Anarchy
"I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression! Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their jobs. A dollar buys a nickel's worth. Banks are going bust. Shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it! We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be! We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we live in is getting smaller, and all we say is, "Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.' Well, I'm not going to leave you alone. I want you to get MAD! I don't want you to protest, I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the war and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get MAD! You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!'"
These words were written in 1970 for the film 'Network, but the sentiment seems just as fresh today as it did thirty years ago. The feeling of discontent has not gone away - depression, apathy, and despair seem like inescapable plights to many. Is that just the way life is? Is that the only way it can be?
Our modern world is one of gross inequalities. Those of us without access to the abundant natural resources our planet has to offer are left with little recourse but to sell our labor on the open market, and to sell it cheaply. Advertising bombards us constantly with images of happiness and success, success that always seems just out of reach. Advertising creates the false demands that drive our cycle of complusive consumption, chasing a dream that seems to wait just after the next promotion.
Happiness gained from the acquisition of the products of our culture is fleeting, at best. Ultimately, the true sources of happiness are things that cannot be sold. Human interaction is the source of life's most profound joys, wether it is a direct interaction with friends, or a personal connection with a work of art.
Have you ever had a job you just couldn't stand? According the the US Department of Labor, the average american spends 8.7 hours a day working - more than half your waking life. Most of us don't have the resources we need to live our lives the way we'd like - who DOES have those resources, and how did they get them?
The geological and agricultural wealth in our nation is more and more being concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer. Money follows money, and those of us without the resources needed to survive on our own are forced to sell our time and energy to those who DO have the resources, and cheaply. The realities of capitalism are that in order to make a profit, employers MUST pay employees less than they are worth.
The same is true when we try and use the fuits of our labor to purchace one of the countless comodities our society offers - if we don't pay more than something is worth, there are no profits for those at the top, those lucky or cunning enough to control the resources - the oil fields, the coal mines, the fertile land. We are being squeezed from both ends to line the pockets of those who already have far more than they need.
Politically, America may be a democracy - in theory, the individual members of society all have a voice in how the government is run. Economically however, we are far, far from democratic. Rather than the people coming together to decide as a group how the planet's bounty is best distributed, we live in a top-down economy, where the important decisions that affect the world are left in the hands of those who have accumulated the most money. Almost all 'modern' societies follow this model, from the kings and lords of old to the Communist Party in Russia and China to the 'Socialist democracies' of modern Europe.
Why do we tolerate this top-heavy system? Surely it is not in the best interests of the people for more and more to be in the hands of fewer and fewer. Advertising and Pop-culture are the engines that drive this insane cutthroat battle by creating the demand side of supply and demand. Advertising is morally bankrupt. On the face of it, it is flat-out manipulation, trying to create desire for things that we don't want or need. Worse, by portraying conspicuous consumption as the path to happiness, advertising distracts us from what really matters in life - human contact.
In the drive to sell as much as possible, to maximize profits, there are no depths advertisers won't stoop to. Has anyone ever seen a beer, deoderant, or clothing commercial that tried to use sex to sell you their product? It is an appaling attempt to subvert one of the most essentially human urges, and it works. Axe deoderant has quickly come to dominate the market by using seductive imagery designed to make you assosciate their product with sex - as if you could have sex with a can of spray-deoderant!
Even the revolution has been whitewashed and re-packaged by the market. "Alternative" music labels and clothing stores prey on the very dissatisfaction that the system creates, trying to convince you that the best way to rebel is with your dollars. And the system is more insidious than you may realize. If I were to try and publish an independent magazine, I would be hard pressed to do so without including advertising to fund it's creation.
Ultimately, watching television and going shopping keep people passive, watching things they could never take part in and people they will never know, buying what is marketed to them by corporations rather than making their own music, their own ideas, their own lives. If there's ever going to be any progress around here, it has to start with YOU.
Mahatma Ghandi once said that you must be the change that you wish to see in the world. Sound advice - the only real revolution is the one that takes place inside you. Think for yourself. Open your mind to new possibilities, new ways of aproaching the world. Don't accept anyone's oppinion over your own. Ask yourself, "What makes me truly happy?" We may all have different answers, but I'm sure there's more common ground than you think.
Seek out meaningful human contact - it's one of the greatest sources of true happiness, and it doesn't cost a dime. The things in life that make it worth living are not things.
-TRANSMISSION INTERRUPTED-
-TRANSMISSION RESUMED-
From where we all stand, in this very dominated, very controlled world, it is impossible to immagine living without authorities, without laws or governments. No wonder anarchism isn't usually taken seriously as a large-scale political or social program: no one can imagine what it would really be like, let alone how to achieve it - not even the anarchists themselves.
Instead, think of anarchism as an individual orientation to yourself and others, as a personal aproach to life. That's not impossible to imagine. Concieved in these terms, what would anarchism be? It would be a decision to think for yourself rather than following blindly. It would be a rejection of hierarchy, a refusal to accept the 'god given' authority of any nation, law, or other force as being more significant than your own authority over yourself. Most of all, it would be a refusal to place responsibility for yourself in the hands of others: it would be the demand that each of us not only be able to choose our own destiny, but also do so.
