These are some past writings from the year 2005.

Media: Its Belly's Full, But Its Still Hungry (2/3/05)

Starving for some real information among the desert of dead channels? (You will not find it here...)

Debates rage among my friends and other associates about our media and where, how, and under what circumstances we consume it. "Watch this channel, or read this website", "Corporate media vs. liberal media" whatever and what not....one can frame it how they like, but most likely its already been framed for you- your position in the social relations of production (where you are situated among your fellow brothers and sisters in the economic sense- owner or renter, rich or poor, worker or capitalist, or something in between as most of us are these days), as well as your local culture and interests, your education and your loves, all provide the foundation for a set of media antennas that soak up ideology, and its raining down upon us in droves.

....Its funny how the power of media as a 'framing' phenomena is perhaps becoming increasingly fragmented into sections that seek out particular groups, classes, and sections of the 'masses' (that perhaps fit their advertising markets a bit smoother no doubt) ... and as media fractionalizes not only into more specialized outlets, but according to our personal biases as well, we see the continued shift from the analytical and socially viable to the sensational and superficial.

Inundated with choice, consumers of all classes divide their time and attention according to media content that best reflects what they WANT to hear, and although there might be another side to a particular story that has valid points and issues to present, it matters not in the black and white, watered down media of the looking glass-self; meaning, we see the media that reflects what we want to see in it, and we interpret and understand it through mental filters that have been in place (sometimes) since our youth. So all the "Fair and Balanced" Fox drum beaters castigate the so-called "liberal" media and its purported tilt to the left, and the left takes shots at the corporate media behemoths of Viacom, Clear Channel, etc., pulling down the curtain on the diabolical activities of the wizards behind-the-scenes, and exposing their conglomerate empires as minions of the moneyed classes (who represent the interests of the capitalists to no end....)

So who is correct? Either way, with a critical approach one can wade through no doubt, but it is a luxury of choice that is limited to wealthy nations and as such, the literate, informed and active populations of those countries engage their media and fight it out. But it gets tiring trying to swim through all the muck, and when the noise, dust, and data falls away...we still live in a capitalist political economy, and as such there are winners and losers, and lets hope the ones who win are not the ones with the most money to buy up all the channels.

Pride at Work: More Than Just a Paycheck

"Labor wants also pride and joy in doing good work, a sense of making or doing something beautiful or useful - to be treated with dignity and respect as brother and sister"- Thorstein Veblen (American Economist, 1857-1929)

Almost all of us are employed. We work, we labor and we do something that we may or may not like in varying degrees in order to financially survive. In this process, we sell our labor 'time'. By selling these precious hours and minutes of our lives for a wage or salary, we are compensated in return with the means to subsist. As we sell off the hours and days, which no amount of money can ever buy back, we push forward into the structural inevitability of our condition; we go day-to-day and job-to-job mostly enjoying the leisure time we can afford during the in-betweens, when it comes. For most who labor in the modern world, we may not be doing something that we inherently enjoy or love, but perhaps it is tolerated as work provides above all a sense of dignity, worth, and value to the greater community, to one's self, and one's family. After all the cold economic calculations are wiped away from the bottom line, we always have our self-worth, and an innate sense of pride in the work we do, no matter how banal, tedious or boring such labor might become.
Initially, many of us find ourselves in the situation of working for someone else. We realize early on that we are faced with certain social conditions that are unfavorable at best, and that there is at the personal level a sort of crushing indignity to the prospect of engaging in wage labor. Wage labor forms tend to be represented by higher levels of alienation, as the human component in the labor process becomes washed over by management tactics that favor deskilling, automation, and greater control. These mechanistic forms of controlling workers and the labor process itself have inevitably led to the disrespectful and dehumanizing forms of work that are found in most economic sectors under monopoly capitalism.
Take for example the so-called 'Wal-Martization' of work, whereby so-called "associates" are treated like cattle on an assembly line that are only expected to last a few months, and who are easily replaced when another soul staggers in to fill the void. Unfortunately, this approach to labor relations has been adapted to much of the unskilled retail workforce, ushering in a litany of well documented cases concerning unfair labor practices. As it well known, wages are extremely low and benefits are virtually nonexistant, but even beyond that there is also a critical need to address issues of human dignity and respect. Of course one cannot expect much satisfaction from being a cog in the cheap import machine of the Wal-Mart world, but as this type of business and labor relationship is becoming increasingly more popular in the economy, it is essential to raise some basic questions.

