Showing posts with label consumer culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label consumer culture. Show all posts

Sunday 10 July 2022

Slicing Through The Madness





At the very beginning of the video clip, if you're paying close attention, the customer (little fella) hops over the fast food counter to make his complaint in person.

He is taken down masterfully by an employee safeguarding his colleagues and satisfied customers.

Then another [former] customer gets the same treatment.

Once the kerfuffle is over, it looks like his supervisor, is reaching out requesting the Samurai sword be put somewhere safe, now that the counter hoppers are in disarray.

I've never seen anything like it

Informed people know there's an ideological war brewing in the United States, and abortions, gun control, TERFS and reactionary accusations of racism-options are off the table.


You can take that to the bank but there's no way I can endorse the Federal reserve notes.

It's pragmatic to prepare for self defense.

Wednesday 2 February 2022

Reclaim The Streets - 25th September 2021/Southampton






As Outlined in Jerk Jam at Palmerston park, Southampton's Reclaim The Streets day was for all the family.

I noticed that some of those street paving art ideas couldn't resist a little 'it's not woke, it's awaken' efforts above.

Don't forget to check if you had the good, the 50/50 or the bad juice at howbad.info if you or your loved ones, were duped into getting juiced. Most Maxine injury takes a few years to strike if there was no immediate injury in the days and weeks following injection(s)

You might want to consider an HIV test too.



More information here, although it can't suggest the obvious correlation.

Thursday 27 January 2022

Jerk Jam Soundclash - Palmerston Park







This is probably the slowest post I've ever finally got round to. 

On Friday the 24th of September last year (2021), I was walking home through Palmerston Park and a sound stage was being erected (excuse the pun) for the next day, by the old fashioned bandstand, which leaks quite a bit when it's raining. I know because I've taken shelter there and been joined by all sorts of interesting people ducking for cover in a downpour. That's my electric bike on the right, I want to come back to that subject because as some of you know, I had two electric bikes when I lived in Beijing, during the 2008 Olympics. and there's an obnoxious scam going on with electric bikes in the EU. Let's park that and come back to it another day. Keep the vibes nice because on Saturday 25th, there was music in the park I've previously mentioned right near my gaff, and indeed all over the city centre which was hosting a reclaim the streets day. Art, Music, Culture, Festivities and loads of stuff for children and parents to do. Southampton is close to winning the bid for cultural city of 2025, and as I've mentioned previously, the city has transformed since my years abroad living and working in foreign countries.



When I left Southampton, nobody smoked a joint outside. We had to sneak around and be careful as well as paranoid. But on my return I was blown away when my old mate Chris, who along with his missus, generously put me up (when I returned to be  with my terminally ill mother), lit a joint up walking to Common People Bestival festival on Southampton Common, 2017. I thought I was in Amsterdam for a moment, but the reason I mention it, is that by 2021 I was comfortable having a doobie before I joined the crowd dancing at Jerk Jam. The music was reggae and the weather was a bit iffy at one point, but one of the London MCs, literally predicted that the clouds would part and the sun would come beaming through and lo, it happened as he prophesied.

Probably one of the best feelings I've had, or at least up there in the top 20. It was memorable and awesome. 

I was so happy for Southampton.

It's come a long way, and there's more to go.

Friday 29 November 2013

Consumer Programming ™









It's hard not to feel deep sympathy for people so unhappy that consumerism is their only relief from the pain of living. 

Thanksgiving at Walmart?

It's like they're programmed.

Tuesday 1 October 2013

Alexander Solzhenitsyn' Speech At Harvard




Alexander Solzhenitsyn is well worth a listen. We in the West simply don't have a single political thinker or representative that talks about the moral vacuum at the heart of consumerism, controlled music, sports obsession and political mendacity parading as Statesmen. 

I've never heard anyone talk as hard core as this. Real conviction is so rare these days.

The Harvard crowd really gets it as well. They wouldn't today. It's all rooted in MBA's and crooked lawyers scooping up profits at the expense of social justice and equality of opportunity. 

Greed in other words.

Tuesday 5 February 2013

Tuesday 25 September 2012

Homo Materia Is Waiting in Line For An iPhone




According to time traveller John Titor who got a lot of things right including predicting Youtube the future doesn't like us that much. Do you think she is concerned about the rare earth Coltan wars in the Congo that led to the 5 and a half million dead just so we can all carry smartphones? The women get raped before they're killed. A goodbye gift you might say.

Sunday 16 September 2012

视频: 2012.09.12 TEDTalks - Leslie T. Chang





To agree or disagree with author of Factory GirlsLeslie T Chang's TED Talk about the people who clamber over each other to work in China's factories to make the consumer electronics and handbags we buy is missing the point. There are so many dimensions to this topic that listening to her should make us all feel a little more humble about knowing how little we know.

I loved hearing about the people and their dreams instead of the endless talk of capitalism and consumer products.

Thursday 6 September 2012

The Real Mobile Phone Wars - Democratic Republic of Congo & Rare Earth Coltan




I don't expect you to boycott buying or using a mobile phone because of the Coltan that is mined in the DRC Democratic Republic of Congo formerly known as Zaire. I do expect you to know that over 5 million died in a civil war that is largely framed around the mining of this material. I'm just posting the better produced and more informative videos I'm coming across to save you the time of working through lesser quality ones.

