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Tagged ‘Society of Spectacle‘

“Focus on tangible climate actions”: “Hop the Scotch” for Climate Change

Wrong Kind of Green

Sept 21, 2014

HoptheScotch

 

In his 1985 book Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman — American media theorist, humanist and cultural critic — noted that “new technology can never substitute for human values.”

In American society today, our social amusements have come to occupy not only our pastimes, but everything about our lives, politics, values and beliefs. Even our most heartfelt emotions and concerns have been hijacked by the amusement industry, penetrating so deeply into our collective psyche, that we have become social robots.

Capitalizing on this corrosion of civil society, Wall Street marketing agencies like Purpose and Avaaz — sponsors of campaigns to support “humanitarian war” and the “new economy” — have designed and exploited an advertising niche to make money from this social pathology.

While American faith about the truth in advertising might suffer as a result of these amusements, the deaths that result take place mostly in the Third and Fourth World. As Americans are herded into waving signs and marching around Manhattan wearing the color blue, millions around the world are dying from starvation, disease and murder resulting from American consumerism.

As a professor of Culture and Communication, Postman taught a course called Communication: the Invisible Environment. While he was concerned primarily with the decline in the ability of mass communications to share serious ideas, Postman was aware that the turning of complex ideas into superficial images — that become a form of entertainment — leads to a society where information is a commodity, bought and sold for entertainment, or to enhance one’s status. In contemporary society, mediated by technology, individuals will literally believe anything.

When the NYC Purpose marketing agency finds spare time from selling hate for empire [Two Minute Hate] and creating mass mobilizations for their clients that will ignite the illusory green economy, the Avaaz co-founders of Purpose are busy working on campaigns like the one below.

“Hop the Scotch” for the continued annihilation of species. Balance on a handrail rail for  unprecedented ocean acidification and collapse of ecosystems. Walk the moonwalk for continued genocide of Indigenous peoples. Walk in fancy shoes for  unprecedented venting of methane and melting permafrost. Do a flip in the air for disappearing ancient glaciers.

As we stare vacantly at the multiple crises that comprise the greatest threats to all life on the planet, greater than anything that our species has ever faced, we find ourselves on the doorstep of complete madness and idiocy. Yet, oddly, and tragically, Euro-Americans continue to be enraptured by the spectacle, hypnotized by their false prophets.

 

8 ways people are walking the walk on climate change

World leaders are meeting in New York City next week for a historic UN summit on climate change.

Using the slogan “catalyzing action,” the UN is bringing together world leaders to “focus on tangible climate actions.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper isn’t the only one who can’t make it, so NYC-based Purpose has launched the #WalkTheWalk campaign for those who can’t march themselves at the People’s Climate March on Sunday in the lead-up to the UN meeting.

Here are eight must-see short #WalkTheWalk videos:

In fancy shoes:

In ski boots:

Or penguin feet:

Or why not hop the scotch?

Try balancing on a handrail (talk about a balanced approach!) :

Or moonwalking the walk:

Meanwhile, others aren’t satisfied to just “walk the walk” on climate change. They think our whole approach to climate needs a backflip:

And hey, look, Desmond Tutu is walking the walk:

Climate Charade

Fourth World Eye Blog

by
Circus
The People’s Climate March, a charade orchestrated by Avaaz and 350 — organizations funded by Soros and the Rockefeller Brothers — is so dominant in social media, that little is heard about the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, which also takes place in New York during the week of September 20-26. While it is not surprising that charlatans and opportunists with such enormous budgets are able to draw attention away from authentic activism, it is sad that Wall Street-backed spectacle is supported so enthusiastically by progressives and so-called civil society. Harnessed as they are to the market sector, through the foundation-funded non-profit industrial complex, this foolishness is perhaps unavoidable.
Pied pipers like Naomi Klein and Bill McKibben, exceptionally skilled in leading the credulous astray, also know how to keep the spotlights trained on them and their charades. As iconic cult figures of the climate change circus, they are accustomed to manipulating public emotions in what French philosopher Guy Debord called A Culture of Imbeciles. As they continue to institutionalize powerlessness on behalf of their Wall Street benefactors, Netwar in the Big Apple the fourth week in September will create pandemonium, drowning out the voices of indigenous peoples and other legitimate participants.

Once the green illusions promoted by Klein and McKibben are recognized for the fraud they represent, we can get on with more important and effective work. Until then, noise and chaos will play into their hands, as they continue hijacking civil society for their capitalist sponsors.

 

 

[Jay Taber is an associate scholar of the Center for World Indigenous Studies, a correspondent to Forum for Global Exchange, and a contributing editor of Fourth World Journal. Since 1994, he has served as the administrative director of Public Good Project, a volunteer network of researchers, analysts and activists engaged in defending democracy. As a consultant, he has assisted indigenous peoples seeking justice in such bodies as the European Court of Human Rights and the United Nations.]

Have a Question about the State of Play on the People’s Climate March? No Problem – Just ask Rockefellers Brothers Fund …

PeoplesClimateMarch

“We are the storm we’ve been waiting for” – organized and financed by those we claim to oppose.

The latest theatrical performance in this season’s Bread and Circuses series is brought to you by V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation, Avaaz, 350.org and NYCEJA.
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With key instruments of empire ensuring the state be protected first and foremost, the New York City Police Department has officially approved the route.
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From the Environmental Grantmakers Association Website (posted 08/20/2014 – 1:00pm):

“An unprecedented 550 organizations from labor, faith, environment and justice movements are coming together to make the September 21st People’s Climate March the largest ever public mobilization on climate. Join us to learn why such a huge diversity of organizations, networks, and individuals are mobilizing at this key moment, just days before the Climate Leaders Summit hosted by Ban Ki-moon. We’ll discuss how organizations are working together to bridge movements, as this effort not only seeks to raise awareness for climate impacts, but also open a significant political narrative about economic and environmental justice.

 

Speakers:

• Irene Krarup, Executive Director, V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation (moderator)
• Emma Ruby-Sachs, Campaigns Manager, Avaaz
• Jamie Henn, Political and Communications Director, 350.org
• Eddie Bautista, Executive Director, NYCEJA”

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“This will be the first of a series of two calls – the second will be a funder-only conversation during the first week of September. If you are unable to make either call and still want to learn more, please feel free to contact Stephanie Bencivenga of Rockefeller Brothers Fund (sbencivenga[at]rbf.org) or Irene Krarup of V.K. Rasmussen Foundation (ikrarup[at]vkrf.org).”

 

Co-Sponsored by Environmental Grantmakers Association, Consultative Group on Biological Diversity, EDGE Funders Alliance, Rockefeller Brothers Fund and V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation

 

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Screenshot | The Environmental Grantmakers Association Website (posted 08/20/2014 – 1:00pm):

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