Daydreaming Idly

elledark: Greece and the Wizard of Oz Athens is in flames...

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 08:16:19 -0800

Greece and the Wizard of Oz

Athens is in flames tonight. While the Greek government tries to ram through even more deeply unpopular austerity measures to satisfy its international bankers, the Greek people have taken to the streets in vast numbers to make it plain that their political representatives certainly aren’t representing their wishes.

The effects of America’s financial meltdown, caused by the reckless greed of the financial services sector and the failure of politicians to regulate them in the public interest, continue to be felt around the world. Those responsible for the disaster have escaped scot-free while ordinary working people are left to pick up the tab.

The new ‘austerity’ measures being forced on the Greek people will slash the minimum wage, worsen sky high unemployment, impose tax hikes, rip apart agreements that protect workers, harm pensions, and sell off publicly owned assets to private bidders. The vulture capitalists are circling Greece and drooling.

Its the same old story that’s been played out to differing degrees in the USA and right across Europe. They want us to forget about the people who caused the crisis, ignore its causes, and accept that we have to pay for it. They want to use the crisis to strip away workers protections so they can be exploited more easily. At least the people of Greece are fighting back.

So where does the Wizard of Oz come into it ? Well did you ever see that old movie, with the munchkins and the yellow-brick road ? Where everyone lived in fear of the all-powerful Wizard and the dire consequences of annoying him ? Until, that is, someone dared to call his bluff and pull back the curtain he hid behind. What they found was a tiny, powerless little nonentity.

I wonder what would happen if ordinary people everywhere did just that. Told their elected representatives no. No more austerity measures. No more selling off public assets to speculators. No more destroying basic, decent working conditions and pension rights. No more banks and financial ‘markets’, who caused the crisis, getting fatter while workers suffer. You got us into this mess, you get us out of it.

But not with the same old failed policies. If you want to save money slash bloated military budgets, regulate the shit out of the banks and the financial markets until they know their place and act as servants of the people, not their masters. The country is still there. Its real wealth is still there. The fields and crops and mines and power-stations and factories and workers are still there. Countries managed well enough before the financiers became god almighty.

I wonder, if everyone just turned around and told them to shove their dire warnings and austerity measures where the sun doesn’t shine, what would happen ? Would we see the catastrophic collapse of civilization as they predict ? Or would we see the Wizard of Oz sitting there behind the curtain, petulant but powerless ?

emergentfutures: In the Developing World, Solar Is Cheaper...

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 08:11:20 -0800

emergentfutures:

In the Developing World, Solar Is Cheaper than Fossil Fuels

The falling cost of LED lighting, batteries, and solar panels, together with innovative business plans, are allowing millions of households in Africa and elsewhere to switch from crude kerosene lamps to cleaner and safer electric lighting. For many, this offers a means to charge their mobile phones, which are becoming ubiquitous in Africa, instead of having to rent a charger.

Full Story: Technology Review

azspot: David Horsey

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 08:07:44 -0800

azspot:

David Horsey

"Today’s New York Times contains a fine example of how ideology works at the high end: report..."

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 08:30:13 -0800

“Today’s New York Times contains a fine example of how ideology works at the high end: report information that might trouble the established order, but conclude on a tranquilizing note that allows the comfortable reader to turn the page (or click “close tab”) without changing his or her worldview. Both functions are important. Outlets like the Times do report tons of important stuff that one would be hard-pressed to learn otherwise. But, as Alexander Cockburn put it long ago, a primary function of the bourgeois press is reassurance.”

- How to stop worrying about class « LBO News from Doug Henwood

"Here is the root of the right’s suspicion of Alinsky. His goal was giving the dispossessed..."

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 08:29:33 -0800

“Here is the root of the right’s suspicion of Alinsky. His goal was giving the dispossessed agency—empowering them to “fight privilege and power, whether it be inherited or acquired.” In Gingrich’s view, by contrast, the “have nots” are fundamentally incapable, responsible for their own fate because of their immorality, indolence and inertia. They will only be uplifted through the discipline of the market. Put poor elementary school children to work to instill in them a work ethic; cut welfare to promote “personal responsibility,” take away food stamps and reduce unemployment benefits so that the jobless are forced to work. The flip side is a call to augment the power of “job creators” by keeping their capital gains and estate taxes low. In this vision, change comes from above, not from below, and wealth whether inherited or acquired is a social good. Gingrich versus Alinsky is not a battle over ideas; it’s about power, who should have it and who should not. That’s why 40 years after his death, the Chicago radical remains on the right’s enemies list.”