First a personal note to relate to this-

I was in Krakow, Poland, in November of 1997, traveling via train for a week with some fellow students through the former Eastern Bloc nations. It was our last day there and time to catch the train back to Berlin, and as it happened we ended up being very late, and had to run to make the departure time. It was a dark, early evening in late November, snowing slightly, and getting cold. Krakow is a centuries old city, with history dating back beyond the Middle Ages and as such the streets are twisty and narrow in places, and consequently, at one point, we lost the way, and I was sure we were going to miss the train. Nevertheless, while running I noticed I still had a pocket full of 'Zloty', the Polish coinage, jingling away, and making loud noises in unison with my quickening steps. Thinking to myself then: "Why I am bringing all these coins back to Germany, where they will be useless? What possible use can I have for these?”
Still podering the pocket full of change, we entered the train tunnel and I could see the elevated tracks above. Still running, I was towards the back and could see the length of the tunnel quite clearly, noticing that it was lined with people selling oddities and whatnots to the departing travelers and tourists. Under the somewhat stressful conditions I then lost perspective of the situation. I was thinking: "Why not just unload the change on one of these poor souls and be on my way? Good deed done, I have no need for any of their sale items, and no time to peruse the selection anyway." So, in my haste, I went and did something I regret to this day.
The last person at the end of the tunnel was an elderly lady selling flowers. I stopped right in front of her and handed her a pile of change, a significant amount, smiled and turned to go on my way. She stopped me then however, insisting that I take some of her flowers in compensation. I smiled and said "no thanks," and sort of ran away from her, leaving her distraught and yelling at me to please take some flowers in exchange. I ran around the corner and up the stairs to our train, which was still waiting for us. As I sat in my seat and the train pulled out of the station is suddenly dawned on me what just happened.
Moments earlier, in a flash, I saw the entire, brief moment as a utilitarian transaction: I was trying to do her a favor by unloading my extra coins, thereby putting them to use, as they would have been wasted otherwise. However, in her eyes I had treated her as little more than a beggar, and indeed what I essentially did was to degrade her actual labor, or the time she spent into procuring the flowers and attempting to make some stab at a living by selling them (thereby bringing others joy, and returning the compensation back to her in equal monetary form). I tossed coins at her without "need" of the flora which she took pride in bringing to market. In doing so, I voided the basic dignity she sought by attempting to engage in some sort of survival activity, and one that allowed her to retain a degree of self-respect and pride...pride, which I soundly trounced in my expediency.

Ultimately, above all else, what is being argued for is the cultural elevation of the fundamental components of labor itself: pride, dignity and self-respect in one's work. However, the question remains, how much can we take, how many more lives will be sucked into selling their life away doing something they might despise, under disrespectful conditions that have no value for the human interest in the labor process? All questions of "if you work hard enough you will get to the top" aside, because no matter how hard you work, and under whatever disrespectful conditions it may be, we do not all come from the same situation, the same starting point, or the same economic background. So winners and losers abound...and the losers are ever growing in number.

Why Ask Why? (2/9/05)

I pity the man who wants a coat so cheap that the man or woman who produces the cloth will starve in the process.
-Benjamin Harrison


Imports arriving every hour. From the docks to the K-Mart shelf, every possible need is sustained and provided for in a veritable orgy of commodities. What of it all, whenceforth has it all came? These illustrious artifacts that improve our lives, and offer plastic solutions to our ever-present problems?

Why ask why?

The here and now is always our frame of reference, and in the crushing, spastic heat of every tumultuous day inside the machinery, most have only time and energy left to concern ourselves with ourselves, our friends, and family. As such, the 'where produced', as well as the mystified conditions under which these miracle-rendering artifacts are produced, are perhaps the next to last concern we have as we throw them into our shopping carts. We have heard the stories of the sweatshops, the horrible neo-slave centers throughout the global south where so much of our 'things' are produced, but the simple knowledge of their existence has had little effect on the consumption habits in the West, whose perpetual lust for savings and lower prices is the end that justifies the not-so-pretty-means.

After all, its fair play right? They agree to work for the shit wages and as such they get paid for what they produce...or do they? All the structural and entrenched opposition to change, from the corporate and WTO monolithic walls that stand between the wages doled out and the prices we pay not withstanding (for they are critical to sustaining the relationship)...ask yourself who is actually GIVING you the DEAL? Wal-Mart, or the worker who finds no other option but to slave for shit wages, which in turn are passed on to you in savings, and to Wal-Mart in profits?

Staring at the commodities lining the aisle, can you see through their simple (if brief) utility, and see the worker who made it, whose toiling life is sustained by it, and whose labor affords you a luxury of choice and economy? This realization is critical, and we should understand that in our consumption, there is a social relationship taking place, we are the end-consumers of the exploitation process that fattens the belly's of the executives, and thins the belly's of our brothers and sisters who labor for our needs. Although its becoming ever more difficult to find alternatives to this relationship, the first step is consciousness- can you hear their voices amid the din of the shopping carts, can you see their faces in the things you buy?

Through My Window Of Comfort...(3/15/05).

Arrived home recently to find myself back at work within days. As such I have been coming home tired, disillusioned and uninspired- not the best combination for anything. Nevertheless its nice to be home (albeit briefly), to the computer (my favorite friend that has nothing to say), sanity and the 'so-called' normal' day. And although normality can quickly fade to redundancy in record time, it often fosters an appreciation for simple comforts. For as a traveling musician, I spend concurrent days seeing some of the worst sides of North American cities (you know, where the nightclubs are...), and quite often this continual digestion of such wealth disparity can be both sobering and perplexing.

From my home, I can only see the world as most of us do through processed bits of mediated information-consolidated and encapsulated in our "news programing".... Through a window of comfort we in the West see a world outside beneath, beyond and behind us. Staring out from our towers of privilege across oceans of inequality and injustice, we pity the swarming masses of poverty and lament their conditions. We view the planet through such lenses of mediated imagery, as it casts global problems in succinct order, out of context, and out of time- as a series of seemingly disconnected events...a bombing here, a disaster there, an AIDS crisis somewhere over "there"....or, lets just call it "elsewhere".

The orderly presentation of such powerful 'events' in ahistorical language does more than desensitize their impact upon our consciousness, it normalizes the very misery that unfolds 'elsewhere' by giving it an inevitable and continual identity- meaning when the events are presented outside of history and social reality (as in the evening news sound-bite), such horror thus becomes in our minds an associated and interconnected part of the people it affects. Can we not think of other people and places outside of what mediated 'stories' we have been told of the 'other'- the other that exists only as a 'name' or 'place' in our consciousness, and nothing more?

