Top Ten list that I know is entirely too long and I'm really sorry, but I had a lot to say...so yeah :)

1.Advertising, my dear friend advertising. I had always seen various ads and seen the stupidity in them, but I had never realized the sneaky, conniving work and thinking that went into making the ads. I had also never really thought about what may of these ads are doing to the human psyche. Advertising turns people into products. We value people less if we are surrounded by objective images of them, which occurs in advertisements across the board. Ads cloak human and environmental destruction behind images of beautiful people. In addition, they often make beautiful and desirable the using up of resources. Furthermore, one of the main goals of advertising is to create conflict in a person in order to make them consume. This is just gross, and not okay. All people are beautiful and fine how they are, don’t tell them they’re not okay, and imply that they are lesser just to make them want to buy your shit.
2.Personality Diagnostic checklist for Corporation= Psychopath.
So true. Corporations are not people, and if they were they would be psychopaths. As was stated in the film The Corporation, they have callous unconcern for the harm of others, the incapacity to maintain enduring relationships, reckless disregard for the safety of others, deceitfulness/repeated lying and coning of others for profit, the incapacity to experience guilt, and the failure to convert to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors. Yet they are considered people? Then can someone please tell me why on earth they aren’t being aren’t they being put in jail or put through some sort of intensive therapy then? I’m a little confused, I mean last I checked, people who were diagnosed, as psychopaths weren’t allowed to go running around trying to control the government. I don’t, maybe I’m mistaken, but it just seems a little backwards to me that corporations can go around being able to claim person status, yet they don’t have to suffer any of the same consequences. And just to get a little more controversial, how can people be okay with calling a corporation a person, but then some people have a hard time seeing an embryo before thirteen weeks as a person. In my mind, a thirteen-week-old embryo, no wait, a five-day-old blastula has more potential for personhood than any corporation anywhere, but that’s just me.
3. Monsanto, (cringe) nuff said.
4. Corporations can patent anything that’s alive except a full birth human. Really? Really?! Is this at all necessary? Pretty soon they’ll own the idea of a human. Companies are now able to patent genes. Before you know it, they will own the genes that make up the evolution of our species. The idea of a human can be owned. It just doesn’t make sense. No one, no company will ever own me, or the idea of me, I don’t care what any patent or legal papers say. Nope, not gonna happen.
5. Fanta was created for Nazi Germany so coke could keep making money in Germany… while people died…What?!?! If people only knew some of the things corporations have done to make a little extra green. And, IBM punch card system used in Nazi concentration camps. My goodness. And to make matters worse, all of the machines to print these cards were leased out and had to have on site maintenance done once a month. They can’t say they had no idea anything was going on. Not okay. Perhaps some of these corporations should have been tried for some form of war crimes. I don’t know, just a thought.
6. US media is over sanitized. People say war is tasteless. Well, yeah, it is. Its also vile, cruel, deadly, unnecessary, unintelligent, barbaric, merciless, malicious, hateful, despicable, abominable, violent, and bloody. That doesn’t mean we should keep doing it but not show it on the news because that makes it less bad. The United States does not see the true face of war. We don’t see the gory pictures, the photos of death affecting the people. We only see the gray heat seeking videos with targets. We don’t see the people behind the target, the people with tears leaving streaks down their dirt and blood covered faces, the people screaming while carrying limp children who don’t even understand the meaning of war. We don’t see that, and thus we tend to be ambivalent to the whole concept of war. It’s a problem.
7. Toxic Sludge. To be honest, I think I knew it existed, but I didn’t know the extent or any of the issues surrounding toxic sludge. But now that I’m more aware of some of these issues…whoa…like whoa!! And bio solids? Ya, that’s crap. Changing the name doesn’t change physical properties. I’m pretty sure if I legally changed my name to Flying Unicorn I wouldn’t sprout wings, hooves, or horns, or start having weird hay cravings. .
8. Dissent built this country, I had never really thought about it that way before. But I suppose it’s true. And the idea that rage is good when it is used constructively to create social change, I like it. But society has sort of morphed to tell us that rage and the like is bad, and we should suppress and accept. But this is just not okay. That is the kind of thinking that leads to dictatorships. And last I checked, we are supposed to be living in some form of democracy. Further more, we should not let our creativity and imaginations be sold to us. Those are the kinds of things that need to come from the people, not the companies. Creativity and imagination are things that should come from with in the individual not bought from the corporations and their idea of what they want us to like, and see as cool, etc…
9. And I had no idea about all of the PR that’s present in our media. Where did real journalism go? Wherever it’s hiding, it can come out now. Its presence would be greatly appreciated.
10. Also, culture jamming, not gonna lie, I’m a fan. I really like the idea of people, individuals doing what they can to kind of stick it to the corporations and let them know that what they are doing isn’t welcomed. It’s kind of a way for the people to take back what is rightfully theirs. I have done some small culture jamming activities, and I plan to continue, and expand. Next on the list, sending an much needed letter to the Brats company. Its going to take all of my editing skills to not end up sending them what could turn out to be a novel length letter describing all their violations to humankind.

Questions:
1. Fill in the blank. It has to reach _____level for the majority of people to start realizing that the amount of media in our lives today has started to reach unhealthy levels and that people as a group need to take back their creativity, imagination, and partially media free lives.
2. There are so many people who are in charge of corporations. Why have none of them realized the harm being done by them, and made any steps to fix the problems the corporations are creating?
3. Why don’t companies actually go green, like for real, instead of dancing around the idea and saying they are when everybody knows they aren’t. It would end up saving them money anyway? Which, if I understand correctly, is pretty much all corporations care about anyway.

PS, your class was absolutely amazing. I learned more in this class than any other class I've had to take. I sort of ended up in this class through a series of unfortunate events, but those events resulted in me taking one of the best classes I've ever taken. Thank you so much for an amazing semester! You were an amazing, wonderful, (insert positive adjective here) professor. I loved every assignment, especially the media art project and the go out in the woods assignment, and the PSA, and just everything! I couldn't wait for tuesday to come to your class. That is how learning should be. You nailed it! I'm sad the class is over, but I'm thankful that what I have learned can, and will carry over throughout my life. You are an amazing professor and person in general. Thank you so much!!

