Titanic Post

Sam Smith Progressive Review 

The Associated Press ran a story bemoaning the fact that Europe and Japan are on the cusp of population losses. You’ll read more of this in the future. But as you do, bear two facts in mind:

- Nothing contributes more to global climate change and related problems than population growth. Yet it is rarely mentioned even by the ecologically aware.

- The primary reason for the economic problems associated with population loss is the economic system widely used which depends on ever-growing markets. Conventional capitalism needs population growth and, as a consequence, more global pollution. Again, even progressive economists do not give this the attention it deserves.

A Racist Slur at the World Cup? By Dave Zirin, AlterNet Posted on July 11, 2006, Printed on July 12, 2006

Imagine Michael Jordan in his last game, with the score tied in overtime, knocking out his defender with a punch to the throat. Imagine Derek Jeter in game seven of the World Series, at bat with the bases loaded, thrashing the opposing team’s catcher over the head with his bat. Our collective shock would only be exceeded by disappointment. No one, fan or foe, would want to a see a great player end their career in an act that speaks to the worst impulses of sports: when hard competition spills over into violence.

Now imagine if Jordan and Jeter claimed they were provoked with a racial slur. Does their violence become understandable? Even excusable? Herein lies the case of French National team captain, the great Zinedine Zidane. Zidane, competing in his last professional match, was kicked out of the World Cup final in overtime for flattening Italian player Marco Materazzi with the head-butt heard around the world. Zidane, or Zissou as he is known, became the first captain ever ejected from a World Cup championship match.

Read complete story at AlterNet.

I know a lot of people who still say that advertising doesn’t affect their decision to buy something, if they don’t want to buy it. But it does work, whether we realize it or not. Here’s how:

Advertising shapes our consciousness by pointing out our shortcomings. If we only drove the “right” car and drank the “right” beer, we would better fit into our chosen peer group and not be so anxious about ourselves. Through the constant bombardment of advertising, we are kept in a permanent state of discontent and anxiety. This is stress.

Marketing experts study people and their preferences. They know what age, sex, and income groups their product will appeal to. They know what words, sounds, colors, images, and situations will likely cause the consumers to buy their product. And they know how to permanently dismantle the human faculty for critical thought. How else could they get you to buy their crap?

Still not convinced? Look around and see how many things you have bought that are not as useful as you thought. What things give you no pleasure? How many politicians have you voted for that, when elected, sold out you and your values for a better deal with corporate lobbyists?

Advertising has little substance or information and relies on manipulation to weaken the consumers ability to think critically. If there were no utility in advertising, they wouldn’t do it, but don’t believe me—think about it! Think critically!

Written by Howard Zinn
Published in The Progressive.

From the Progressive Media Project

On this July 4, we would do well to renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that God must single out America to be blessed.

Is not nationalism — that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder — one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred?

(more…)

Almost daily I hear someone say, “we must support our military because they are ‘defending our freedom.’” That phrase always puts a knot in my shorts. If I accept it as a truth, then I can’t be against the war in Iraq without suffering cognitive dissonance, not to mention the ire of fools. I don’t know for sure what that war is really about, but I do know that it has nothing to do with our freedom. Call me old fashion, but I think the purpose of the military is to stop belligerent invasions of our borders. In practice, the military has very little to do with our freedom other than a tendency to help bad government diminish it. (more…)

Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, And Nobody

This is a little story about four people named Everybody,
Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody.

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was
sure that Somebody would do it.

Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.

Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s
job.

Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody
realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it.

It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody
did what Anybody could have done.