Videocracy: Media Control & Mind Control

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on September 12, 2009 by admin in Popular Media

How Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi controls public sentiment by controlling television

I’m looking forward to seeing Videocracy, in spite of the fact that many sources – Variety, for instance – are giving it rather mediocre reviews. The film, by Swedish film director Erik Gandini (who also brought us Gitmo – The New Rules of War), explores the evolution of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s political power in Italy, which has largely been fueled by his near-total control of the media. Although most early reviews describe the movie as being light on hard facts and meandering in content, I’m looking forward to it the way one might look forward to a Michael Moore film: the facts may be skewed, there may be a significant lack of objectivity, but the subject matter is certain to provoke some thoughtful conversation, and probably needs to be brought to the broader public’s attention. I personally knew a little about Berlusconi’s almost cartoonish gangster/macho Italian style of leadership, but was completely ignorant of the fact that he had such a tight grasp on Italian television. After the bizarre shift in American values over the past decade, largely fueled by a media that catered to the propagandizing of the Bush administration, one can almost imagine one or more of the NeoCons having gotten their inspiration while vacationing in Italy and watching Berlusconi in action. If you doubt the power of television being manipulated as a powerful tool to shape popular sentiment, review and ponder some of the campaigns distributed by the Ad Council over the last few decades. More recently, the spots created early in the Bush administration’s paranoia-inducing “war” on terror, spots like those in the “What if America wasn’t America?” campaign – like Library, Diner and Church – helped convey that feeling that some mysterious enemy was trying to steal our freedom and we needed to go get that enemy, even if we had to create it. Remember, the Ad Council also brought us Rosie the Riveter, Smokey the Bear, McGruff the Crime Dog, and the Crash Test Dummies, some of the most enduring images in American popular media. Although the campaigns were all brilliant in their own ways, one has to wonder if their sheer pervasiveness has perhaps not perhaps been the more important factor in their success. If, like I am, you’re obsessed with this kind of media, the Ad Council has a YouTube Channel. And look for Videocracy in limited theater release until it’s available on DVD. In the meantime, I’m going to watch the moronic Idiocracy again, to prepare myself for the coming Idiocalypse. Read the rest of this entry »

Bugs. They’re What’s For Dinner.

[ Comments Off ]Posted on September 11, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture

As the Filet o’ Fish becomes an endangered species, will insects become the next sushi?

On the rare occasion that I eat at McDonald’s or Burger King, I order a fish or chicken sandwich of some kind, not really believing my own rationalization that I’m making some kind of healthier choice on the menu. I was doing a pretty good job of not wondering exactly which fish I was eating until yesterday, when I read that the Filet o’ Fish was being put on the endangered species list. Which got me thinking about the United Nations’ suggestion last year that insects are the food of the future. I mean, like I often say: “Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach a man to fish, and he’ll starve in 50 years“. If the idea of an Entomophagic lifestyle bugs you, consider these two facts: 1.) In many parts of the the world (the word “parts” will take on a new meaning in fact 2!), insects are already a perfectly acceptable part of people’s diets, and 2:) You’re already eating them! If you’ve never looked at the FDA’s Food Defect Action Levels guide, give it a quick scan. A typical example of how many bugs you’re eating includes quantities like 150 or more insect fragments per 100 grams of Wheat flour. If you’re particularly microbe-phobic, just don’t, really, don’t review the guide; the glossary necessarily includes terms like “foreign matter”, “infestation”, “mold count”, “rancid”, “rot”, and “shrivel”. So if this hasn’t all turned you off to the idea of eating some bugs for dinner tonight, check out the insects-as-food enthusiasts’ web site InsectsAreFood.com, wherein Founder Marc Dennis points out that “Insects in cuisine today are what sushi was two decades ago” and advisor Jeff Stewart’s additional site CreepyCrawlyCooking.com asks reasonably, right on the home page: “Why eat insects?” Read the rest of this entry »

Cynicism Is A Sorry Kind Of Wisdom

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on September 10, 2009 by admin in Politics

What did YOU think about Obama’s health care speech?