PSA Reflection

Creating the PSA was actually really fun. We worked really well together. We created the storyboard the day the project was assigned. We had one central idea, which was something to do with the interaction between cosmetics and the environment and cosmetics and the people’s view of themselves and how the three concepts connected to each other. We then worked through and bounced ideas back and forth to create the concept that we carried through to the end. That weekend we figured out which editing program we were going to use and how to use it. We played around with the effects and figured out what we would like to use. We also made the signs we held up in the video. Around this time we also did some research to figure out the facts we were going to include in the video. We also recorded Torie’s voice in the beginning around this time. We then filmed the whole PSA about a week later and then edited it that weekend. We wanted to get it done really early because we weren’t sure how long it was actually going to take to edit it. Turns out, not that long. We had a few people watch it in all different age groups ranging from forties to fourteen and everyone understood the message we were trying to get across without us telling them. We took this as a very good sign. I think our PSA does a pretty good job of educating our audience about our environment/media theme. I think our choice of music really works to draw people in and sort of make them want to see what’s happening next. I also think our alternating between the pictures and fast paced videos works to break the video up and keep people interested and watching to see what is going to pop up next. There was some question as to whether we should keep the black screen with the voice over or change it from just blackness. In the end we decided to keep the black screen because we felt it sort of works to let the words being spoken have more of an impact. There is less to focus on so you really here what is being said. Also, it’s kind of like a calm before the storm sort of effect. I’m really happy with how our PSA turned out. I do think it is a good tool for environmental activism as well as addressing the issue of universal beauty without the use cosmetics. I feel as though our PSA addresses several issues and works on several levels but all in order to get a more central point across.

ps, the name of the youtube video has been changed from envs 195 to cosmetics/environment... sort of in an effort to maybe reach more people ( ??)

Is Clorox Greenwashing perhaps??

Advertisement:
So, in this advertisement from Clorox, you see their product, Clorox wipes, in a woodland field surrounded by innocent white flowers with some dreamlike sunbeams emanating from some light source in the background. The advertisement uses the whole green, happy environment surrounding the designated product. As for persuasive techniques used, they utilized symbols and warm fuzzies. The symbols would be the green environment and the pure white flowers that represent just all around eco-goodness. And the healthy environment surrounding the product is meant to just bring some kind of warm fuzzy to the consumer and make them feel like by buying this product everything will be green and good, and no one will have to worry. And, what I find interesting about this is that they tell you its 99% natural and biodegradable and Clorox will gladly put all of the ingredients on their green works products, but not on their regular products. Also, the Clorox logo is prominently displayed on the green works product. I believe Clorox is trying to get people to associate their name with environmentally friendly even if it’s not really. And the advertisement says that its still has the cleaning power of Clorox. So, why don’t they change all of their products to work like green works if they aren’t losing any efficiency? If it’s better for the environment and works just as good, what is keeping them from switching all of their products over to this formula that apparently the world needs? I mean, good for Clorox, making a step in the right direction, but if its as good as they say it is, why not go all the way?

http://tinyurl.com/y827euy


Activist Websites:

To start, I looked through all of the websites, and I was slightly disappointed. They were more flashy and more over the top than I expected. I was a little put off by the amount of ads on some of them and the big Facebook and Twitter logos everywhere. Also, some of the sites seemed so left wing that they made me a little skeptical about the actual content of the site. How do I know these articles weren’t put on by some other form of PR? I was also a little put off by all of the big logos and unprofessional nature of the sites. I feel that if these sites want to reach a larger audience, they might benefit from toning it down a little bit without losing the value of their content. Also, Yes Magazine, which said they were ad-free definitely had the Facebook and Twitter logos on their site which technically is some form of advertising for those two sites. In addition, they certainly didn’t skimp on ads for the magazine or the site.
The site I chose to focus on was Grist. I thought it seemed to be slightly better than some of the others. Although it did have a rather large logo and some advertisements, I found the content of the site to be more uplifting and a little more hopeful than some of the other websites. Also, even though it’s labeled as an advertisement, the site provides you with a way, on first glance of the website to be active and sign a petition to prevent the bringing back of commercial whaling. There was also something about how to talk to a global warming skeptic. So instead of telling people they are wrong and the world is going to heat up and explode, you can use educated conversation to reason with them. There is also a neat feature that I haven’t noticed on many other sites where you can click on the authors name and find out sort of who they are and what they stand for. I feel as though this provides a little more comfort when reading things because you know it was written by for example a man who has been an investigative journalist for 25 years, versus some PR idiot. And the advertisements that is does contain are positive ones about clean canteens and conflict free diamonds. And the page is not littered with them like many other sites. It is embracing the media without over doing it, which I feel is important. The media exists; advertisements exist. Sometimes they can be helpful, as annoying as they usually seem. So claiming something is ad free, even though that particular site was not, is just not reasonable. I do think this organization fulfills its mission to social and environmental change. It is not as crazy left wing and I feel that this makes it easier to reach a wider audience. I do believe that online activism sometimes works. I think it’s a useful tool that should be supplemented with other non-online activities. I once signed an online petition to get Trader Joes to remove red-listed sea-food from their shelves, and work towards more sustainable sea-food policies, and it worked. They removed the red-listed fish and are actually trying to make improvements. So in this instance, online activism did work and was quite effective. It’s different for different issues, but I do believe it has some value. A lot of people can be reached very quickly (which could be considered good or bad depending on what light its seen in.) Participation in this form only feels really meaningful when you see definite results, although I do feel some brief hint of possible accomplishment when I sign online petitions etc... because there is always that possibility that it will amount to something and be effective in its intentions.


PSA:
Straight up done… We’ve had a few people watch it, and so far so good. I’m really excited to watch everyone’s!!

In a battle between Mother Nature and the Television, I predict Mother Nature opening a can'o whop-ass on the TV...straight up...without a doubt...