The presentation of hard images from "elsewhere" (you know those ones that hit you in the guts, and you stop for maybe, 5 seconds and question life, and then you get on with your day?) Well, such images might provoke resentment, guilt, or anger in some, but only in a fleeting sense, for as we know the personal world prevails and our own immediate problems begin to cloud out whatever is going on "elsewhere" cause quite frankly, "elsewhere" is none of our IMMEDIATE concern. They might have a crisis, but we each define 'crisis' according to how it affects OUR lives, don't you?

The point is, this fragmented, decontextualized bombardment of random imagery has several implications for the noble Western mind- First, it demarcates a line of separation between the seemingly pristine and orderly world of the West and the seemingly backwards and chaotic world of "elsewhere". This is perhaps an epistemological line of consciousness that reassures us we are safe the way we are, and the 'other' out there "elsewhere" is the antithetical alternative to our championed existence in the democratic safety zone of 'here'. The second implication is one that serves to mystify- as the digestion of media in random decontextualized forms necessarily mystifies the shared social relations of production of here and "elsewhere", regardless of geography. Certainly we are 'conscious' of the globalization of production processes, we know that a large portion ( if not all) of our junk is made "elsewhere", it is the deeper connection we fail to make, whereby the producers (elsewhere) and the consumers (here) are linked in symbiotic deadlock. We consume the exploited and alienated labor of the "elsewherians" without care or concern, terminating a process whereby producers and their beloved consumers never see or know one another except through THINGS.

....So I pull the shade down on my window of comfort, climb into my Elsewhere-made bed, and turn off my TV that tells me of the misery of Elsewhere. Dreams come easy, for the wealth and security that surrounds me makes for quite the convincing opiate, does it not my friends?

The Words Of the Prophets...Written On the Shitbox Wall? (3/31/05)

I have mentioned in previous writings that my part-time occupation is a low-voltage electrician in the commercial construction industry. I work each day in a skeletal frame of a building, where I pull wire and install communications systems. While it might seem somewhat professional, its construction -dirty, alienating, and for a barely living wage. Of course I choose to do this, as I play music most of the year, but many others on the job site do such labor because its all they know how to do. My fellow working men and women are stratified into several categories of labor, some that involve 'skill' and some that involve 'less or no skill'.

We are all working towards the same goal- the completion of the job, the creation of a new building. Yet it seems we are all working against each other on another level- one where race, class, and ideology all collide in the SHITBOX. Yes the port-o-john, the stinking transportable box where we all must go to unleash the FURY. This place is not just the venue for which excrement is displaced- no! It is the anonymous chat-room for the job site, where all workers of differing trades and nationalities meet to discuss their biases and mutual anger among each other, on the walls of the plastic port-o-potty, with a black magic marker (aka the ubiquitous 'Sharpie"). Graffiti it is not- for it is crass, simple and to the point. Comments from whomever to whoever screaming "mexicans go home" or " fuck off gringo" stand boldly (among numerous other unmentionable phrases for a family website such as this). Blacks, whites and hispanics, all complaining in the most hardcore language that the other guy should get the hell out. It gets depressing, so much for worker solidarity at these job sites...such is the (unconscious) plight of the American working/middle class -at least in this particular microcosm...

The 'conscious' worker of yesterday appears to have all but vanished, shared class interests remain obscured, and most working class guys these days follow their millionaire politicians faithfully, despite whatever enemy corporate beds they occupy. The cultural landscape is littered with contradictions and obscured by arguments over 'values'. Values is it? Is that why my fellow American workers complain so much about immigrants taking their jobs, and then vote for the very corporate politicians that thrive on the cheap labor that is imported around them? Also then, why do they complain when they see their fellow workers increasingly speaking Spanish and increasingly taking on even the 'skilled' work?

Think of the definition----> Class: "a social stratum sharing basic economic, political, or cultural characteristics, and occupying the same position within the social relations of production"

For those who benefit, like most of us do, from the present class structure in the West, its a given- there is nothing to talk about, and moreover its difficult to discuss ideas that essentially mean that one's class position might be jeopardized- but lets talk more specifically about the shared interests we all have.

First to deconstruct the 'class' label...."Working class/middle class/upper class" are all sociological terms applied to actual human lives, that in the process washes over our natural interconnectedness in the production process...in other words, the use of these terms normalizes our economic differences, thereby legitimizing them in our collective psyche- perhaps it can be viewed as a semantic brick wall built up among us, whereby the application of these terms are spoken unthinkingly, "I am working class cause I work with my hands- you are middle class cause you work in an office" (essentially meaningless assumptions in today's ecomony)....but beyond the linguistic signifiers, what should such a constructed 'separation of the classes' imply? Presently it implies that there is somehow a NATURAL distinction among the workers of the economy, some less-educated who labor for a wage, and some well-educated who labor for a salary. What is critical here to understand is that as collective pawns in the production process our collective interests are the same, and despite the mystifications of language, the majority of us labor for someone else.

However, the 'middle class' does have a stake in the status quo, and as the largest block of workers in the production process they hold the most weight in terms of 'enacting possibilities'. The working class, or working poor, or simply the 'poor', hold the least clout in terms of enacting possibilities for changing their situation. Since they represent the have-nots who have the least spending capacity (or ability to participate in the economy), they represent the losers of capitalism, an ever growing lot who get swept under the rug of statistics and radio talk-show generalizations. So ultimately, these 'unseen' millions simply float under the radar, or more specifically, under the collective psyche of the middle class dream, where they pass the days idling IN themselves and not FOR themselves...

