A good way to put things into perspective. Dizzying numbers. Definitely worthwhile.
Worldometers - real time world statistics
Keep on clicking!
PDL
© 2011, Pascal-Denis Lussier .
Yep. For those who have been paying attention to world events these past decades, this dead-on, clear and concise video doesn't teach us anything new; it just lays it bare.
Realizing that this is a sick, demoralizing and dehumanizing reality is the first step. However, the second step shouldn't be where most of us are at, i.e. blaming corporations.
These corporations aren't plucking money out of the sky; whether as investors or as consumers or both, we willingly give them our money and find weak, self-centered justifications for doing so, constantly closing our eyes on this very reality. It is our collective yet individual-driven consumer lifestyles that create, support, and tolerate this.
Blaming corporations is too easy--it's even become an important industry and genre.
But, in this reality, it all starts with the "I", not with finger pointing.
Only once each of us is willing to play an active part at the individual level can we truly unite towards a real, positive change.
Keep on clicking!
PDL
© 2011, Pascal-Denis Lussier .
It seems to me like today's modern, popular and unquestioned modus vivendi is: stay oblivious, wait 'til it's too late, then bitch & moan and sign tons of ex post facto petitions.
Thanks to the Web, every single concern, real or imagined, now boasts at least one e-petition. There's even specialized sites that make it quick and easy for anyone to post and manage Internet petitions.
But is this really how we choose to unite across the globe, through appeals? Rather passive, no?
And because one signed doesn't mean one cares. It's become an empty, reflexive click that's now greatly simplified thanks to Auto-Fill and the wonders of Web 2.0; a feel good action that's performed in between e-shopping and sharing viral pictures and videos of fools and accidents, and cute animals with atrocious spelling while not bothering to learn about the cause beyond the bold headline. It provides a false sense of action and participation; it dissipates anger but rarely leads anywhere. "Hey! I clicked, I care; now it's up to fate."
The people that follow up are few and far between.
Makes me wonder if targeted entities and governments aren't behind some of these petitions, and how many are fronts to steal info and sell mailing lists.
If we really want a change, firstly, we have to look within and change our own attitudes and behaviours that support all those entities whose very attitudes and behaviours we condemn. Everyone is quick to click against child labour and third-world slavery, but the same people all want really cheap prices or are willing to overpay for exploitative status symbols from companies who are legally bound to their 'public' shareholders to do whatever it takes to give 'em a bigger buck. Likewise, no one wants to see cruelty being done to animals while we blindly eat our share of millions of chickens that are killed daily. etc., etc. I could go on.
And how come we can all rally together when a determining World Cup soccer goal is contested, yet we've allowed a company like Monsanto to exist for so long?
Some petitions do have their place, but why do we generally have to wait until it's too late to react? The info is out there before, but it only seems to become relevant and genuine when it's taken the form of a third-party petition.
If we were all just a little more proactive, all a little more actually involved, perhaps we wouldn't need so many petitions; reactive attitudes can only lead to more of them.
Together, we can do far more than fill databases by clicking on petition buttons.
Although it may seem inappropriate this time, it is my catch phrase: Keep on clicking!
PDL
© 2011, Pascal-Denis Lussier
.
Thanks to the Web, every single concern, real or imagined, now boasts at least one e-petition. There's even specialized sites that make it quick and easy for anyone to post and manage Internet petitions.
But is this really how we choose to unite across the globe, through appeals? Rather passive, no?
And because one signed doesn't mean one cares. It's become an empty, reflexive click that's now greatly simplified thanks to Auto-Fill and the wonders of Web 2.0; a feel good action that's performed in between e-shopping and sharing viral pictures and videos of fools and accidents, and cute animals with atrocious spelling while not bothering to learn about the cause beyond the bold headline. It provides a false sense of action and participation; it dissipates anger but rarely leads anywhere. "Hey! I clicked, I care; now it's up to fate."
The people that follow up are few and far between.
Makes me wonder if targeted entities and governments aren't behind some of these petitions, and how many are fronts to steal info and sell mailing lists.
If we really want a change, firstly, we have to look within and change our own attitudes and behaviours that support all those entities whose very attitudes and behaviours we condemn. Everyone is quick to click against child labour and third-world slavery, but the same people all want really cheap prices or are willing to overpay for exploitative status symbols from companies who are legally bound to their 'public' shareholders to do whatever it takes to give 'em a bigger buck. Likewise, no one wants to see cruelty being done to animals while we blindly eat our share of millions of chickens that are killed daily. etc., etc. I could go on.
And how come we can all rally together when a determining World Cup soccer goal is contested, yet we've allowed a company like Monsanto to exist for so long?
Some petitions do have their place, but why do we generally have to wait until it's too late to react? The info is out there before, but it only seems to become relevant and genuine when it's taken the form of a third-party petition.
If we were all just a little more proactive, all a little more actually involved, perhaps we wouldn't need so many petitions; reactive attitudes can only lead to more of them.
Together, we can do far more than fill databases by clicking on petition buttons.
Although it may seem inappropriate this time, it is my catch phrase: Keep on clicking!
PDL
© 2011, Pascal-Denis Lussier
.
Virgin Records... Now the Virgin Group: from music to beverages, airlines, trains, games, consumer electronics, financial services, films, internet, cable TV, cosmetics, jewellery, house wares, mobile phones, and now spaceships too i.e. see SpaceShipTwo, whose first test “drop flight” occurred on Oct 10. Since NASA and the U.S. government can no longer afford to commercialize space, reaching that next frontier in humankind’s profit potential is now left up to a massive empire with intensely far-reaching limbs built out of an industry which is now far from being their primary focus.
Virgin’s record division is now owned by EMI—they also own the Capitol Music Group—which is now wholly owned by UK’s mega Terra Firma Capital Partners (homes, defense, gas, energy/utilities, alcohol, betting... you name it). TFCP is a Normura Group (Japan) investment, which also owns shares in everything from electronics to gas to electricity to banks to...
Entertainment is big business with an insane profit margin; successful entertainment necessitates big bucks. And at the level produced by such companies, don’t be fooled, it’s packaged and sold to us like any other consumer good, be it a pair of jeans, frozen peas or toilet cleaner.
Of course this isn’t to say that the product can afford to be totally devoid of some form of inherent worth—although giants like EMI, Time-Warner, et al. do all that they may to influence and manipulate audience interests and trends, the act of “pleasing the masses” still remains a greatly fickle, incalculable business. Sure there are clear formulas, Pop culture is proof of this, but that yesterday’s nobody may be today’s superstar and end up being tomorrow’s washout still relies on innumerable uncontrollable variables.
But these seem to be diminishing, the gap between the immeasurable and predictable disappearing as the science progresses and their investments spill into all areas, penetrating deep into all other industries.
As such, these corporations seem to be able to exert far greater control on our likes and dislikes by marginalizing “culture” and quickly buying out any trend or meme that explodes in full view, milking it for all its worth.
After all, "one-hit wonders" is really a by-product of the mass-recording and distribution revolution unleashed by major labels, exploited by Television, and immortalized by the Internet.
And as we focus all our anger towards governments and particular types of corporations, spitting venom on the evils we perceive, we willingly allow others to get outrageously rich, exercise an exponentially growing control on us and on all facets of our personal lives, our environment, and now space, too. What's left?
Why do we allow it? Rather than frown on these all-pervasive empires, we seem to glorify them, allowing anything to slip under their logo because the products we associate with them make us happy by, ironically, enabling us to quickly and effortlessly escape those perceived evils.
Is today’s Soma tomorrow’s government?
Keep on clicking!
PDL
© 2010, Pascal-Denis Lussier
.
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