The Lovely Woods:
We walked along the paved path that would lead us to the woods. The sun was out and the wind was running silently around us. We talked about all of the things we had to do, and did this past week. We had just had a lab practical exam that we had both done really well on. Unfortunately that small triumph was easily masked by the realization that in the coming weeks until school ends, practically every week is full of exams, not to mention finals…Our minds raced out loud. Cars passed. The hum of society could still be heard in the open air, and in our thoughts.
Finally we reached the point where the paved path continues on and a path created by the treading of many feet veered off to the right. Right at the opening of the path was a large mud puddle. I suppose I could have made my way around it. That was my first thought…But the little kid in me won, I took off my shoes, rolled up my jeans and casually strolled through the warm muddy water…I have to admit, it was great. I kept my shoes off as we walked further down the path. Barefoot is so much more interesting than wearing shoes. It’s like adding a sixth sense to your repertoire of physical sensation and observation. Every new texture on the ground is a change of scenery for an alternative aspect of your body other than your eyes. As we progressed down the path, our conversation slowed, as did our thoughts. The mud was cool in the shade and warm in the sun. I started to notice the birds more and more and the cars less and less. I could hear the wind more clearly instead of just feeling it. My lungs were wide-awake. My sickness that I had felt earlier seemed to be leaving me with each step.
We came to a spot on the path that crossed a stream. We then proceeded to step off the path and head a little ways away down closer to the stream and farther from the path. I felt like a little kid again. I stepped out onto a rock in the stream, and gingerly proceeded to step into the icy water. The water, although very cold, and quite a shock to the system, was smooth and easily passed around the obstruction my legs had caused in its predetermined path to who knows where. I crossed the stream just for the sake of it. Three bugs on the other side of the stream were playing some form of tag as I arrived on the other side. They didn’t notice my presence and kept on with their daily activities. I stood for a while and then traversed back to the other side of the stream. Once on the other side, I spotted a tree that had made its final resting place lying across the stream. I climbed up onto the tree and out over the river, the water just out of reach of my hands when I let my arms hang. I placed all my trust in this tree. Without it, I’d be bathing in some mighty cold water. I laid there perfectly still and just listened. The sun poked though the branches and small buds on the trees and danced playfully on those leaves laid to rest on the forest floor. A small pine tree sprouted up from a dead looking mass of trees and sticks that had laid claim to one corner of the stream. I first noticed the dead mass of branches. Then I noticed the small pine tree. I then noticed how the lively little pine tree made the whole structure look more alive and less dead. Life gives life to death…if that makes any sense. Then I realized that no matter how dead the mass of branches were, it would still always appear more alive than any man made product, regardless of what it was. A thin silky string of spider’s web connected the small pine tree to another tree outside the stream. I followed the web with my eyes. The web led to the tree. I followed the tree up to one of the branches and noticed a small birds nest. The branch continued out over the stream. There were about three leaves on the branch that had not fallen off. They looked quite out of place amongst the small buds. A strong gust of wind blew causing me to hold on to the tree I was laying on just a little tighter. The wind knocked one of the leaves off. It then fell silently into the river. I stared at the water and followed the leaf until it passed around to where I could no longer see the stream. I noticed that the roots of the tree that let go of the leaf extended out into the water. It was a complete cycle of interconnectedness. I continued to stare at the water. The sun transformed into a cascade of diamonds when as it hit the moving stream. It was mesmerizing. My mind had stopped racing. Thoughts would come into my head, linger for a while and then casually leave to allow contemplative space for the next thought. I felt very at peace in an awake and oddly alert sort of way. It was nice. I closed my eyes for a little while and just listened. Its quite amazing what you can hear when you close your eyes and concentrate. Birds, water, wind, leaves, some other small and unidentifiable creature, your own quiet and rhythmic breathing. My head was resting on my arms, which were crossed and resting on the tree beneath me. I could feel the pulse in my wrist against the tree. I wondered if the tree could feel it too. There was some moss growing on the underside of the tree. I felt it with my hand and noticed the nice contrast where the soft moss met the rough tree bark. I focused my eyes on the whole scene before me and enjoyed it. I looked inward to my thoughts and tried to distinguish between the thoughts, colors, and feelings in my head. The air smelled crisp and clean. I filled my starving lungs with it.
The time came for us to return back and complete the television portion of the assignment. I climbed unwillingly off the tree and back onto the mixture of leaves and moss beside the water. I felt an unusual sense of accomplishment and motivation even though I had just spent half an hour lying on a tree branch. We walked back down the same path, my feet giggled at the feeling of the mixture of warm and cool mud. When we reached the end of the path I walked straight into the mud puddle and stood there for a little while. The mud was now very warm, almost bathtub like, as it had been sitting in the sun observing life and collecting heat for the past half hour. I then walked slowly out of the mud puddle and onto the course pavement. I walked a little ways and looked back to notice my fading footprints coming from the muddy path. I felt good, and alive, and not sick anymore. We walked back. I still noticed the birds, and then wind, and the sun, but the sound of cars passing was unfortunately added in to the natural soundtrack of the surrounding world. We walked up to our dorm, and I couldn’t help but notice how dead the building looked compared to the trees, and grass and sticks.