In the example of my construction job site, the conflict is primarily around white skilled tradesmen resenting their decreasing numbers as their work is slowly taken over by immigrants from Latin America. I hear these guys complain daily about immigration, yet these self-professed NASCAR dads voted for free-trade loving politicians (either unknowingly or otherwise). Politicians whose corporate entities thrive off of importing and/or hiring cheap labor- not just to cut away at decades of hard-won union pay increases, but also to do the shit jobs that most Americans no longer do, and partially to keep (minimum) wages low by avoiding labor shortages in certain sectors, among numerous other factors.

So, the shitbox wall indeed says so much in saying so little....

...brothers and sisters divided, Sharpies in hand, can you unite!?

Thoughts On Life (6/1/05)

Too much time to think is sometimes an unhealthy prospect, but I had my mind on so much that it overflowed into ideas, passions and hopes- never reaching an unhealthy overflow, but simply basking in the luxury of having the TIME to think life over....you know, life floats by in such moments that detach themselves so easily from what is meaningful, what is real and what is permanent....so much of life under modernity constitutes a passive being, an ephemeral existence, and a superficial understanding of what is ultimately good for our hearts and spirits...

We float on indeed, but simply 'floating' does not feed the passions of the heart- it is the difference between sunlight and shadow, or perhaps swimming above a coral reef without ever taking the time to dive down into the beauty of what lies beneath. It is the runner who leaps through the forest without ever noticing the smell of the earth, the quiet hum of the insects, or the multitude of birds that circle above...it is a detachment from the life interconnected, from the environment itself, that sucks us away from the living, breathing planet, and into the machine of capitalist culture itself- and capitalist by no other name.

These are the forms that manifest themselves in the monolithic void of the plastic culture of the beast- meaning that realm in which you feel empty, where you feel so empty that you seek out and revel in the pleasures that are manufactured for you instead of finding them in yourself, in the ones you love, and in the natural planet around you (what is left of it)....the luxury of time and reflection is one I acknowledge readily- a very real luxury that few of us can 'afford' ...but above it all, the past few weeks in travel afforded time enough to recognize what is real and permanent- and to know when to hold on to such beautiful things when one encounters them. I have encountered such, and if encountered again, I know to seize such life and beauty if I should ever find it before me once more....

6/19/05

I was in a local bar in my neighborhood with some friends recently having the typical Thursday night political discussion, and at one point we sort of reached a dead end, and were like "how the hell can we ever do anything to help anyone?"...such is the dilemma of being the hopeful small fish, swimming in the vast structural sea of interconnected problems that some call 'modernity'. To be conscious and unable to change the structure is disheartening; but, we just went right back to discussing ideas, because ultimately change starts that way. It starts small and if each does what they can with what they have, its all we can hope for. I am going away for a bit to partake it a bit of spiritual purification and healing, a journey back to nature of sorts. I will return in a month. Till then. Enjoy the summer- JASKA

Do We Get the Culture We Deserve?


We often hear talk and cultural references to such programs as Survivor, The Bachelor, or The Apprentice among others, where seemingly harmless and banal entertainment is presented as so-called “reality” television. Indeed the programming in and of itself is not the issue, as this is not a pious tirade against everyone's favorite after-dinner guilty pleasure, and moreover this is not simply an analysis of the content alone. What I am interested in talking about is what such bottom-feeding entertainment content says about our culture in reflection, and by extension ask: what do such 'reality' driven media say about what we value and prioritize as important in culture?

The cutthroat all-against all competition structures of The Apprentice, Survivor, and any other last-one-standing “marry X millionaire, or X bachelor” programming is perfectly reflective of capitalist culture's affinity for hyper-individualism, selfishness, and greed. While the show's massive financial awards do tend to get the viewer's consumerist glands salivating, it is primarily the unfolding drama that ultimately hooks the audience in. By praising the winner's ability to screw over the rest, and accentuating the failure and misery of the losers, these programs excel in turning 'Schadenfreude' into concrete, visual exploitation. Indeed such gloating over the misfortune of others tends to be a part of each show's seductive twists and turns, providing much fodder for our 'guilty' pleasure.

Of course, when we take the discussion one step deeper this comes as no surprise, for if we uncover the economic base of our culture itself- we find a pure, capitalist political economy- with little if any social value structure intact (aside from floundering depression-era policy initiatives). So as above, so below- we have a culture whose media represents (reflects) to the fullest extent the greed-based, winner-takes-all casino economy of pure, unbridled capitalism.

The next step is to ask then, to what extent do these programs mediate and frame the values and biases of capitalism? Do they simply REFLECT into our cultural mirror, or do they deepen, sanction, and reinforce the prevailing interests of capitalism, through a seemingly benign entertainment portal? Of course, if you find yourself in a relative position of comfort in life, and this is exactly the type of culture you identify with, believe in, and benefit from- then perhaps you might see yourself comfortably in the mirror as well, where your values are being fully and happily represented…?

HOWEVER, looking back to the programs again, a recent Time Magazine article noted that a twist on the content itself has been underway (“ When You Wish Upon TV” June 13, 2005). What can this be?! There 'appears' to be a programming shift away from those 'mean' reality based shows, towards a more positive and feel good media content? Are the networks responding to shifting tastes and desires, or is it more of the same simply repackaged for a new season?

On deck for the coming fall we have singer Amy Grant in “Three Wishes”, virtually 'granting' wishes to downtrodden individuals and families across America- arranging for emergency operations, building football fields and paying medical bills. More or less, swooping into town to fix 'individual' problems. Hard to argue with, right? Such a feel-good and positive show that perhaps could exemplify the outcome of a more altruistic and socially conscious society.