Just a thought.
These words were written in 1970 for the film 'Network, but the sentiment seems just as fresh today as it did thirty years ago. The feeling of discontent has not gone away - depression, apathy, and despair seem like inescapable plights to many. Is that just the way life is? Is that the only way it can be?
Our modern world is one of gross inequalities. Those of us without access to the abundant natural resources our planet has to offer are left with little recourse but to sell our labor on the open market, and to sell it cheaply. Advertising bombards us constantly with images of happiness and success, success that always seems just out of reach. Advertising creates the false demands that drive our cycle of complusive consumption, chasing a dream that seems to wait just after the next promotion.
Happiness gained from the acquisition of the products of our culture is fleeting, at best. Ultimately, the true sources of happiness are things that cannot be sold. Human interaction is the source of life's most profound joys, wether it is a direct interaction with friends, or a personal connection with a work of art.
Have you ever had a job you just couldn't stand? According the the US Department of Labor, the average american spends 8.7 hours a day working - more than half your waking life. Most of us don't have the resources we need to live our lives the way we'd like - who DOES have those resources, and how did they get them?
The geological and agricultural wealth in our nation is more and more being concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer. Money follows money, and those of us without the resources needed to survive on our own are forced to sell our time and energy to those who DO have the resources, and cheaply. The realities of capitalism are that in order to make a profit, employers MUST pay employees less than they are worth.
The same is true when we try and use the fuits of our labor to purchace one of the countless comodities our society offers - if we don't pay more than something is worth, there are no profits for those at the top, those lucky or cunning enough to control the resources - the oil fields, the coal mines, the fertile land. We are being squeezed from both ends to line the pockets of those who already have far more than they need.
Politically, America may be a democracy - in theory, the individual members of society all have a voice in how the government is run. Economically however, we are far, far from democratic. Rather than the people coming together to decide as a group how the planet's bounty is best distributed, we live in a top-down economy, where the important decisions that affect the world are left in the hands of those who have accumulated the most money. Almost all 'modern' societies follow this model, from the kings and lords of old to the Communist Party in Russia and China to the 'Socialist democracies' of modern Europe.
Why do we tolerate this top-heavy system? Surely it is not in the best interests of the people for more and more to be in the hands of fewer and fewer. Advertising and Pop-culture are the engines that drive this insane cutthroat battle by creating the demand side of supply and demand. Advertising is morally bankrupt. On the face of it, it is flat-out manipulation, trying to create desire for things that we don't want or need. Worse, by portraying conspicuous consumption as the path to happiness, advertising distracts us from what really matters in life - human contact.
In the drive to sell as much as possible, to maximize profits, there are no depths advertisers won't stoop to. Has anyone ever seen a beer, deoderant, or clothing commercial that tried to use sex to sell you their product? It is an appaling attempt to subvert one of the most essentially human urges, and it works. Axe deoderant has quickly come to dominate the market by using seductive imagery designed to make you assosciate their product with sex - as if you could have sex with a can of spray-deoderant!
Even the revolution has been whitewashed and re-packaged by the market. "Alternative" music labels and clothing stores prey on the very dissatisfaction that the system creates, trying to convince you that the best way to rebel is with your dollars. And the system is more insidious than you may realize. If I were to try and publish an independent magazine, I would be hard pressed to do so without including advertising to fund it's creation.
Ultimately, watching television and going shopping keep people passive, watching things they could never take part in and people they will never know, buying what is marketed to them by corporations rather than making their own music, their own ideas, their own lives. If there's ever going to be any progress around here, it has to start with YOU.
Mahatma Ghandi once said that you must be the change that you wish to see in the world. Sound advice - the only real revolution is the one that takes place inside you. Think for yourself. Open your mind to new possibilities, new ways of aproaching the world. Don't accept anyone's oppinion over your own. Ask yourself, "What makes me truly happy?" We may all have different answers, but I'm sure there's more common ground than you think.
Seek out meaningful human contact - it's one of the greatest sources of true happiness, and it doesn't cost a dime. The things in life that make it worth living are not things.
-TRANSMISSION INTERRUPTED-
-TRANSMISSION RESUMED-
From where we all stand, in this very dominated, very controlled world, it is impossible to immagine living without authorities, without laws or governments. No wonder anarchism isn't usually taken seriously as a large-scale political or social program: no one can imagine what it would really be like, let alone how to achieve it - not even the anarchists themselves.
Instead, think of anarchism as an individual orientation to yourself and others, as a personal aproach to life. That's not impossible to imagine. Concieved in these terms, what would anarchism be? It would be a decision to think for yourself rather than following blindly. It would be a rejection of hierarchy, a refusal to accept the 'god given' authority of any nation, law, or other force as being more significant than your own authority over yourself. Most of all, it would be a refusal to place responsibility for yourself in the hands of others: it would be the demand that each of us not only be able to choose our own destiny, but also do so.
Just a thought.