The Boob-Tube:
We sat down and prepared ourselves for an unfortunate uninterrupted thirty minutes of TV watching. The power button on the clicker was pressed and as that tell tale ping of the TV-turning-on-noise entered my ears I thought about how silly the concept of the clicker was. Its not like we are twenty feet away and half to walk a long distance to turn it on. And that was the last thought that entered my head for the next thirty minutes.
We watched a half our of the show America’s Best Dance Crew. Man, was it pointless. On top of watching more commercials in the thirty minutes than actual show, I literally gained nothing from watching it. One could argue that it actually made me dumber. My mind was frighteningly blank. It was like my thoughts had run and hid as soon as the lights of the TV had appeared on the screen. No matter how I tried, I could not entice them out of hiding. My mind would not have it. My eyes didn’t want to blink and my mind didn’t want to think. I was in a weird pseudo-coma like state with my eyes open and my body functioning internally, but I was just not there. I sat there and watched a bunch of people be active and in shape and perform all types of crazy dance moves and flips as I sat there, sedentary…mind and body. It sucked. In and amongst all of the really lame and stupidity-inducing commercials was one for a run to support clean water for the world. It started by telling you how many hospital beds are full due to diseases stemming from a lack of clean water. It then proceeded to tell you about the run taking place to confront this problem and encouraging you, the tv wacher to take part. Then, in the last scene of the commercial the man’s voice said sponsored by Dow. And in very light gray font, the kind that is weirdly thin and thus difficult to read, underneath the logo for the run for clean water, were the words” Sponsored by the Dow Chemical Company.”….Really now? The Dow chemical company is sponsoring a run for clean water…that they are making dirty anyway? Does this make any sense? I think not…You see the commercial and its like, oh well there is a glimmer of hope somewhere. People want to clean up the water for the world that all these companies are destroying. Then the end of the commercial arrives and you see that one of those same companies that is dirt-ifying the world is sponsoring this whole “clean water” movement. Well, way to make the whole thing completely illegitimate and all for not. Dow is going to keep doing what its doing under the guise of “oh we’re environmental, we supported the run for clean water, and gave a menial amount of money that literally wont make a dent in the overall issue, but we’re going to claim we’re saving the environment anyway and people are going to give us a good environmental reputation and believe us because we have some really great PR that is top notch when it comes to blatant lying.” Great. That’s just perfect…Way to go Dow, way to go. But other than that commercial, nothing I watched elicited any kind of emotion out of me other than inescapable, ball and chain, boredom. I kept checking the time to see how much longer I had to sit there and slowly waste away. When I do watch TV, I don’t really sit there and dedicate all of my attention to it. I’m doing other things, getting my laundry, answering email, organizing whatever. I never really dedicate myself to the television. To be honest, it was hard. I didn’t like it. And after we turned it off, I didn’t feel like I wanted to do anything. I just wanted to sit and literally do nothing. My stuffy nose was back and I kind of felt a little agitated for no reason, and just plain lazy. It was not pleasant. Conclusion: I much prefer the woods, hands down, no questions asked, any day of the week, any moment in time, just say the word, I’m there.


Toxic Sludge Is Good For You: Chapter 12
I really love the opening quote. Its so true, unfortunate, but true. It should be that this centuries three great politically important developments are the growth of pure democracy, the return of power to the people and the growth of a richer culture and better society as a result of this power shift. The quote on page 202-203 (“He defines propaganda…any conclusion but one.”) is also great. At this present moment, our system of democracy needs a hell of a lot more education than propaganda. This whole PR propaganda thing is completely going against the very fibers of democracy. Whatever happened to of the people, by the people, for the people? When did this whole of the corporation, by the corporation, for the profit crap become okay? In the ideal world, democracy is the system of government where those people being governed and affected by the system are the ones doing the governing. The people are the driving force for all actions, not the profit. And when I say people I mean the fleshy, multi-cellular, eukaryotic organisms who have opposable thumbs and mammary glands and fall under the category of homo sapiens. Not the corporations.
Democracy should have values that stem from the ideas of the individuals. Ideas should not be prepackaged and fed to the individuals. None of this top-down crap. People should “..take an active role in shaping their futures and running their government instead of letting it run them.” I have learned that there is some good PR. But the good PR does not even come close to the canceling out the bad PR and its effects. Media and PR, although they can be used for good, seem to have crossed the line in certain places. Media and PR should never become so influential and engrained in our society that our values and culture start being defined by it. And all this business of “…managers are legally obliged to ignore community welfare…if those needs interfere with profitability” is just very backwards and not okay. The people come first, not the prospect of profit. And until companies learn the value of the real human life, they should not be allowed to operate. As concerned citizens, we must exercise those rights we have as defined by our much previous definition of democracy. We must not stand for any PR/Media bogus that is thrown at us. We must speak the truth and call out the companies in their times of wrong and demand that the correct action be taken. Also, the citizens must somehow find a way to take back what is rightfully theirs in regards to democratic rights, powers, ideals, and values. All of this will take time, but I do believe it is a fight worth fighting. The hope for all of this lies in the hearts of the people not satisfied with just accepting what is sneakily spoon-fed to them. It lies with those people who are shorted by this system and can accurately see the flaws it has. It is up to the people to bring to light for all of society the injustices and issues that surround this whole phenomenon. I have not really discovered my role in making this a reality, but I will continue to search for where I fit in this whole thing. For the moment I will continue to act on the opportunities that arise, such as writing letters to companies and activities of the like. (PS. Neither American Eagle or Abercrombie and Fitch has replied to me yet. I have sent American Eagle my letter eleven times, from different emails and modes of communication, and still nothing. I feel like I might be on their list of people to just straight up avoid. ☺ )


PSA Blog Post:
I feel really good about my groups progress. We have actually finished all of the filming and pretty much all of the editing. All we really have left to do is put it onto a DVD thing and have someone else watch it, and then make any changes are needed after that. Our group has worked very well together. Our concept seems to have stayed pretty on the mark with regards to any changes since the initial brainstorming. Each team member…so Torie and I…have each been responsible for every aspect of the project. We have both filmed, acted, produced, and whatever else there is that goes into making a movie. Hopefully be next class we will have put our PSA onto a DVD and had someone else watch it. That way we have plenty of time to make any needed changes. I feel pretty good about the whole thing. I’m excited to watch everybody’s!!

Welcome to the wonderful world of toxic sludge-I mean biosolids-where everything is good for you, nothing smells, and companies are 100% honest....not

Toxic Sludge Is Good For You:
Chapter 8:
1. The treatment of sewage works just like the GDP. “The more advanced the treatment of sewage (the more successful the separation), the more sludge will be produced, and the worse—the more unusable and dangerous—it will be. That is, the ‘better’ the treatment, the greater the range of incompatible materials that will have been concentrated in this highly entropic gray jelly.” It’s sort of the same with the GDP, the worse of an event that happens, the better our GDP does. The idea of progress and better are completely skewed.

