By Manila Ryce
Published Monday, May 19th, 2008, 1:54 am
Filed under: Personal Posts

5 Responses to “Just a Quick Heat-Induced Thought”

1. Great post. Chris Hedges made a similar point in his most recent book:

   “The danger we face does not come from religion. It comes from a growing intellectual bankruptcy that is one of the symptoms of a dying culture. In ancient Rome, as the republic disintegrated and the Caesars were deified, as the Roman Senate became little more than an echo chamber of the emperor, the population’s attention was diverted by a series of frontier wars and violent and elaborate spectacles in the arena. The excitement of entertainment consumed ancient Rome’s emotional intellectual life. It poisoned civic and political discourse. Social critics no longer had a forum in which to speak. They were answered with ridicule and rage. It was not the prerogative of the citizen to think.

   “We have been robbed of the physical spaces where we could once carry out meaningful discourse and debate, where we could participate in our society as citizens. Community centers, village squares and town meetings, the public spaces that made democratic participation possible, have been replaced by privatized space, by shopping malls, where we are permitted to enter as consumers and forbidden to enter as citizens. The privatization of public space has pushed us into the lonely virtual worlds of television and the Internet. It has cut us off from others. These isolated, deadening virtual worlds are curious hybrids. They give us the illusion of being part of a powerful (although anonymous) community. Sentimental drama and tawdry spectacle, from “reality” television shows to huge sporting events and saccharine musicals, fill the empty caverns of our inner life. These spectacles have become the common cultural experience and provide the common vocabulary for communication. We sit for hours alone in front of screens. We are enraptured and diverted by bread and circuses. And while we sit mesmerized, corporations steadily dismantle the democratic state. We are kept ignorant and entertained.”

   Sam
   05/19/08 at 6:59 pm
   

2. This is the entire thesis of Naomi Klein’s No Logo, which I highly recommend.

   As for me, I’d rather be treated as a citizen and not as a consumer. Chimpy almost never calls us citizens and I think that is a very stark reminder of his world view.

   Regards,

   Tengrain

   Tengrain
   05/19/08 at 7:33 pm
   

3. Very well stated, Manila.

   I will venture a step further and say that even in the rare circumstance when we are presented with the opportunity to talk, it’s almost always futile. For progressives trying to engage people in conversation, you are either ignored, mistrusted, or shunned. In anycase, you’ll encounter people who are victims of refined propaganda. Have you ever tried to talk to neighbors or friends about politics, say on the military budget or health care? I have engaged numerous people on such topics, the few who do respond usually repeat the same old talking points you hear in the mainstream. These are some of the remarks I encounter while discussing the health care issue and the urgent need for a single payer system: “I don’t want my taxes being raised”; “the government shouldn’t have to hold people’s hands”; “that is just socialism”; “Canadian health care sucks, we make their medicines”; “private insurance”; “there’s nothing wrong with the current system”; blah blah blah….

   How does one combat such nonsense without losing one’s mind?

   Foolishly I try; using statistics, GAO reports, surveys and all the evidence at my disposal in an attempt to appeal to both the intellect and ‘heart’. Frequently, with little success. On another site it was electronically whispered to my eyes, ‘People at times will listen but they won’t hear.’

   Whatever the case, we must persist.

   FreeThinker
   05/19/08 at 10:06 pm
   

4. You are so very correct Sir! Even our own government refers to us as “consumers” of government services. Our whole society exists for the furtherance of capitalists. Our purpose is to work, consume, pay taxes and to die. Welcome my brothers and sisters to the Great American Plantation.

   As for me I demand to be referred to in all civil matters as “citizen”. To Hell with the blood suckers who would have us dumbed down to the level of sheep waiting to be sheared over and over and over again.

   Sadly, this is all our own fault. We surrendered our citizenship and our personhood to the wealthy who own the “American Plantation” and to the Government who are the overseers of the “Plantation”.

   What did we surrender our personhood and citizenship for you ask? In the matter of personhood we did it to “keep up with the Joneses” in having the newest and best of everything that the corporations could produce. In the matter of our citizenship and our liberty it was for the promise of non-existent safety provided by the administration of a fear mongering moron named George W. Bush and the king of the neocons Dick Cheney.

   Let’s be sure to re-elect endlessly the same bought-and-paid-for politicians to go to Washington to continue the bidding of Big Corporations, Big Military and Big Money. Wasn’t the definition of insanity something like - one who does the same thing over and over expecting a different outcome.

   So fellow consumers let’s get to the mall or get online and do our part by consuming more and more and go to the polls to re-elect “more of the same”.

   Michael Robbins
   05/20/08 at 4:13 pm
   
5. 

   @Tengrain:
   Look, I’m sure you didn’t come up with the name Chimpy yourself, so please don’t take this personally. But I must ask that you not insult our primate cousins like that. I mean, in my personal experience, I know that Chimps are surprisingly intelligent problem solvers who almost NEVER talk to God when pondering unnecessary wars.

   It’s about as far from Bush as something can get. I think we owe them our respect.

   Thank you.

   PapaFigue
   05/24/08 at 11:15 pm
   

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