However, by focusing only on individual problems alone, in a singular local context, and not questioning the broader reasoning behind WHY so many Americans are uninsured, or WHY school programs have no money to work with, these shows simply leave the problems untouched, untargeted, and unchanged. Ok Amy, so you found some corporate sponsors to give you some money (thus fabricating a benevolent social image), and you bought someone some health care. What about the 35 million in poverty in America and the 45 million without insurance? There are a million sad stories in the naked cities of this nation, and saving one downtrodden soul is beautiful, but why not question the cultural and economic structure/situation itself? I suppose corporate media can not contradict its own interests (unless of course they can figure out how to make money from it).

By focusing on the individual here, the cultural mirror once again reflects the problem as outside of the social/national context, placing it firmly on the individual's shoulders, as larger questions of no health care (see the “Miracle Workers” this Fall -who give away health care!), and affordable college (see “The Scholar,” where they give away scholarships!) and affordable Housing (its “Makeover: Home Edition” to the rescue!) are all topics which are off the table for discussion. The prevailing national issues that hit home on the streets of dying cities, where “reality” actually happens to real people, are thus entirely 'framed out' of the social debate.

Additionally, such programming as “Nanny 911 and Supernanny” serve to trivialize the loving relationship that a mother should have with her children during their most crucial early years. For the few that can actually afford a nanny, or daycare for that matter, these shows erode the importance of familial nurturing between mother and child by glorifying a service solution found in the economy. Specifically, in terms of the political economy of domestic life, this is yet another way in which the mother is viewed by capital as little more than labor to be expropriated, and thus the cultural priority here is to keep her in the workforce- not at home performing domestic tasks. So what we see is the dipping of capital's claws into homelife itself, subsuming family relations into its fold by commodifying the task of raising and nurturing children- tasks firmly handled now by the daycare, nanny, and after school industries who all extract value by performing a service that was once handle by loving mothers. Once more the needs of the economy take precedence over the needs and interests of the social and cultural good…

Ultimately, nothing has changed from the 'mean' to the 'feel good' programs, because these shows still offer similar token escapes that play to the worst of middle class biases, and in a way they are more personal, because they triumph by highlighting and accentuating basic middle class FEARS of being uninsured, disenfranchised, left behind, or socially unable to 'afford' the so-called life that this culture has mandated they 'need'.

Case in point: Turn the fucking TV off.

7/24/05

Ali Baba Stole My Idealism

Is this what we are fighting for?
These tired anthems sung one too many times
These words as text carved in grey matter
Left to wander in cerebral coffins unused and unloved?

If my mind was in it, my heart was not
The body grows weak with intent and desire untapped
Wasted potential being the architecture of metaphysical indigestion
Violently gutted by self-pity, my only excuse is erased with the memory of the previous day (or hour)

"Wake up and live!" said Mr. Marley,
(as did Snapcase in some way or form)
If I do not heed such advise now I may never will,
…but it won't be from lack of effort
For I am very good at intending and meaning to do,
yet somewhere along the way
the foundation tilts and the staircase spirals…
(…yet that explanation grows ever tired as well)

It's a new day after all…

...On the "Over Soul"

It takes a lot of effort to trust a stranger, but it shouldn't take much to talk to one. You know, the risks are always in the back of your head, your sitting there minding your own business, reading, drinking a cup of coffee, and here he comes- you can see him coming from a mile away and you are already thinking of ways to politely tell him to fuck off, and then just like you expected he comes up and asks you for....directions, or something absurd like that. The point being that from strangers we are always taught to expect the worst. You know, how the evening news manages to fill endless hours propagating and instilling fear of the 'other' in our collective psyche? Prejudices are fueled, presumptions made, and detours are followed, all so we can avoid the guy who might be the one freak that could end our perfect day.

I know the news networks love to create something from nothing, but the exceptions they hold in front of us each night- the relative few participants of our shared human race that are indeed vile- are far from representative of humanity, and the beauty and potential that EACH of us bring to our communities (in one way or another). I guess its kind of out-of-fashion these days to believe that there is something amazing about every person, but such misanthropic biases be damned, because that is just one sad and alienating way to go about life. I see a link among us all, and as the amazing Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, that there is an "Over Soul" that unites each and every one of us into a collective unit of humanity- one that persists and exists despite the tragedies and horrors we read/see each day.

The bombings in London shocked the West, not perhaps as much as the 9/11 attacks, but nevertheless, the attacks were closer to home than those similar bombings that have taken thousand upon thousands of lives in the East (violence and death which has become 'normalized' and 'expected' ...you know "over there"). The bombers are exceptions to the "Over Soul" of humanity, they are reactionary and without hope, sanctioning violence as the only way to repel the colonizing twin hydras they see threatening the Islamic world: Western capitalism and culture. And how about their counterparts at the top of the global power pyramid- the corporate and political entities that many of us serve out of blind or passive/necessary complicity? These elite classes also operate without hope, and propagate fear as a weapon in the maintenance of their own powerful positions, stretching their economic tentacles around the globe in outright indifference to the lives they crush.

The actors in this dialectical 'reality' show- on one hand the military/corporate cartels which are the Western architects of Empire- and on the other the reactionary rebel fighters of the Islamic World (who fail as well to see the value of human life in their struggle), constitute an extreme minority of the planet's human mass, and represent a lost group that subscribes to the rhetoric of fear and violence, and as such embrace it themselves in their love affair with the global media and each other...as such it is important to understand that the social conditions which THEY have created- the "war on terror" from above, and the "live in fear" from below- are both one in the same. Each needs the other to justify themselves and further their actions...