2. The methods for getting rid of this toxic sludge include incineration, dumping into landfills, gasification, plant fertilizers, and ocean dumping. None of these ways are any better than the others; they are all horrible. But what amazes me is humans complete and utter disregard for all aspects of the planet. It’s bad enough that we are ruining the part of the planet that we inhabit, but then we have to go and ruin the ocean. I’m not saying that humans own the land, but the ocean is nowhere even close to being ours to ruin. We don’t live in the ocean, the effects of our actions really wont have any real dire impact on us for quite some time. It appalls and scares me to think that our beautiful oceans could become like the fake, toxic waves with the fake sand and fake wind of FEED. The ocean is one of the last untouched fronts on the planet, we should probably leave it that way. We’re like King Midas, except everything we touch turns to sludge, not gold.

3. Also, I love how everyone thinks that by changing an organizations name, they can some how change the chemical compounds of whatever they happen to be promoting or producing. No, juts by calling it biosolids, or humanure, or nutricake or whatever doesn’t mean its going to be any less toxic. You could call it happy rainbow juice, but it would still cause all sorts of diseases and congenital birth defects and all other problems. And then they say that they aren’t trying t hide anything… So why exactly are you changing the name? Oh right, to correct the misconceptions about toxic sludge, sorry biosolids. But let them answer this, have they actually gone and smelled it? If they did, I’m pretty sure there’d be no denying that it stuck to the high heavens. And they say that it’s safe and doesn’t hurt humans, well, I don’t see them having it pop up in their backyards like with the Love Canal incident and have no problem with it. I feel like I say this in almost every blog post but WHER ARE THESE PEOPLE’S MORAL COMPASSES?!?!?!?! This shit is hurting people, and children, and babies, and animals and their great-great grandchildren’s environment!!! How blind can you be?? I mean really? The studies are inconclusive…Yeah right, that’s just another way of saying yeah this stuff is pretty much horrible and will probably kill lots of people but on my short time on this earth I just want to make lots of money, so if some people die in the process of me making bank, oh well, such is life. These people are psychopaths and sociopaths in disguise!! And they are practically running our country!!! AHHH!!

4. Also, that forty-page report put out by the EPA with the ridiculously long title (made that long and unnecessary to deter people from ever wanting to read it in the first place) is sheer crap! “It warns that there is an ‘irrational component’ to the public’s attitude toward sludge, including the widely-held notion that sludge smells bad: ‘It is difficult to say to what extent odors emanating from sludge may be imagined.” Who are they calling irrational?!?!?! My goodness. And I thought EPA stood for Environmental Protection Agency…Protection…Environmental PROtection…Agency… Just making that clear. But apparently the EPA likes to side with the people who have literally no sense of smell and thus cannot smell the ensuing death they are creating.

5. I also find it quite disturbing that Rick Jarman from the NFPA thinks that “consumers don’t need to know whether their food has been grown in sludge.” I beg to differ. What is this, poisoning the people, and then taking away their right to knowledge, to know where their food comes from? How demeaning can we be? It begs the question, if there is nothing wrong with the sludge than why is it such a big deal if people know where their food comes from (sludge field or not) ?

My Question is, why do these companies insist on continuing to destroy people and the environment? The people that work at these companies are people, individuals with what I hope are beating hearts. How can they justify these actions, and things that they are saying? I just don’t understand.

Chapter 9:
1. I find it so frustrating that companies can change their name or have a name that does not represent what the company actually does. For example, the Global Climate Coalition, which you would think would be all for helping the environment…Wrong…The Global Climate Coalition actually “opposes environmental action to prevent global warming.” Who knew? And apparently “in the perverse world of corporate public relations, propagandizing and lobbying against the environmental protection is called environmental, or green PR.” Now that just makes no sense whatsoever. Way to be blatantly sneaky. (side note, PR should stand for professional liar, not public relations…just saying.)

2. “Obviously business leaders are a minority whose opinions run contrary to the mainstream of American thought, but they are able to determine government policy thanks to carefully planned long term strategy.” This just does not seem right. Last I checked, it was majority rules, not minority who happens to have way more money than everybody else. This system is hugely flawed. It makes it so much easier for bad decisions to be made, because they profit the big guys up top more. A lot of things in this country seem to be set up that way. I’m starting to wonder if it was somehow created this way on purpose. The interconnectedness of all this corruption just seems way too commonplace to just be coincidence.

3. It’s also really disturbing to hear about the making of Earth Day a corporate commodity. Companies will stop at nothing to make a quick buck. To put it simply, its gross. And then on top of corporatizing the day designated to preserving the earth (even though you should do that every day) they let any old company be a part even if they are polluting the environment like there is no tomorrow. I’m not blaming the people at all, but its time the vast majority of us stop being such suckers for the words green and eco- whatever. We need to start seeing through the smoke and mirrors to what’s really going on behind the scenes. And we also need to stop letting companies stick their noses into every aspect of life. Earth day a corporate commodity, well apparently the fat lady has sung and pigs are flying because companies have corporatized saving the earth that they are simultaneously destroying. That’s talent…

4. And then the companies have the audacity to pin all the blame on the consumer, as if they had nothing to do with it, oh please. I agree that people can help solve the problem by changing their habits…But in no way it this entirely or mostly the consumers fault. The companies are the ones who are making the products and the pollution etc… etc… and the laundry list of offenses could continue for days. But how can they possibly make such an accusation. Okay, so say everybody changed their habits and started to save the world…Companies would go bananas, their profits would plummet and there would be a lot of business people running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to restore their beloved virtue of blind consumerism into the public eye. It would fare them much better if they changed their companies so people would appreciate the actual real environmental steps they are making (not just changing names) and people wouldn’t have to boycott them and send them down the tubes.

5. “We feel that whenever any environmental group tells lies that have an economic harm against anybody, that is a civil tort, and under US law they should be vigorously prosecuted in civil court.” Oh yeah, but when some company tells lies that have an environmental harm, they can’t do the same? Instead the companies will pull some strings, dish out a few bucks here and there and the prosecution will get nowhere. How do they not see the disconnect here? Do they think people are going to hear the things they are saying and nod their heads in newfound agreement?? Yeah, not so much. The whole system just baffles me.

