Marketers Love Disasters

Disasters are great for certain businesses and corporations. Marketing folks love setting up photo ops displaying their logos prominently and crafting nifty CSR themed websites.They've done something good - and they want to make sure you damn well fucking know that they've done something good (or that they're really sorry for doing something really bad).

They are responsible - they are socially responsible - they ooze Corporate Social Responsibility (I'd like to shake the hand of the copywriter that coined that term).

Do these soulless multinational entities give a fuck about those affected by the hurricane/earthquake/flood/fire/oil spill? Probably not - but their PR/Marketing teams (internal or external) are expert at spinning catastrophes - either self-made (as in the case of Shell below) or naturally occurring - into a positive PR marketing message.

Sure - a nice big fat check does a lot to alleviate suffering.

Shell has paid out over $34.5 billion in taxes and royalties to the Nigerian federal government. That's good right? That money has probably helped the poorest and most impoverished people of the Nigerian delta, right? That money probably set up some really great environmental protections, right? That's enough cash to make all those human rights violations and crimes against the environment go away, right?

How Steve Jobs Affected My Life

It was late August 1998 when I watched Steve Jobs unveil the original iMac G3. Clad in a bondi blue shell - it was like nothing I had ever seen before. Instantly - I knew I had to have it despite the software limitations of owning a Mac at that time.

I begged my mom until she finally gave in and for the first time in my life I developed a friendship with a machine. Countless hours of my teenage years were spent playing one of the few online multi-player games, Myth II, available for Mac at that time. The Mac gaming community was a small tight knit crew - that despised our Windows using counterparts - and revered Steve Jobs.

Eventually - it was time to head off to college - and I brought with me my shiny new iMac G4 - an alien looking machine, beautifully designed like no other computer. Through college - it too was my companion - drawing onlookers from around my dorm to admire its revolutionary design - as Mac owners were far and few at the time.

Necessity dictated the need for a notebook - so without second though I snapped up a shimmering white iBook G3. Again - this ivory colored contraption brandished with an Apple logo never ceased to draw praise for its unique and beautiful design.

As software advanced - I craved something with more muscle - then Steve Jobs announced the burly Power Mac G5. I remember the excitement upon arrival of this beast of a machine - with its industrialized stainless steel case and futuristic design. It too was my companion as I wasted countless hours playing Tom Clancy games with friends all over the world.

Again - necessity dictated the need for a portable device - and when I saw the sleek MacBook Core 2 Duo - I once again knew that I had to have it. It was my last Apple computer purchase - I still use it to this day.

I guess I'm an Apple hipster in a way - as soon as everyone and their brother owned one - the novelty wore off a bit. But either way these delightful machines - oozing with the creative genius of Steve Jobs - played a big part in my coming of age.

I was choked up a bit when I heard about his passing - he was a father figure of sorts - and he was claimed by the same disease as my old man. Maybe the dude wasn't Gandhi or Jesus - but he touched a lot of lives and changed the way we think and interact with each other - perhaps for the better.

Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Generations Lost

Social Media has connected the world as no other medium before it. Everything we do with our GPS enabled smart phone is tracked, logged, collated, copied, and filed away - and probably fed into some data crunching super computer in order to predict consumer/terrorist behavior.

Prick head Zuckerburg (please don't delete my FB account) has the largest stockpile of personal data ever compiled and you best believe that shit is getting thoroughly mined.  

But what would the Silent Generation say about this obsession with ourselves? Because that's what it boils down to - this Social Media business. It is an obsession with airing our shit out so we can make others feel inferior or gain their sympathy or get them to buy our product or convince them of some cockamamie belief.

I can only speculate but this generation is defined by William Strauss and Neil Howe as an Artist/Adaptive generation born during a crisis, spending its rising adult years in a new high, spending its midlife in an awakening, and spending its old age in an unraveling. They were artistic leaders that have been advocates of fairness and the politics of inclusion, irrepressible in the wake of failure. Most counterculture figures were Silent Generation, including rock singers and individuals such as Ken Kesey, George Carlin, Allen Ginsberg, and Abbie Hoffman.

I suppose you could argue that this ultra high-tech connected society makes the world a better place - and maybe it does. But maybe it also gives nefarious scumbags the ultimate tool to exploit and create chaos. Just sayin - as I tweet this and post it on Facebook and Google+ - ؟

The March of Tyranny

Public Employees Must Be Stopped

Today, Ohio Gov. Kasich signed SB5 which curbs collective bargaining rights for those greedy fucking teachers, fire fighters, and police officers. The great Governor is really standing up for the common folk* by keeping these public servants in check.