But returning to the initial song of hope- we can go about our lives and each of us can do what we can to make things better for each other, our families, and our communities. Those who can not trust, much less speak to the stranger on the street will come around eventually, and they must. Life can not persist and blossom as the cold calculations of commerce dominate our spirits, and humanity can not thrive and breathe so long as the rank odor of terror and fear become the vocabulary with which we act and communicate among each other. It is simply not a healthy way to live, and we must shove this overpowering belief in ourselves and in our collective global identity to the front- especially in the face of the network media news structures that purport to define reality for us.

When just as many miracles take place each day as there are tragedies- the voice of hope must prevail...the stories must be told...

8/21/05

Greetings all. I am back after a summer break. I will be around indefinitely so look for regular updates, no more touring, just a new job (more on that next time) and writing. A number of things caught my attention this week, but here a few brief comments…

Situation: The Day Labor Center proposal uproar in Herndon, Virginia, (Outside Washington, DC)- concerned community citizens fought and failed to keep a tax payer funded immigrant day labor site from being approved. Meaning: Upper-income suburbanites who use, want and need the labor these people provide still want to buy their cheap labor time, but they just do not want to SEE them any other time. They do not want to pay for a formal organizing site- which by the way the businesses and contractors should be paying for- so they cry 'Oh, illegals!' …yet their lazy asses would have to do the shit work otherwise, or pay a higher wage to some white boy if they did not have their precious cheap labor. Run home and cry to momma. Mexicans and El Salvadorans are people first and foremost, providing a service to you and supporting their families. Treat them with respect and dignity instead of trying to shut and herd them out of your safe visual frame of bourgeois security.

Situation: Spineless liberals are once more nowhere to be seen or heard, as they give the virtual green light to ultra-conservative Supreme Court nominee John Roberts. This is despite cited references from Roberts stating that to pay women the same as men for jobs of 'comparable worth' is 'staggeringly pernicious' and 'anticapitalist'. If equal pay for equal worth is anti-capitalist, I think we have roughly 140 million female anticapitalists in this nation who would disagree…..yet another reason why the two-party system is a Demockery indeed.

PLUTOCRACY, ANYONE? (From Wikipedia) This is the definition of what we have here in the grand old USA: its called a PLUTOCRACY: 'The term plutocracy indicates a form of government where all the state's decisions are centralized in an affluent wealthy class of citizenry, and the degree of economic inequality is high while the level of social mobility is low. This can apply to a multitude of government systems, as the key elements of plutocracy transcend and often occur concomitantly with the features of those systems. The word 'plutocracy' itself is derived from the ancient Greek root ploutos, meaning wealth.'

Welcome To Atlanta

This past week there was an event in media space that served to highlight the American class divide, in all its ugly, bitter and antagonistic glory. In Atlanta, a law was passed banning panhandling (begging) in and around the revitalizing downtown area ( 'revitalizing' is a catch phrase for business interests who hope to lure prosperous yuppies and bourgeois spenders back into the 'cool' city to unload their loot). The opposition consisted of hundreds of homeless advocates and concerned citizens who cried racism and discrimination, but they are only partially correct. Ultimately, the business interests of the city wanted this legislation to furnish their moneyed class cousins in the suburbs with a downtown cultural playground free of any visual inclination of poverty or guilt-inducing images of social depravation.

Tired of the suburbs, miserable commutes, and banal mall-driven uniformity, legions of white collar 'professionals' are pouring back into the cities to live and play.This case in Atlanta represents the subtle need for cities (meaning their corporate-council alliances) to create a clean and 'pure' space in capitalist culture whereby the middle and upper income classes can breathe free of the cognitive dissonance and guilt that stems from coming face to face on the street with the poverty of capitalism's failures. In the gentrifying corridors of the inner city and hip neighborhoods of the downtown area, there is an ongoing battle for not just physical security (the police protection needed to keep the poor herded away into their dying city sections), but also to keep the poor out of the MENTAL environment of the middle class mind.

When a young, hard working couple enters the city to go to dinner, they simply do not want to be faced with the prospect of 'seeing' (much less talking to) those losers of the economic system that they themselves inherently benefit from. For such middle class minds simply love to think that the wealth in our society is available for all to take if they work hard enough, and as such they crave the separation and distance that is needed to preserve this world in their heads. In Atlanta, it is estimated there are roughly 7000-12,000 homeless people on the street, who being dispossessed, naturally gravitate towards the downtown districts where the wealth gets tossed around. In areas like this, coveted by business interests and their upper income patrons, we see then the imperative to present a visual space where a positive mental image can be maintained for consumers, one that sanctifies the purity and workability of the capitalist system. This means keeping the poor out of sight (and thankfully- out of mind).

Therefore, this event represents the legal and political extension of the middle class urgency to separate itself from America' s conflicting and contradictory social reality. These laws are safety measures primarily responding to the needs and biases of the middle class, and thus serve as a cerebral white wash in the mental purification of the middle class mind. Middle class values and interests demand a continued and self-reinforcing detachment from the reality of capitalism's inequalities, which in the bourgeois world includes the idolization and worship of wealth and commodities, and the deification of millionaires and celebrities. This means essentially that one's reality be continually sustained by comforting media, text, ideology, and imagery that provide the context for perceiving oneself in a pervasive middle-class society, where poverty is virtually non-existent, or only occurs to people who somehow 'deserve' it. So in Atlanta, where we see the intrusion of homeless cultural representations, we then see the middle class reaction- a de facto legal ejection- that sends the homeless, as casualties of capitalist progress, off to pick up their crumbs elsewhere, anywhere, but where the middle class want to play in their sheltered downtown toy stores and drinking holes.