- Saul Alinsky: The activist who terrifies the right - Salon.com

"It is Alinsky’s populism that is most threatening to Gingrich and the right—even if it is a far cry..."

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 08:28:47 -0800

“It is Alinsky’s populism that is most threatening to Gingrich and the right—even if it is a far cry from Obama’s own political agenda. As political scientist Corey Robin has argued, “[c]onservatism is the theoretical voice of this animus against the agency of the subordinate classes. It provides the most consistent and profound argument for why the lower orders should not be allowed to exercise their independent will, to govern themselves or the polity. Submission is their first duty; agency, the prerogative of elites’ hierarchy.””

- Saul Alinsky: The activist who terrifies the right - Salon.com

"In the truest sense of the term, Alinsky was a populist, who sided with those whom he called “the..."

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 08:27:58 -0800

“In the truest sense of the term, Alinsky was a populist, who sided with those whom he called “the Have-Nots, and the Have-a-Little, Want Mores.” Alinsky’s small-d democracy shaped his strategy. He argued that leaders had to start by listening to ordinary people, not directing them from the top down.”

- Saul Alinsky: The activist who terrifies the right - Salon.com

"For his part, Alinsky, who died in 1972, never had much patience for elected officials: Change would..."

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 08:26:27 -0800

“For his part, Alinsky, who died in 1972, never had much patience for elected officials: Change would not come from top-down leadership, but rather from pressure from below. In his view, politicians took the path of least resistance. Among his targets were the Obamas of his day, from alderman to mayors to senators, for as he wrote in his 1971 bestseller, “Rules for Radicals”: “No politician can sit on a hot issue if you make it hot enough.” It’s easy to imagine Alinsky as an advocate for “change we can believe in,” directing the unemployed and the victims of mortgage foreclosures to put pressure on the erstwhile community organizer now in the White House.”

- Saul Alinsky: The activist who terrifies the right - Salon.com

aatombomb: c-newt: Saw this on my facebook news feed. I’m...

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 08:08:44 -0800

aatombomb:

c-newt:

Saw this on my facebook news feed.

I’m officially over people.

They want to teach children how to shoot at Bibles? Works for me.

Mattstache - David Guetta - Turn Me On ft. Nicki Minaj (by...

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 08:05:20 -0800

Mattstache - David Guetta - Turn Me On ft. Nicki Minaj (by therealruferg)

wolfies-world: should be reblogged twice a day Wolfie

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 17:32:00 -0800

wolfies-world:

should be reblogged twice a day

Wolfie

"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root."

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 17:30:34 -0800

“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.”

- Henry David Thoreau (via humanformat)

"Get a job,” shouted one conservative. “I’ve got a job,” one long-haired demonstrator fired back...."

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 09:11:00 -0800

““Get a job,” shouted one conservative. “I’ve got a job,” one long-haired demonstrator fired back. “I’m a farmer. I grow the food you eat.””

- The two Americas clash at CPAC - CPAC - Salon.com

How to make the BEST Rainbow Shots - TipsyBartender (by...

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 09:04:53 -0800

How to make the BEST Rainbow Shots - TipsyBartender (by TipsyBartender)

"Crazy, Stupid, Love paints the gloss of ontological superiority onto those most willing to embrace..."

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:10:06 -0800

“Crazy, Stupid, Love paints the gloss of ontological superiority onto those most willing to embrace the humiliations of conditional exchange. Just as Ayn Rand used her angular magnates to romanticize those who do the economic bidding of others, the film uses Gosling to glorify sycophancy in the realm of the social. The film asks us to admire him, but really we ought to pity him, for he is a broken man, one whom we should ache to welcome into our arms with the assurance that here he will be loved for who he is. Here he will be loved because he, too, suffers as we do. That we make him into memes is perhaps a tacit recognition of this humanity: Our desire to see him embody our slogans emerges as much from empathy and communal understanding as it does from reverence.”