Public employees are known for their excessiveness - from jaunts in the Mediterranean on private yachts to their penchant for thoroughbred race horses - they must be stopped and SB5 is just the first step in breaking the icy grip of this elitist class on the common people's* tax dollars.

The wastefulness of public employees and their generous retirement plans cannot be tolerated if the common folk are to subside.

*'common folk' and 'common people' refer to corporate American and Wall Street bankers

Dead Peasants

Evil has won – triumphantly placing its boot upon the neck of human freedom, justice, and decency.

We are taught from their books.

We believe their history. A crafty lie it is – one that keeps us content to live as slaves.

We accrue debt to foolishly broaden our minds.

We toil away for our corporate-fascist masters to fulfill our obligations.

We are worth more dead to them than alive.

Freedom is not being able to think unmolested by propaganda, but owning more material than the next.

How can we rise from our deathbeds?

Walmart and the DHS are teaming up - Do you feel safer?

Digital Internment Camps

Imagine if the Nazis had Facebook - the power of such a tool for nefarious activities is terrifying.

Fortunately the modern day world lives in peaceful harmony with one another and governments are altruistic. Therefore Facebook and the entire social web - where everything is public knowledge - could never be a tool of oppression - right?

It's inconceivable to imagine that the Information Awareness Office would use personal Facebook profiles to predict national security threats - isn't it? 

And our personal information would never be shared with credit card, pharmaceutical, and defense companies - correct?  

Why would they possibly want to know where we are, what we're doing, who we're with, what we ate, our deepest fears, our loves, our hates, our employment history, our martial status, and our favorite ice cream flavor?

How could any of this information be useful if there's a massive energy shortage? Or terrorist attack? Or environmental meltdown? It's not like they would need to control large swaths of the population or anything. 

The Terrorists Have Won

Democracy has died, liberty has perished, and the American dream has become a nightmare. Islands of oil soaked avian corpses have replaced amber waves of grain and the Tea Party now bears the Gadsden flag.

It truly is the end of fucking days - corporate fascism has become our creed and killing brown people in oil laden countries our deed.  

We have a brown President - but even he makes Uncle Tom  look like Malcolm X.

Just how far has our union fallen?

The very tenant of our society - Freedom - is being shat upon by those that claim to be the most patriotic.

Let them build a fucking Mosque next to the Gorund Zero. Hell, let them build a god damn Mosque on Ground Zero.

Why? It will prove to the world - and those who hate our foreign policy and government (no one hates our freedom) - that we are directed by our ideals about liberty and personal freedom, that we are not reactionary xenophobes, that the rights of everyone no matter race or religion are sacred.

But of course this is kool-aid drinking bullshit liberal fluff - ban Islamic teachings and begin construction of internment camps for 'rehabilitation', elect Sarah Palin President, Rush Limbaugh Minister of Propaganda, and Glenn Beck Secretary of State. Let's get this shit over with.

iGenocide

I agree with Ted Kaczynski's views on industrialized civilization. I don't agree with his whole killing people letter campaign, but the dude had a point. 

Ted on giving up modern conveniences that rely on petroleum:

"I don't think it can be done. In part because of the human tendency, for most people, there are exceptions, to take the path of least resistance. They'll take the easy way out, and giving up your car, your television set, your electricity, is not the path of least resistance for most people."  —Ted Kaczynski

While he was insane - as most geniuses are - his manifesto foreshadowed much of what society is going through now. 

We are faced with a stark decision; continue our lives of convenience or take drastic steps to change. The choice is obvious and we in fact don't really have a choice. 

Wars will continue to be fought for 'liberty' and 'freedom'. 

Oil companies will continue to commit heinous acts in the name of our addiction, as demonstrated here, here, and here. 

The iPhone and other gadgets will continue to require Coltan, which is mined by slaves in Congo and assembled by suicidal sweat shop workers in China. 

And BP will keep on being BP. 

Yes indeed, I agree with Ted, in that I don't think it can be done - an oil free modern society. But only to a degree. Where he was wrong - suggesting that violent provocation might hasten collapse. It will come naturally, and be great entertainment - what's better than watching unmanned drones rain missiles upon concrete grottoes, tarred sea-life clamor for oxygen, and indigenous people shed native garb for hazmat suits?