In this video a story is narrated of a twelve year old girl kept in a pit for six weeks and raped daily by unspeakable men while a friend was eventually killed and left to rot beside her in the same pit for some four week after. During this time the surviving girl became pregnant and realised this as she continued to be raped and returned to the pit with her decomposing friend.

All of this for Coltan. A material that contains Tantaulum that makes tantalum capacitors which are unique because of the amount of energy they can store despite their size. That's the price we pay for convenience isn't it? Pregnant raped twelve year old girls in pits with decomposing friends. Day after day after day.

It was also explained to me for the first time why rape is used as a weapon of division in the Congo. It's like a hard core version of the fake left right politics that divide us in the West. Divide us and keep us distracted from what is really going on. Watch this documentary if you get time.

Sunday 2 September 2012

Banksy On Advertising


“People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you.

You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like, wherever they like with total impunity.

Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.

You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs.”


For further Banksy posts click the banksy tag below



Monday 20 August 2012

Edward Bernays, Chiquita Bananas & The CIA's Destruction Of Guatamala




Note the appearance of Howard Hunt of the CIA who also had a hand in the assassination of JFK under orders from George Bush. This clip is from the excellent Century of the Self by Adam Curtis of the BBC.

The nephew of Sigmund Freud, Edward Bernays started his business life as a publicist. While still in his twenties, he was part of the propaganda effort that drove the United States into in World War I (WW I.)

He personally advised several US presidents starting with Woodrow Wilson and counseled numerous corporations and business associations. Hitler's propaganda chief and Nazi henchman Joseph Goebbels was a reader and fan of Bernay's writing in particular Bernay's book "Crystalizing Public Opinion."

In this short excerpt from Curtis's film we see one example of Bernays at work.

Bernays was one of the engineers of the Cold War. He perfected the technique of manufacturing a distant but ever-threatening enemy and then creating a constant state of fear by generating false news reports that endlessly re-stated and exagerated the threat.

The stated purpose of Bernay's methods was to give those in power greater control over what he called "the mass mind." It worked well in the 1950s and sadly, it appears to be working quite well today... but maybe not forever.

For more free films visit: http://www.BrasscheckTV.com

Monday 16 July 2012

North Korean Comment On Consumer Society Mind Control




Whatever one thinks of North Korea this is an essential deconstruction of Western cultural toxicity. It really is a North Korean production with obvious intelligence fingerprints on it, but that doesn't mean it doesn't land punch after punch after punch.

The US killed 30% of North Korea in the 50's. It's probably an unprecedented number for a country to suffer. Give them the dignity of listening to how we look from the other side of the fence.

Blurb:

Here is the formal statement I gave to Federal Police on 16 June 2012: 

On a trip to visit family in Seoul in April, I was approached by a man and a woman who claimed to be North Korean defectors. They presented me with a DVD that recently came into their possession and asked me to translate it. They also asked me to post the completed film on the Internet so that it could reach a worldwide audience. I believed what I was told and an agreement was made to protect their identities (and mine). 

Despite my concerns about what I was viewing when I returned home, I proceeded to translate and post the film on You Tube because of the film's extraordinary content. I have now made public my belief that this film was never intended for a domestic audience in the DPRK. Instead, I believe that these people, who presented themselves as 'defectors' specifically targeted me because of my reputation as a translator and interpreter. 

Furthermore, I now believe these people work for the DPRK. The fact that I have continued to translate and post the film in spite of this belief does not make me complicit in their intention to spread their ideology. I chose to keep posting this film because - regardless of who made it - I believe people should see it because of the issues it raises and I stand by my right to post it for people to share and discuss freely with each other.

Sabine

I have translated this film, laid in the English voice over and subtitles, and on legal advice have blurred the identity of the presenter and/or blacked out certain elements.

0:00 Introduction
6:54 Creating Ideas & Illusions
16:48 Fear
19:35 Religion
25:00 Beware the 1%
28:10 Emulating Psychosis
31:21 Rewriting History
41:15 The Birth of Propaganda
45:49 Cover Ups and Omissions
54:10 Complicity
58:05 Censorship
1:01:50 International Diplomacy
1:06:14 Television
1:08:11 Advertising
1:14:36 The Cult of Celebrity
1:22:34 Distraction
1:28:01 Terrorism
1:35:00 The Revolution Starts Now 

Please share and discuss with as many people as you can, and if you have questions for me or want to discuss the content further, please do so below or go to: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Propagandafilm/427263763965283

Saturday 28 January 2012

The Century Of The Self (Reflections On The Kali Yuga)



Normalize the abnormal and pretty soon people forget who they are. It's like a spell is cast over their ability to differentiate between right and wrong.

The Century of the Self is an absolute classic documentary. Watch it if you haven't yet.

Monday 16 January 2012

Crying With The Onion



Sometimes humour isn't there to entertain us it's there to facilitate bearing the unbearable. What might not be obvious to the amused observer is how fake the presenters and the commercial breaks are to the person who doesn't watch Television. 

