March 17, 2013

Henry Giroux at Truthout.org:

The stories we tell about ourselves no longer speak to the ideals of justice, equality, liberty and democracy. Stories that once inspired our imagination now degrade it, treating it largely as a blank screen upon which to write advertisements that reduce our sense of agency to the imperatives of shopping. But these are not the only narratives that diminish the stories that allow us to imagine a better world. We are also inundated with stories that inhabit discourses of cruelty and fear that undermine communal bonds and tarnish any viable visions of the future.

More here.

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Filed under: stories politics Paul Ryan Ayn Rand Margaret Thatcher corporate inequality fear right-wing market tax cuts environment poor power wealthy John Galt democracy society narrow-mindedness privilege budget America capitalism freedom 
January 31, 2013

utnereader:

“An Inconvenient Truth helped raise consciousness about global warming. But did you notice that all of the solutions presented had to do with personal consumption—changing light bulbs, inflating tires, driving half as much—and had nothing to do with shifting power away from corporations, or stopping the growth economy that is destroying the planet?”

— Derrick Jensen, “Forget Shorter Showers,” Orion (July/August 2009).

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(Notes: 239)
  
Filed under: Environment corporate corporations power Consumption 
December 26, 2012
"The corporate state knows that the steady deterioration of the economy and the increasingly savage effects of climate change will create widespread social instability. It knows that rage will mount as the elites squander diminishing resources while the poor, as well as the working and middle classes, are driven into destitution. It wants to have the legal measures to keep us cowed, afraid and under control. It does not, I suspect, trust the police to maintain order. And this is why, contravening two centuries of domestic law, it has seized for itself the authority to place the military on city streets and citizens in military detention centers, where they cannot find redress in the courts. The shredding of our liberties is being done in the name of national security and the fight against terrorism. But the NDAA is not about protecting us. It is about protecting the state from us. That is why no one in the executive or legislative branch is going to restore our rights. The new version of the NDAA, like the old ones, provides our masters with the legal shackles to make our resistance impossible. And that is their intention."

— Chris Hedges (via azspot)

(via azspot)

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(Notes: 142)
  
Filed under: United States NDAA corporate state elite power control police military civil rights freedom law society 
July 5, 2012

This is extremely concerning. If you don’t know about the Trans-Pacific Partnership take a few moments to read about it. I find the trend by governments of ceding responsibility to act in representation of citizens interests to corporate and business concerns worrying, to say the least. 

If passed the TPP would give corporate and business interests the ability to severely inhibit the ability of governments to regulating or have an effective degree of oversight into their activities. By positioning business above the power of government to act in pursuit of citizens interests this agreement parrots the standard neoliberal line: the best interest of the citizen is one and the same as that of business—examples of the fallacy of this argument are too apparent to bother mentioning here (government should be run as a business if perhaps the most evident and seen throughout the austerity agenda, proponents of this view generally forget to mention that the business model is not a mirror of the democratic model—its leaders are not elected).

It seems clear to me this is of great concern, not only to us but to our children and the world we leave them.

But enough of me blathering on, if this has already caught your interest enough said; if what I have said hasn’t caused an eyebrow  or two to raise it’s unlikely any more from me will.

Some links:

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(Notes: 3)
  
Filed under: Trans-Pacific Partnership TPP trade intellectual property IP government Yes Men Michael Geist corporate business neoliberal civil society protest Obama food farmers Canada United States 
June 19, 2012

Pattison Outdoor has denied Greenpeace Canada the space on one of its billboards in downtown Edmonton – and handed the activist group a much bigger free PR opportunity.

On Friday, the company, which owns billboards and other ad space on public transit and in malls and airports, advised Greenpeace Canada that it had rejected its ad about oil spills in Alberta.

Greenpeace had booked the billboard space earlier in the week and submitted the design on Wednesday. Pattison rejected it two days later without giving the organization its reasons for doing so.

More here.

Here is the ad in question:

Via.

Making money by controlling public space.

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(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: Greenpeace propganda censorship corporate Canada oil tar sands Alberta public space 
May 31, 2010
Permission

banksystreetart:

You owe the companies nothing. You especially don’t owe them any courtesy. 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.

Banksy

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(Notes: 627)
  
Filed under: permission companies rebel courtesy world selfish corporate companies Banksy