This is not a CNN Poll
Do You Think The Obama White House Can Fix Health Care?
YES
NO
This is not a scientific poll

It’s rather poignant somehow that it was Barack Obama who said that on the campaign trail. The statement implies a kind of positive hopefulness that is one of the key reasons I voted for the man. I struggle with a certain cynicism about the current administration though; I wonder on occasion if I’ve been duped again by a clever campaign, and I wonder, as I’ve said before, if President Obama is doomed to a Carter-like presidency; a fairly decent man, swimming in the shark tank that is Washington. However, the confidence and clarity of his health care speech last night (full text, single page here ) reinvigorated some of my flailing hope for change in the capitol. I’m almost ashamed that his remark that “I am not the first President to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last” made me think of Clinton, who would’ve prided himself on the ambiguity of the statement, in that he’s not claiming to fix the problem, he might just be the last president to try. I’m not fundamentelly cynical, but I think that to not be cynical about politics is naïve. And although on an individual basis with humans I’m one of the most hopeful people you’ll meet, the ongoing “Brady Bunch Dividing Line” that some American citizens have drawn between themselves seems irreversible, and completely immune to rational thought and discourse. Especially when we have a desperately struggling, profit-driven news media fanning these attitudes at every turn. So a speech like President Obama’s speech last night keeps me going, even if one of the most inspiring lines in the speech was written by Ted Kennedy: “What we face is above all a moral issue; at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country.” If we can remember as a country that our real, deeper American values are those regarding a certain character based on decency and reason, we’ll be alright. And I thank the president for reminding us of that. What do you think? Read the rest of this entry »

Is Reading A Book Bad For The Environment?

[ 3 Comments ]Posted on September 9, 2009 by admin in Clean & Green, Technology

One of the many reasons books and I are entering couples counseling.

I have a troubled relationship with books, and when I describe it, it sounds like a should see a couples’ counselor. I’d like to spend more time with them, but I have myriad excuses, mostly relating to feeling distracted or too busy. Or I say I’d like to get together when I can spend some quality time together. Which is a cheap out, because I can speed read (I can comfortably read 950wpm according to spreeder.com, try it yourself). The fact is that as much as I love the tactile feeling of kicking back with a good book – the feel, the smell – it also started seeming intuitively wrong a number of years ago. I worked at a now-defunct book store when eBooks were first being discussed as a possibility, and they intrigued me. My bibliophilic coworkers would sneer at me, tsk-tsking me for questioning the sacred nature of a physical book, which was a little ironic: the store sold remainders and reprints. For the record, the publishing industry is not particularly green; only 5% of the paper used in books is recycled, around 35% of books printed are never read, and instead are returned to the publisher and end up in landfills, and around 70% of the world’s paper supply comes from natural forests, rather than tree farms. So what’s an eco-minded book lover to do? The fact is that although eBook readers ultimately are greener than printed books (although there’s a fair amount of debate on the topic), they still, frankly, kind of suck. Compare these reviews and prices. The most popular reader – Amazon’s Kindle – gives off a decidedly “Etch-A-Sketch” vibe, and the devices that have cooler features or more aesthetically appealing designs have crappy battery life or some other limitation. And all of them are over $250.00, for a device that essentially only reads books. As I mentioned a while back in Bound For Extinction: Books, there are other options like books-on-demand services. In fact, for a slightly recursive, M.C. Escherian experience, you can buy How To Self-Publish For Free With Createspace.com: An Easy Get Started Guide, which is published by on-demand publisher CreateSpace, sold on Amazon.com as both an eBook and a printed book, and teaches you how to use the two to publish a book. And no, I haven’t read it. Although I might soon if this new Asus reader is all it’s cracked up to be. Which it’s bound not to. One last thought: if you care about the impact of your books on the environment, there are lots of resources like EcolLibris out there that focus on ideas for more sustainable publishing.

Mexican Pop Star Makes Sony Walk Their Own Gangplank

[ 4 Comments ]Posted on September 8, 2009 by admin in Music

Pretty soon the RIAA is going to have to change its name to the Argh!IAA

Sony, the company that tries to infect our computers with spyware & malware, that sues its customers to the tune of 2 million dollars for piracy, that has been investigated themselves for software piracy, and that is guilty by association of corrupting our judicial system, has gotten a tiny taste of their own medicine. Like me, you may not have heard of Mexican mega popstar Alejandro Fernández before, but today he’s sort of a hero. It seems that while Sony was in the process of screwing him out an entire album, he turned the tables by having police raid their Mexico City offices to seize thousands of his CD’s, audio masters, and artwork. Sony’s PR people seem to be getting less easily rattled these days; although they expressed that they were “shocked” at the multimillion dollar settlement in their favor when suing a customer for piracy, they apparently are only “surprised and disappointed” by the recent raid. Personally, I think we should all show our support by buying some Alejandro Fernández songs. And I think Sony needs to just chill out. Don’t they know that pirates are ten times more likely to buy music than other people? Read the rest of this entry »

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