9/1/05

hanks to all those who offered kind words of support at the festival in Germany last weekend. Now that I am back here within the confines of my beloved country, its time to get back to work...

On the disaster...First, I think its beautiful that among the first to offer help after the Hurricane was Chavez and Venezuela....I guess for Pat Robertson however, the more Christian response would have been to offer to assassinate either the Mayor of New Orleans, or the Governor of Louisiana, for showing such gross ineffectiveness in preventing the disaster.

Second, lets take a look at how our racist so called 'liberal media' dissects an image, CHECK THIS OUT, and see how language itself modifies the context of the situation (basically it captures 2 images from Yahoo! news that were subsequently removed after the public noticed....) :http://img283.imageshack.us/img283/7821/thatsracist8ca7em.gif

What a coincidence, on the same week it is reported that Mr. Bush's approval rating reaches an all time low, the poverty rate rises for the third year in a row! Although the poor do not usually factor in as an interest group for Republican economists, perhaps there is a 'trickle down' effect going on, aye?

In Iraq, the holy war rages on, yet with less support than ever....First we see the classic attempt by conservatives to 1) Paint the war in classic, moral language- thus evading any questions of the logical purpose of the invasion (to fight non-existent Al Queda cells, or to destroy a non-existent nuclear weapons program...yeah remember that?). So we have Bush yesterday calling the Iraq War the moral equivalent of fighting fascism in the Second World War. Wait a minute, I thought that the axis powers INVADED other countries? Where is the similarity here again? and yes we also have 2) Conservative and right wing puppets continually calling any dissent or disagreement with the war 'communist', 'unpatriotic', or 'unamerican.' once more if almost half the country is against the war, thats a whole lot of commies and traitors running around!

In fact I see a bit of a frame shift going on, as the mainstream American media begin to douse their Iraqi coverage with words like 'Vietnam, 'quagmire', conundrum', and 'exit strategy'. Two and a half years ago, nearly half the nation opposed the invasion, but still even after when the initial purpose of the invasion was found to be based on lies and conjecture, there was a large swath of middle America that just wanted to believe, that hoped there was some 'just' reason to go and invade a sovereign nation. Media hyper-events have increased 10 fold since Vietnam, and as spatial convergence and temporal speeds now bring an instantaneous turnover of news, opinion, and ideology, we see the ability for a general shift in public thought to occur much more quickly. The shift is in process, and one can only hope the massive death and trillions of dollars will all lead to something better...but when has anything ever changed?

9/2/05

'Rich and poor alike, they found themselves starting over. The former began buying new houses and leasing new office space. The latter waited in lines for a bar of soap or a peanut butter sandwich.' - (Describing the circumstances of the newly dispossessed, after the Hurricane) The Washington Post, 9/2/05

Defenders of the administration's severely poor response to the disaster cry for the tragedy not to be 'politicized'. Well if 9/11 was not politicized all the way to public office than I am living in Disney Land (I think I am anyway...). Basically, there are public decisions to be made about how to undertake rescue and support (they already fucked up the 'when' part by being days late to save any survivors), and since there are public servants doing the work with public money- all decisions are necessarily political, and are therefore politicized. The greatest tragedy is that the city of New Orleans is so heavily class divided (with 30% living in poverty), and as such it is the poor, who stand without a voice, property or transportation who suffer the most egregious costs. So, those with the ability to do so are already out and safe, while those who are stranded behind become the targets of criticism for exercising their human right to food, water, diapers and whatever else. Some are 'looters' and some are only trying to stay alive- but the fact remains the government's response was too little and too late for many.

Either way, our hearts are with you all, so hang in there.
Check out "How To Create A Crisis" by Earl Hutchinson and also, Mike Moore's letter to the President.

9/19/05

Three weeks ago, a young and very angry girl named Katrina did more of her share of work in New Orleans, but consequently she did a tremendous job of blowing the cobwebs off our national consciousness as well. She has shaken the American middle class from its safely suburbanized perceptions of abundant national wealth and eternal prosperity. Yes, she was not around long, but she left her mark. The 'other' America for the past month has been on display for all the world. It is an America that roughly 35 million people live in, and whose stories are rarely told. Their conditions have been normalized out of America's frame of reference, and as such they were nicely packaged away from middle class eyes. Sure we see them sometimes, but after they do our shit work, they still go back into those hoods and do whatever it is they do there, right?

New Orleans above all has shown how bankrupt the post-industrial neo-conservative agenda is, where the holy doctrines of deregulation and privatization have left the social safety net full of holes (if there ever was one)...

Check these out:

The Washington Post Media Critic Critiques the Media on their sudden "discovery" of America's poor!

Also check out: REALITY, ONE BITE AT A TIME

9/25/05

It was a great day in DC yesterday, it almost made me forget I was living inside the Empire, here in the belly of the beast itself... So many great ideas, so many vibrant and passionate voices, and so much hope. It was all there to take in, as the conscious and caring masses made their collective voice heard once more. It is obvious that there is an angry and active Left in this nation of passive consumer sheep, yet as fractured as we are, it was nice to see us all in one place for one day of expression and mutual hunger for change....

