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Peoples Platformcontinues-
The mercantile climate has moved to the center;
what was once an attribute has become a domi-
nant feature.
Taylor argues that the root cause of disturbing the
vital balance between the two by drowning culture
in commerce is the rise of ad-supported media.
She considers the corner into which weve
squeezed ourselves by relinquishing creative in-
tegrity for commercial profit:
Why worry about selling out when you are already
an ad and have been your whole life? Why fret
over the ethics of promoting yourself when you are
already being used to promote something else?
Under the open model, where the distinction
between commercial and noncommercial has
melted away, everything is for sale. When there is
no distinction between inner and outer, our bonds
with family and friends, our private desires and
curiosities, all become commodities. We are sold
out in advance, branded whether we want to be or
not...
While it may look like we are getting something for
nothing, advertising-financed culture is not free.
We pay environmentally, we pay with our self-
esteem, and we pay with our attention, privacy,
and knowledge.
And yet all is not lost far from it. While Taylors
critique is not of the soft, compliment-sandwich
kind, it is also inherently a beacon of hope rather
than despair. She offers a number of strategies for
fortifying our cultural commons and possible di-
rections for expanding the horzon of the possible
and living up to our potential as a species capable
of honorable and ennobling deeds:
One positive step may be something deceptively
simple: an effort to raise consciousness about
something we could call sustainable culture. Cul-
ture and cultivate share the same root, after all:
Coulter, a cognate of culture, means the blade
of a plowshare. It is not a reach to align the pro-
duction and consumption of culture with the grow-
ing appreciation of skilled workmanship and arti-
sanal goods, of community food systems and
ethical economies. The aims of this movement
may be extended and adapted to describe cultural 1. If you believe Breitbart when they claim Mexicans are taking yer jobs and killing and raping yer
production and exchange, online and off...
We are embedded beings who create work
2. If you believe women ought to be in the kitchen makin sandwiches, such as New Jersey Republican
in a social context, toiling shared soil in the
hopes that our labor bears fruit. It is up to all
of us whether this soil is enriched or de-
pleted, whether it nurtures diverse and vital
produce or allows predictable crops to take
root and run rampant. The notion of sustain-
able culture forces us to recognize that the
digital has not rendered all previously exist-
ing institutions obsolete. It also challenges
us to figure out how to improve them.
More @ hiddendriver.com &
Brainpickings.org
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Alternate Realities
False Enemies
-by Shakti
Scientists around the world concur, the deci-
sions we are making now and in the next 10 to
20 years will not only effect us, but the whole
biosphere for thousands of years,
-Chris Williams, Author, Environmental Scholar
and Professor of Physics and Chemistry
at Pace University.
As the gravity of Trumps electoral college win sets in,
the masses are beginning to awake to the urgency.
Approximately 4.5 Million, 1/100 Americans marched
with resisters across the world to denounce Trumps
presidency and agenda during and after his inaugura-
tion. Amidst very unstable conditions hundreds of thousands have gathered since. With staff choices
made, and the plethora of questionably Constitutional executive orders signed. there is already an influx
of political calamity.
It is difficult to pin point trumps most dangerous staff member; from climate-change denier Scott Pruitt
set to oversee the EPA, to billionaire religious school advocate, now Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos,
from Ex-CEO of Exxon, now Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, to Rick Perry Texas Republican Governor,
once opposed to the very Department he is now Secretary of, The Energy Department.
Even considering these selections, the most destructive tool in Trumps administration, according to an
online poll by TYT, is Breitbart Executive Chair Steve Bannon, and there is good cause for this. A known
xenophobic, classist, white supremacist, and propagandist, once accused of beating his (now) ex-wife,
floods the media with alternative facts, to incessantly reframe the issues as inaccurately and divisively as
possible. Alternative facts maintain business as usual, and have the potential to paralyze the individual,
the movement, and the species from evolving. Elites, mainstream media, corporate conglomerates, and
politicians are well aware of this fact and this is clearly demonstrated by Trumps Chief Strategist. Bannon
is an unparalleled tool for mass manipulation, for in a state of defense, while feeling divided,
We The People loose our collective power to rise up.
When alternative facts are applied to a person with immense power, the price is especially steep, as
seen with many past presidential administrations. A more recent known example of this is Bush and Che-
neys claim of weapons of mass destruction, as the basis for the ongoing- longest war in the history of
this country, costing taxpayers over a trillion dollars, while exacerbating refugee crisis world wide today,
killing 90% innocent civilians.
A primary threat we should be aware of regarding Alternative facts is that they infect ourcore
BELIEF-THOUGHT-ACTION Cycles on all scales, from the personal to the political, leading to the frag-
mentation of society, creating infinite alternate realities, and igniting massive global harm. Here are just a
few examples of how alternate facts are dominating our political sphere today, as well as how our be-
liefs, thoughts and actions can be corrupted to convince the masses of some suggested enemy.
women, then you might think building a wall to protect you from some job stealing, murdering, rap-
ist is a logical idea. You may then project this false enemy on immigrants, support bans and generally
act out of hate towards suggested others, to seemingly preserve your own job/survival.
John Farman stated, you might think its a good idea to broadcast this oppressive ancient narrative on
social media. You may then act to remove the rights of other women based on your own relationships
structure and assumed norms.
3.If you believe alt. right media when they claim Muslims
are terrorists or Muslim women are somehow served by
the US Military, you may think soldiers have a right to
invade those countries, kill, demolish entire villages, and
all under the guise of liberating women and bringing
democracy, when nothing of the sort is happening as a
result of the US Military or their allies presence.
-Alternate Realities continues next page
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