My question is what will generations to come think of today’s situation? What will they think as they learn about all of this in history class? Will all of this be skewed in the textbooks by the company writing them? Will anything ever be truth if companies are allowed to just lie and lie and lie and suffer no serious repercussions? How will history judge us??




Group Blog Post 1:

Group Members: Torie Sanders
Concept: Our PSA will be centered around the idea of body image and the environment and how the two are inversely related. As people improve their body image through the use of cosmetics, the environment suffers due to all the plastics that end up in landfills and chemicals used to make the products. But the reality of it is that people are beautiful before cosmetics…and so is the environment.

Dear Abercrombie and Fitch, you suck.. big time..... and response to the Corporation film

Dear Abercrombie and Fitch,
How is the company? We are relatively unacquainted as far as corporations and citizens go, so I will tell A&F that I am a college student at a University, and I would just like to point out some interesting things I have noticed. Abercrombie and Fitch may find them interesting as well.
To start, Abercrombie and Fitch is a clothing store, correct? So, why is it that when one walks into an Abercrombie store or views an advertisement for Abercrombie clothing, more often than not one sees what appears to be naked, in the process of becoming naked, or partially clothed people? Is there a reason the models don’t want to wear the clothing? Is it itchy or uncomfortable? Does it smell funny? It makes me think I shouldn’t want to wear the clothing either if the models can’t even stand it long enough to have a photo taken. I’ve never really understood the concept of advertising clothing with people who are clearly not wearing the clothing in the advertisement. Maybe Abercrombie and Fitch could clear up a little of this confusion for me.
To continue, I was also wondering why on the application to be an A&F model, there is a place to fill out your weight. I’m not sure if A&F is aware, but people carry their weight differently, and weight is not a correct measure of an adipose to muscle tissue ratio. If you received an application from someone who was a number of pounds over the companies weight range for models, but he/she appeared to be a healthy individual, would you turn them down? Last I checked, A&F had more than one size of clothing in the store available for purchase. It would be nice to see more than one size advertised, you know, when clothing is actually used in the advertisements to start with. I recently read a book called Culture Jam, and learned that “Nine out of ten North American women feel bad about some aspect of their bodies, and men are not far behind.” I feel as though this could be due to the advertisements such as the ones put out by A&F and other companies that only show one type of person (and unfortunately all the companies seem to have latched onto this same body type) as the beautiful and desirable body. Maybe its time to show people that there is more than one type of beautiful in the world, and A&F embraces all beauty. Vary it up, you know? Open your minds, see the beauty in every body, and show that in your advertisements, and stop asking for people’s weight in your application. It just sounds shallow.
While I’m on the topic of clothing models, I would also just like to point out the long standing complaint many people have with A&F regarding the lack of diversity present in every aspect of the store. Not only is there a lack of diversity among the models, but also among the clothing and the employees. I have noticed that pretty much all of the tee-shirts sold by A&F have a giant A&F logo on them, usually followed by some random sport or obscure year, or the words athletic department. What is so significant about the years on the shirts? And does A&F actually have an athletic department? It might be a good idea. A&F could start an athletic department, and have sports teams that actually back up the ones on the shirts. It would promote a healthier America as well as getting up and getting outside. Just a suggestion.
I have also heard incidences of A&F stores firing or not hiring various employees or applicants because they do not fit the A&F “look.” This is much less than satisfactory. I would have expected more from a store than advertises all around cool casual-ness. Just so all parties involved in this letter are aware; the word casual is defined as free and easy, natural, unplanned, and marked by blithe unconcern. Trying to stuff all employees into a mold that fits the “look” of A&F doesn’t seem, to me, to be following along with the casual outlook of the company. Seems to be a lot more stuck-up and pompous in a silver-spoon-up-the-ass kind of way. A better way to accomplish this would be to just accept everybody for who they are and not hire only those who fit the mold, or can be made to fit. I’m not quite sure I understand this obsession A&F has with fitting everything into a specific and previously defined band of human.
Also, I was just wondering why there was a need for clothing that promotes the objectification of women and drinking. I would not call myself a feminist, but I am definitely all for equality. I mean, if A&F is going to make shirts that objectify women, why not objectify men too? There is a shirt for guys in on the A&F website that has a picture of a women’s lower body wearing underwear that says “I love College.” I have some ideas on what this shirt is trying to say, but I was just wondering what A&F was thinking the message of this shirt was. Why can’t A&F have a female equivalent to the shirt with a picture of a guy’s lower half in boxer briefs with “I Love College” written on his butt. Last I checked, both guys and girls “Love College.” Correct me if I‘m wrong, but I believe A&F’s target consumer is between the ages of 18 and 22. So, why is it that you have shirts for both genders promoting drinking, when the majority of the target audience is below the legal drinking age? Just doesn’t seem quite right. Why not promote activities the target age group can actually legally engage in? Just seems more practical.
Lastly, I would like to congratulate Abercrombie and Fitch on its induction into the 2010 Sweatshop Hall of Fame by the International Labor Rights Forum. I would just like to make it publically known that I strongly disagree with A&F’s activities at the Alta Mode Factory in the Philippines. Is there a legitimate reason for putting 100 of the union members on forced leave, other than the fact that they were exercising their right to unionize? Also, it would prove to be much better, especially for the workers and their families if A&F did not switch its production around from factory to factory so much. Stop being so afraid of commitment ad form some relationships with your workers. Without them, A&F is really nothing more than a false sense of casual and a severely misplaced moose logo. I was also wondering what the production quota was for this factory is. Supposedly it is set beyond human capacity, but I really wanted to hear both sides of the story, so I figured I’d give A&F a chance to weigh in on the matter. Also mentioned in Culture Jam was this idea of corporations as legal people. Personally, I do not recognize corporations as people, but if A&F wants to be seen as a legal person, maybe it should find its moral compass, and realize the wrong its doing and has been doing in places like the Alta Mode Factory, and stop.
That’s all. I look forward to hearing back from Abercrombie and Fitch. And please be rest assured, if I do not receive a reply, A&F will be receiving this email for the next 70 some odd years until a legitimate response is received. Thanks so much for your time.
Sarah Schipelliti