The concert (especially with Jello Biafra hosting) was well done, and throughout the evening there was much that made me smile, as well as filled my heart with rage....As all of us gradually went home (or to the bar with friends in my case), I can only wonder how many people left with a new or reinvigorated view of this world and what we can do to change it for the better. Unfortunately and as expected, mainstream corporate media sources did not find the 150,000+ plus people who attended worthy of little more than a footnote to other events that day, as the Hurricane Rita story that was perhaps more sexy and worthy of a viewer's total attention.

So we will see if the general tide will shift and the public might eventually wake up to what is being done in their name overseas (and as the hurricanes have exposed-here at home as well), and perhaps the average American might one day care more for the planet, the people and our collective well being.

12/11/05

Greetings. back online, and decided its time to start writing again. December is always a great month to start things, its like you are ahead of all the New Year's Eve resolution crap, and if your resolution does not work out by New Year's, then you know its something not to bother with. So here is to writing every day...

First, here in Maryland we just executed the 1001th person since the reinstitution of Capital Punishment (wow crime has really come down since we started that!) I find it the grandest of contradictions when we have our beloved brothers of the Christian faith (not all but many in the USA), who so love the words of Jesus, profess forgiveness and tolerance, and yet support the death penalty. First, capital punishment is an age old argument, yet most of the world has got it right, as only the USA, Iran and China among a few others actually kill their citizens consistently using officially sanctioned methods (FACT in 2004, 97 per cent of all known executions took place in China, Iran, Viet Nam and the USA).

The death penalty is not a deterrent in crime, and by allowing the STATE to regulate death in domestic law we simply codify the very action you are killing someone for!? What the fuck kind of logic is that? I am not even going to get into the flaws of the judicial system itself that have put innocents to death, but point is- how can anyone be a Christian and support death as a means of punishment? Pro-life AND pro-death at the same time? Ouch!

Amnesty International Death Penalty Facts

In other developments, Misery Index has 8 new songs written and 2 more in the works for the recording next month, look for a May release on that. Additionally I am working on my first novel, its a futuristic scenario which might be viewed as a cross between 1984 and Catcher in the Rye. Doing the story boards now, so I think i am looking at 10 to 10.5 years to completion.

12/14/05

Creative brilliance is something I think we all possess. The spirit, imagination, ideas, all that beautiful shit, is stuffed up in each of our heads and screaming to come out. Of course, every day life gets in the way, and sometime between when the alarm goes off in the morning, and the TV clicks off at night, the burdens of this radical life under modernity come crashing down. The ability to exercise one's passion is then defined by circumstance, to what extent do we have the time and energy outside of work to follow our dreams? Is our present job already our goal in life, or is there something else, and what present financial/ social pressures stand in the way? I guess at least having the 'option' should keep us happy, but when the options do not extend to all, and only those who can afford to exercise the choice participate, the entire structure is a failure.

In reference to my last blog and the Death Penalty: On "Why Arnold Killed Tookie"

12/19/05

One Step Closer to the Surveillance State

Last week's bold revelation of political self-righteousness takes some balls. By his own choice, and only with the consent of the Attorney General and White House Counsel (both his appointees by the way), Bush unilaterally in 2001 declared a new policy of domestic spying and eavesdropping on American citizens to be completely justified. So, we have the total and "absolute" power to delve into and monitor the life of any American citizen, without warrant, regardless if they are under suspicion or not, and without any oversight by judicial and legislative branches. By allowing the National Security Agency, the FBI and the Pentagon's CIFA agency to probe the lives of American citizens without any need to justify a cause or clarify reasoning, we not only allow ourselves to be further manipulated by the fear mongering of the ruling elite, but also take one step closer to handing over our liberties to a burgeoning police state.

Sure, "oh it can not happen here", one might say...yet it is happening. When it is instituted in small increments such as this, without much of a whim by the public, and in full view of the supposedly liberal/corporate (whatever it is today) media, the days and months will drift by into a growing paranoia that our "enemy" out there somewhere is actually here, among us. The idea that we are fighting this unseen enemy of militant Islamic factions, who operate in surreptitious underground circles, is one that is already part of our collective understanding of social reality. We have already bought into the idea that we are at open-ended war with an unknown foe, although none of us ever seem to want to look at history and figure out why these people hate us so (look at the US involvement in the Middle East in the last 50 years and tell me you would not have a grudge). History did not START on September 11, 2001. It seems that many were sleepwalking through these past decades...

Despite that, the irony is that our benevolent leaders are pushing their surveillance agenda under the pretext of "protecting our freedom"! However, the second we accept this model of security is the day we forfeit our humanity. No government will 'give us freedom' or 'protect our freedom' through the reactionary methods of policing the population in ever increasing doses of stealth. The point is, with each inch of freedom given away, the resulting situation is one that is normalized, and as such the next inch taken will be all that easier.

The final point here is that the United States is fighting an 'Idea' in the Middle East, and one that will not die with men. This idea will permeate and persist so long as a grand Hegemon like the United States continues to militarily occupy countries, pay off their autocratic leaders to suppress their populations (like we did Hussein in the 80s), sell us their oil , and support Israel's state terrorism in their continued crushing of Palestine. Until this changes, the 'Idea' will persist in the form of suicide bombers who have nothing to lose, and radical sheiks who preach hate in response to hate.

So, in the process of fighting this reactionary radicalism abroad, must we turn the security cameras against ourselves in order to be 'free' in this 'time of war'? Or is the idea of freedom being achieved through complete and total governmental control the point in itself, as in the Orwellian phrase of doublespeak- "freedom is slavery"? Let us hope that we shall not sleepwalk into the future as well...