- The Selfless Man – The New Inquiry

"Social dominance generally depends on the perception that the alpha is an ontologically superior..."

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:08:41 -0800

“Social dominance generally depends on the perception that the alpha is an ontologically superior being capable of shaping the social world at whim. Yet Jacob is not an Übermensch but its antithesis, no more than a servile flatterer willing to conform to others’ whims for a buck or, in this case, a fuck. Jacob is an impostor masquerading as a king. Who is Jacob, really? His wardrobe, haircut, muscled body, charm, and conversational style are nothing but calculated attempts to accommodate others. Jacob has given up everything about himself to get female affection. Conditional love has left him little more than a shell, his personality and aesthetic totally flattened by the societally imposed need to please. He is someone who simply cannot afford to be himself, for the cost of rejection — going without love or companionship — is far too great. But we cannot laugh at the emperor’s nakedness without indicting ourselves. This same bootlicking ability underlies almost all economic power under capitalism whereby we achieve “domination” only through submission, “predominance” only through compliance. Excluding inherited wealth, one can become rich only by identifying some need and satisfying it for money. Just as Jacob must bend over backward for women in order to seem dominant, one must willingly commit completely to catering to the whims of others if one aspires to be wealthy. Only by perfectly conforming to their fantasies — and thereby abandoning the self — does one become Hollywood and internet famous.”

- The Selfless Man – The New Inquiry

"Recognizing patriarchal fantasy for what it is offers some protection from its seductions. Yet..."

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:05:39 -0800

“Recognizing patriarchal fantasy for what it is offers some protection from its seductions. Yet awareness of it threatens to lead us into the maw of another ideological monster: meritocratic realism — that what is, is fair, and that status is its own alibi. Men are not valuable for their capacity for brute violence but for the strategic ruthlessness that can secure them money and influence. This ideology is at play in another recent Gosling blockbuster: the slickly executed (and hideously punctuated) Crazy, Stupid, Love.”

- The Selfless Man – The New Inquiry

"Consider the recent film Drive, a nouveau-noir thriller in which Gosling plays a stuntman and..."

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:04:02 -0800

“Consider the recent film Drive, a nouveau-noir thriller in which Gosling plays a stuntman and getaway driver who, in an effort to protect his neighbor and inamorata from the thugs who would do her harm, becomes entangled in a cycle of Mafia-related violence. If that premise sounds familiar, it is because the movie fits the tried-and-true formula of patriarchal fantasy wherein viewers are asked to accept that violent death at the hands of others is the primary existential threat and, consequently, that women need male protection to survive. Under late capitalism, the true existential threat is deprivation. Far more will succumb to a lack of food, uncontaminated water, or medicine than will be murdered. Scarcity pervades our everyday lives and terrorizes us: Even our relative opulence cannot quite suppress the mantra of “work or starve” humming quietly in the background. Capitalist society trains us to cater to capital to escape this threat, placing great value on those who are able to suck up to bosses. Patriarchal fantasies play against this. In their contrived worlds, social value accrues to brutes who can physically overpower would-be aggressors — which is to say that men are rendered heroes by default.”

- The Selfless Man – The New Inquiry

motherjones: Who’s using birth control? Oh, right, almost...

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:08:52 -0800

motherjones:

Who’s using birth control? Oh, right, almost every single woman in America.

n 1: Concerning the Violent Peace-Police. An Open Letter to Chris Hedges

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:59:21 -0800

n 1: Concerning the Violent Peace-Police. An Open Letter to Chris Hedges:

This is well worth reading in its entirety by anyone interested in OWS, organizing, or social movements. It was written by David Graeber, author of that awesome book Debt: The First 5,000 Years, and one of the people involved in the organizing at the very beginning of OWS. Great issues in here on violence and nonviolence, and how we deal with disagreements and diversity in a movement. The key takeaway: Keep your eye on the prize. Remember where the real source of violence and injustice is. Don’t fuck this up. Learn from past social movements on how to successfully deal with these issues.