The Corporation:
One thing that surprised me from the film was the ability to patent all non-human forms of life. This is insane. A one-man company now has the ability to own a form of life. Way to make corporations able to play God. Soon, everything from batteries to the idea of a human will be patented, and the only thing left to patent will be the actual human itself. What happens when a company patents a disease, and then you unfortunately get that disease? Are you going to have to pay the company that owns your disease? Because if by some horrible chance I get a disease that’s patented by a company, I am sure as hell not paying them a single penny. If anything, they should be responsible for it and have to pay my hospital bills. People cannot own life. The only life you own should be, well your own. In all honesty, I don’t even think house pets are really owned. Yeah, you are paying for their food and providing them with shelter, but if my dog ran away, that’s his choice. I’d be sad, and miss him. But I don’t own his life. Nobody should be able to own any other life than their own. That’s my take on the whole situation.
One thing that really agitated me from the film was Monsanto’s control over the story on Milk that was trying to be aired by Fox journalists. Monsanto got involved only to cover up the true detriment that milk, especially milk with RBGH in it (so Monsanto’s milk), can cause. If there was nothing wrong with RBGH, then they wouldn’t have stepped in. I can’t believe that only a 90 day study on 30 rats, with most likely misreported findings (thank you Monsanto) is being used to justify the use of RBGH in milk for humans of all ages for all lengths of time. And I can’t believe the Fox producer guy just folded right under pressure from Monsanto and agreed to do anything for Monsanto. What really got me was when he said that “…the news is what we say it it…” Wow, way to make me loose faith in all news. No, wrong, its not what you say it is. I don’t care what law says that falsifying news is not against the law. Its against every moral law. Get a back bone, stick up for what’s right. Just because it’s a law doesn’t mean you should do it. As a news station, they have a responsibility to report honest and upfront news to the population. And as a company that presides over essentially all the food for America, Monsanto has a responsibility not to kill its consumers with its chemicals and “food” and hormones. It really bothers me that Sodexho is run by Monsanto. I want nothing to do with this corrupt company.
On significant item of new learning I had from this film was learning about the appalling involvement of American companies in Nazi Gemrany during the war. One such involvement was the creation of Fanta Orange. Fanta Orange was created by Coke so it could still make profits in Nazi Germany during the war…while people died. An IBM system was used by the Nazis in every concentration camp and railroad system used to get prisoners to the camps. It was punch card system where the cards needed to be printed out. And to print the punch cards out,the Nazis used machines that were leased out to them by IBM. Then the machines needed on site maintance done once a month. So IBM can’t say they didn’t know…They did. They even collected profits from it after the war. Its just atrocious and appalling and if I had no respect for Coke before, I don’t know what you would call my lack of respect for them now. It’s a shame they have exclusive pouring rights at UVM. Boycotting beverages sold at UVM? I think so…
One question I had during the second half of the film was is there any way to get Monsanto and Coke off of the UVM campus or is that impossible in the eyes of the administration?
I found the second half of the second half of the film to be more hopeful than the first 3/4ths. Even though I found the majority of the film to be, not depressing, but frustrating (not the film itself but the content), I really liked it. It made me want to go out and fix things and “jam” the corporate world so to speak. Actually, after last class, before this assignment was posted, I sent a letter to American Eagle about their new advertisement that says “What hot people wear” and “Hot people wear shorts” and how dumb it was and how I disagreed, except with much more polite and eloquent language. I’m waiting to hear back. If not, they too will be receiving emails from me for an indefinite amount of time. But then this assignment was posted and I have to admit I was quite excited about the excuse to write to another company and give them a piece of my mind. But the video opened my eyes to quite a few things that I had never known or heard of before, and I’m glad it did. As a side note, I thought that was amazing when Michael Moore brought the smokers to sing Christmas carols to the cigarette company.

Interesting...

article on facebook and privacy...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/technology/17privacy.html?src=me&ref=technology

Where is society's breaking point for stupidity and corruption spewed out by our 'beloved' corporations?!?!

Culture Jam, 73-136:

1. “This nice ripe, red tomato, a Flavr Savr,” is genetically speaking part flounder.” Really? This is crazy. We need to just grow tomatoes and other vegetables as vegetables. They are delicious the way they are and don’t need to be fiddled with. And of course, this technology is owned by Monsanto, who else? I also found the study done by UCLA on supermarket brussel sprouts to be quite interesting as well. The study found these brussels sprouts had almost no traces of vitamins. No wonder Americans suffer from obesity and malnutrition at the same time. We take perfectly good vegetables and genetically engineer them so they have no nutritional value whatsoever, and then we wonder why we are so sick. The drug companies then swoop in and feed us full of medications to compensate for our sicknesses that probably derived from the “food” we are being fed.
2. A quote from Robert Solow in The Global Economic Pyramid Scheme section absolutely blew my mind. He stated that “If it is easy to substitute other factors for natural resources, then …the world can, in effect, get along without natural resources, so exhaustion is just an event, not a catastrophe.” And this man is a Nobel laureate. It is this kind of thinking that is going to dig planet earth into an ever deepening hole. Even if we could physically get along without natural resources, which I don’t believe we could, the psychological effects on the human psyche, without any nature or natural resources would be a catastrophe in itself. Imagine a world without trees, or any other natural resource. Humans, although we seem to forget it, still need some sort of connection with nature to keep us sane. Take that away, and I don’t want to see what the world would be like then.
3. I also found another concept in this same section to be quite interesting. “Our current economic system cannot tolerate any reduction in consumption. We simply cannot deal with that idea. That is our rigidity. And that is the kind of rigidity that brings civilizations down. For a species to survive in nature they must be flexible and adaptable to the environment and the changing world around them. If they can’t change the environment will prevail, not the species. If humans can’t change the way we think and make the necessary changes to adapt to the rest of the world, then we are silly to think we will come out triumphant.
4. I also found the idea of how cars have “ …eroded our sense of village and the vitality of our neighborhoods” to be really interesting. The introduction of cars has decreased societies need for more face -to -face interaction. As the author put it, “ The arteries may be alive, but the beating heart of community is hard to find.”
5. I also agree that “…chronic TV watching is America’s number one mental health problem, and that a society in which citizens spend a quarter of their waking lives (more than four hours a day) in front of their sets is in serious need of shock therapy.” It’s so true. There is so much out in the world to actually experience. But since pretty much every aspect of life has been televised, people don’t feel the need to actually go out and see for themselves. They don’t know what they are missing. Furthermore, chronic television watching is probably one of the causes of so many of the other mental health problems in our society today.

