I get a digest of the latest news on news and reporting from the Pew Research Center. One recently caught my interest was from Buzzfeed on the new “Black PR firms” who will, for a fee, generate, structure and support any lie you wish. Scary isn’t a strong enough word, terrifying is more apt. It … [Read more…]
Seems that themes come in batches, the newest theme for me is the old Jetson’s promise of leisure time replacing work, somewhere in the future we’d all work at what we’re good at and there would be enough (food and other goods and money) to go around. I’m firmly convinced that since the dawn of … [Read more…]
Sacramento Union, 11 February 1912 By A. J. EISSING. The French government employes 120,000 women. Agriculture supports 250,000,000 persons in India. Kingston, Can., police want their pay raised from $50 to $60 a month. The Barbers’ association of Quebec asks the legislature to provide that all barbers be licensed. Hamilton, Ont., bricklayers want to increase … [Read more…]
I’ve loaded excerpts from John Berger’s “Ways of Seeing”, Jacques Ellul’s “The Technological Society” and Gary Panter’s very original “Rozztox Manifesto” to stimulate some thinking about advertising and its effects on modern culture. The use of the techniques of propaganda to sell products, ideas, and ways of life, we’ve allowed ourselves to be manipulated by … [Read more…]
… in a technological society “the human being is no longer in any sense the agent of choice… He is a device for recording effects and results obtained by various techniques.” In the technological society individuals have meaning and value only to the extent they service instruments. Jacques Ellul, 1964