Should we really be laughing at the blowback of a music factory churning out the least desirable role models for our children possible? From the presenters to the celebrities to the commercials. Television is diseased.

All of this becomes extraordinarily crystal clear once TV is rejected in a persons life. I'd rather have a vagrant opposite me than listen to someone else's profit agenda spewing out. At least the vagrant is real.

Regrettably the only way that the United States can comment on the Western consumer models' sickness is with humour. The Onion, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are pretty much the only serious cultural commentary on commercialised politics, commercialised art and commercialised wars and one gets the impression that because it can only be tackled with comedy that many don't know how to take it seriously.

Wednesday 7 December 2011

Bill Hicks On Advertising & Marketing





By the way if anyone here is in advertising or marketing... kill yourself. 

No, no, no it's just a little thought. I'm just trying to plant seeds. Maybe one day, they'll take root - I don't know. You try, you do what you can. Kill yourself. 

Seriously though, if you are, do. 

Aaah, no really, there's no rationalisation for what you do and you are Satan's little helpers. Okay - kill yourself - seriously. You are the ruiner of all things good, seriously. No this is not a joke, you're going, "there's going to be a joke coming," there's no fucking joke coming. You are Satan's spawn filling the world with bile and garbage. You are fucked and you are fucking us. Kill yourself. It's the only way to save your fucking soul, kill yourself. 

Planting seeds. I know all the marketing people are going, "he's doing a joke..." there's no joke here whatsoever. Suck a tail-pipe, fucking hang yourself, borrow a gun from a Yank friend - I don't care how you do it. Rid the world of your evil fucking makinations. Machi... Whatever, you know what I mean. 

I know what all the marketing people are thinking right now too, "Oh, you know what Bill's doing, he's going for that anti-marketing dollar. That's a good market, he's very smart." 

Oh man, I am not doing that. You fucking evil scumbags! 

"Ooh, you know what Bill's doing now, he's going for the righteous indignation dollar. That's a big dollar. A lot of people are feeling that indignation. We've done research - huge market. He's doing a good thing." 

Godammit, I'm not doing that, you scum-bags! Quit putting a godamm dollar sign on every fucking thing on this planet! 

"Ooh, the anger dollar. Huge. Huge in times of recession. Giant market, Bill's very bright to do that." 

God, I'm just caught in a fucking web. 

"Ooh the trapped dollar, big dollar, huge dollar. Good market - look at our research. We see that many people feel trapped. If we play to that and then separate them into the trapped dollar..." 

How do you live like that? And I bet you sleep like fucking babies at night, don't you? 

"What didya do today honey?" 

"Oh, we made ah, we made ah arsenic a childhood food now, goodnight." [snores] "Yeah we just said you know is your baby really too loud? You know?" [snores] "Yeah, you know the mums will love it." [snores] 

Sleep like fucking children, don't ya, this is your world isn't it?

Thursday 24 November 2011

All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace




Earlier, Mark pointed me to the ever interesting Adam Curtis' blog who reminds us that the Greeks have a lot more street-savvy awareness of elite rip-off techniques including rapid power swaps that we most memorably experienced when blue blood Alec Douglas Home needed to dump his title to run the UK after the Suez crisis. 

Or as The New Statesman puts it:

We British look complacently on the installation of Mario Monti and Lucas Papademos as unelected leaders of Italy and Greece respectively. Couldn't happen here, we say. But in 1963, when Harold Macmillan resigned, our unelected Queen, advised by mostly unelected Tory elders, sent for the unelected 14th Earl of Home and made him prime minister. He subsequently renounced his title, changed his name back to Douglas-Home and won a by-election in a safe Tory seat conveniently vacated for him. All that was stitched up in weeks.

I like Adam Curtis but I've not followed his latest work. He's not sussed out why 9/11 happened which makes me squirm a bit. Nevertheless I started to watch the first episode of Machines of loving Grace, and I remembered that he has a brilliant BBC film library at his disposal and a good enough brain to adumbrate a point of view that while not flawless is able to provoke new thoughts in my own. He also digs up bits of history I wasn't aware of. I knew of Alan Greenspan's Randian worship and I'm familiar with her work, but I didn't know he was part of her swivel eyed private circle. The lens on this period in New York was fascinating though once again we're reminded that the people who really took over the US after the first coup d'etat of Kennedy's death were all subsequently installed during the Ford presidency.

I put it to you that the people (string pullers/banksters) really in power used the Nixon downfall to set up a clique of players including Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Perle and Greenspan to set up the game for later down the road. They cut their teeth during the tail end of a volatile period and then returned with a neoconservative agenda of nitrous oxide shock doctrine debt capitalism, false flag opportunism and empire expansionism under the quintessential puppet president. George Bush 43.

Brilliant really. We've been schooled by the best. If we get through this rollercoaster to the end we'll have picked up some very useful lessons in spotting the finest manipulation, trickery and mendacity in the galaxy. 

These will be essential skills to ensure the empire can never strike back to anywhere near the effectiveness they once had.