Geting radical

At play with devils...

Don't be alarmed! It's only a book... I'm not about to go out and stock up on 'Brown rice and kerosine!'

What I like about this book... Well I like the Type set used on the cover... And if the prologue is anything to go by I am really going to enjoy reading this book!
Sometimes when I'm scrounging through piles of books at the tip shop or an opp shop I am lucky and find a real gem! Mostly children's books but last week I discovered this classic at the Church Opp Shop in Cummins Street! As I read through the prologue I just knew I was meant to find this book! Whether or not I can find a practical application for it isn't really the point. It is a portal to a reality we've been brainwashed out of thinking can even exist. If Orwell's hapless protagonist, Winston, had discovered this book he would have stashed it away and read it in secret when he thought no one was watching! Well thankfully treasures like this can still be found and read, pondered and put to good use... in dice games with devils, heroes and fools!

Reading the prologue I realize how messed up we have now become. Alinski talks about the overwhelming amount of information that young people have to deal with... This book was written in 1971! Imagine if he'd been plonked down in 2012!
I remember reading that in the frightening dystopia of 1984 information would be recalled and republished in order to alter the public's perception of history, or even current events. Well in 2012 it's much easier to alter documents, which are stored online but there's no need! Good information can simply buried in plain view under a plethora of useless information, which we are bombarded with daily. Short attention spans and no training in critical thinking has eliminated the need to fool us into believing lies... The perfect solution was not to hide the lies... Better to remove the public's interest in discerning truth from lie...
Who Cares...Right!

Media

My wife says that media... as we know it through the Mainstream Newspapers, radio and commercial Television is nothing more than institutionalized gossip.

I disagree. It is more than institutionalized gossip; although it is definitely gossip. There seems to be a greater malice behind our media.

Having been more or less unplugged for the past couple of months I find myself overwhelmed by the angst, scandal and emotional leverage used by all regular forms of media. When I accidentally happen to glance at a Newspaper, or find myself in a waiting room with at least one of the now apparently obligatory plasma screens blasting crap at a captive audience I am overwhelmed.

People around me seem unaffected by the imposing aggressive style but they are not. They are actually absorbing and believing the crap that is presented to them as news via the network or tabloid!
Just as in Orwell's '1984' people today appear to have lost their capacity for critical thinking. So many people's opinions appear to be formed as if they are carbon copies of whatever their favorite news reader or celebraty currentaffairs host has told them.

I remember debating the possibility of climate change with a friend several years ago, at a time when many scientists considered the theory pretty close to an indisputable fact but some doubt still existed. There were still a bunch of skeptics around who refused to accept the theory, I'm sure they were heartily supported by the Public Relations departments of all kinds of polluting industries.

As time rolled by and theory became fact (or pretty darn close to it), those who possessed the powers of critical thinking moved on to discussing how Global Warming could be combated in order to protect the future of us all. Sadly my friend along with probably half the population were still not ready to accept the theory of Global Warming...
Why? because the media were still broadcasting pro and anti Global Warming theory as equally valid arguments! Even though it was clear to anyone capable of independent though that the media were playing games with the subject and giving far too much credit to scientifically unreasonable arguments against the theory. People just lapped it up and continued on in their blissful cocoon of media misinformation.
I personally know several people who only actually believed in the existence of Global Warming when their favorite TV presenter told them the rumors may actually be true! The really scary thing about this is that even though they had believed there was no such thing and no amount of information or logic could convince them otherwise, all it took for them to change their mind was for the news to start telling the story differently! Yes it is possible to change the attitude of a huge proportion of the population simply by feeding them the information through the media resource they are used to taking their directions from!

I'm dead sure of it! But if you really want to make sure you've converted them to whatever story you're pushing you might want to use the other trick card in the deck. Tell them that all the other viewers/readers/listeners now believe the story you are feeding them and they are bound to jump right on board!

Yes!

The media is more than just Institutionalized Gossip!

Do you think the revolution will be televised? See link below

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Revolution_Will_Not_Be_Televised_(documentary)


Australians will laugh at dicks in 'Blackface' and say it's only fun. It must be funy humourous a gag, a giggle, because Daryl said it's so. We are innocent surely!
And our media ask, through public forum and internet comment pages, the divisive question; Biased by consumer viewer loyalty, to the darlings of high rating TV Ausie icon status buffoonery and irreverence.... "Was it so bad?"
And the Jury will be formed thus! Through forum posts by maliable fools the pupets of popular oppinion and zomby slaves to media endorsed bigotry and anglophilic oppression. The riddle solved and fools absolved of any crime committed!
No panel of ethics will be needed. The audience will decide when they recieve their brief right after these important messages from our sponsor.

I wonder what Gil Scott-Heron would say? But I think he already said it!

(Youtube video removed) Sorry bout that....