Firearms Proponents Want a World Where College Kids Carry Concealed Weapons”

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A couple of related posts at this blog -
- “Management and marketing”
- “An increasingly militarized U.S. economy“

By Stephanie McMillan

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Here are some other posts about transportation issues -
http://tobanblack.net/blog/?tag=transportation

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Of course, car drivers don’t alway ‘veg out’ (in one way or another) after they reach their destinations,
but some sort of zombie-like relaxation often is what people are rushing towards, isn’t it?

In fact, aren’t people more apt to want to tune out like that after rushing around in cars?

(This isn’t to say that people can’t think and watch TV at the same time, however.  And it’s over the top to say that people who do rush toward some form of passive relaxation are headed “to nowhere.”)

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There are more related posts here -
http://tobanblack.net/blog/?tag=urban-sprawl

Loveable muffins

(I came across that image awhile back on Flickr, but I don’t know where it is on there, and I don’t know anything about the offline context where the photo was taken.)

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Consumer tears of joy

A very large banner which was hanging from the ceiling at a mall in London, Ontario.  Two (supposed) tear drops are coming from one of her eyes.

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“When President Bush responded to 9/11 and the subsequent economic downturn by ordering [Americans] to go shopping, many ignored him and instead went to the movies. That’s the reaction Hollywood depends on to make its pile – and the escapist impulse is nothing if not reliable. In five of the last seven recessions, box office sales have jumped. When the going gets tough, [people] watch films.

Today is no exception. Theaters are packed, as there is more craziness to flee from than ever.”

David Sirota (who evidently is focusing on the United States)
(in this article — where the author recommends films that offer some insight into goverment politics in general, and election campaigns in particular)

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An Associated Press photo
(re-posted on Flickr by Vlad Lazerian)

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Chris Webb on the latest Batman movie -

“The elites of Gotham pat each other on the back because outside of the screen, these characters are part of a self-benefiting network–Bruce Wayne (Batman CEO), Mayor, Chief of Police and District Attorney. While the film revolves around the typical hero worshiping that charecterizes almost every super-hero film (particularly the fascist-tinged Iron Man), this Batman reinforces the concept that society cannot be changed or made better by leaving it to Orwell’s stolid unmoving masses. It is only through the corridors of power that crime can be fought, hospitals saved and general sanity be restored. A perfect example of this is the scene on the ferries, where prisoners on one and civilians on the other are burdened with explosives and hold the detonator to the each other’s ship. A perfect philosophical quandary, but played out by hot-headed civilians too ill-equipped and distraught to control their own circumstances. Better to let the DA or Batman sort this one out.”

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Matt Taibbi at RollingStone.com – “Economic Realities Are Killing Our Era of Fantasy Politics”
U.S. “election season will be packed with horserace media distractions, but [the U.S.] economic situation is becoming a matter of life and death.”

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The thing is, most Americans still are far, far, far more interested in the sort of media fare that you’ll find here:
http://entertainment.msn.com
That’s an enormous understatement, actually.

Don’t believe me?
Check out what people are searching for through Yahoo!:
http://buzzlog.buzz.yahoo.com/overall/

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Related posts -
“In everyday life” and “Everyday office work“

Pierre Tristam on NBC coverage of the Olympics and China -

“[NBC']s programming aims to deliver exploitable stupor to advertisers, not moral stimulants.”

“But imagine. Instead of wasting our time with those rosewater features about athletes’ personal survival tales, all of which sound the same, all of which would sound insultingly narcissistic in China’s context, tell us about the water and food rationing for the millions of farmers around Beijing so the games can lush on, tell us about Beijing’s once-great Chaobai River, dried-out by overuse and artificially refilled during the games with water from a plundered aquifer, tell us about the jailing of human rights leader Hu Jia, for ‘incitement to subvert state power,’ tell us about the confiscation of Muslims’ passports in Xinjiang to prevent pilgrimages to Mecca, give us a few snapshots into the lives of some of the 4 million forced to relocate from areas around Three Gorges Dam, the world’s biggest hydroelectric power project.”

[ Note: This was written for London Indymedia, an alternative media project in London, Ontario ]

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Some ways in which the status quo is supported through mainstream media:

• Little attention to ecology and nature (e.g. water depletion and pollution), let alone to the social causes and consequences of ‘environmental’ problems and proactive responses to these
• Dominated through political economy (e.g. company “public relations” promotional efforts, including their press releases) that is largely centralized in the hands of the prominent few
• Often uncritically parroting representatives of dominant organizations and institutions (e.g. government)
• Favouring audiences who are more privileged (e.g. ‘whiter’), while degrading others (e.g. ‘Arabs,’ who often are presented as terrorists)
• Staffed by groups who are more privileged (e.g. masculine)

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