My question is what is it going to take for people to wake up and smell the corruption and deception flowing right beneath their feet? Where is society’s breaking point for excessive nonsense?


The Corporation:
It’s crazy to follow the progression of the perception of the concept of a person, capital, and property. First slaves were considered capital and property . Then, finally with the fourteenth amendment they were considered to be people in the eyes of the government. Then over the next thirty years, everyone returned to a sort of capital and property with the recognitions of corporations as people. Its quite the nonsensical cycle. Frankly it needs to be stopped. I also found the part of the movie that delved into what kind of person a corporation to be ingenious. In my opinion, their diagnosis of a psychopath fits perfectly. Another issue brought up on the film that really bothers me is the putting of antibiotics into food. We then ingest those antibiotics through the food, however small the amount. This builds up over time, and thus, you have the birth of many bizarre antibiotic resistant strains. People get sicker and then need more medicine. People spend more money on medicine and treatments because they are sick and our economy looks like it has good progress. That should not work. Our GDP should not increase at the expense of peoples’ health. I also found this concept of the person behind the corporation not being as horrible a person as the corporation. It was interesting to hear a CEO of a company talk about how his values and beliefs are different from those he makes for the company because he has to. This seems as though we have created this sort of monster that is now beyond our control. Not good, not good. We cannot let this happen. If our economy and businesses are beyond dour control, we are at their mercy, and should not be. The creator should not become the victim. I also really appreciated the question, “Why does something gain wealth when a company puts a fence around it?” It’s interesting to think about. It goes along with why are designer bags and clothes so much more expensive? You are buying a name, nothing more. Also, there was one point in the film where a marketing woman said she was asked if what she was doing was ethical, and she replied that she didn’t know. Well, lets think about this. If you don’t know if it’s ethical or not, it probably means you really just don’t want to tell the truth. Which means that in all actuality what you are doing is not ethical, which means you should stop doing what your doing. The fact that this woman thought that by not admitting it was unethical made her actions less unethical, is just stupid and wrong. Also another person in the film made a comment along the lines of you should have faith in the corporate world because its always going to be there. This is the absolute wrong thinking a person could possible have. Why don’t you just roll over and die right now. You can’t change anything if you don’t think you can. The exact opposite of their thinking works just as well, it’s just a matter of which school of thought to choose. And I know that everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion, but in my opinion, in this case, there is a right and a wrong school of thought; the latter being the correct one.
I think that most of the United States is not familiar with this film’s content because of a number of reasons. For one thing, corporations do a damn good job of covering their asses. They distract people with colors and material goods, and sales and fatty food, and slowly dumb them down over time to be more apt to buy into their advertisements for more stuff. Also, if people are content in how they are living, they aren’t going to seek out problems with their source of pleasure. Corporations are providing people with stuff to satisfy their blind consumer needs. You can’t bite the hand that feeds you, never mind stop to breathe, when the hand that feeds you is forcefully shoving food down your throat. I think if more people knew about the content of this film and acted on it together, a lot more could be accomplished than a few people knowing about this information, and an even fewer amount having the guts to independently act on this information. There is strength in numbers, and without numbers, all you got is a few smart, determined, outside –of-the –box-thinking people without the support to get the ball rolling.

Culture Jam 3-71

I found this reading quite interesting. In reference to the camping trip scenario mentioned in the beginning, its scary but true. Sadly enough, I can see the beginning stages of this in my sister. She would rather sit on the beach and text people not at the beach than engage in any other beach type activity. It's annoying as anything... especially since she is younger than me, and should not appear so lethargic and technology obsessed when it comes to exploring the outdoors. Its sad, really. I thought the idea of the kids in the camping scenario going through a loss of "those selves that, when disconnected from the urban data stream, cease to function." As much as I would like to say this isn't true, a part of me thinks that if this hasn't already arrived, it is surely on its way.
I also really liked that part about the earth being a part of our bodies. "If the earth felt less like something out there and more like an extension of our bodies, we'd care for it like kin...If the self is expanded to include the natural world, behavior leading to destruction of this world will be experienced as self-destruction." This statement takes on a very holistic, nature oriented outlook on the world, which I personally think would only benefit our society. "When you cut off the flow of nature into people's lives, the spirit dies." So true, so true. All in all, I really enjoyed the Mood Disorders section.
I also found the Ecology of the mind section to be really interesting as well. It's so true though, if you look at the numbers, it seems as though America is full of people who are just mentally falling apart. "Americans are turning into annoyingly self-absorbed hypochondriacs." This is not to say all mental disorders are self created. I do think that there are some people who do have certain mental disorders, but the shear volume of people in this country alone and the range and span or disorders is just unfathomable, and not to mention unnecessary. I do believe that many of the people who are diagnosed with certain mental disorders could just as easily be helped with a lifestyle change as with psychological help or psychological medications. People are so quick to assume a drug will fix a problem they seem to have based on the symptoms just listed off to them from the television screen. When in reality getting up off the couch and getting some endorphins flowing may better relieve the depression or restless leg syndrome that may seem to be creeping up on them.
This idea of suffering caused by plentitude is also quite interesting. I wouldn't call this type of suffering as intense as the physical suffering caused by for example, malnutrition. But I do think that on some level this plentitude suffering may have some truth to it. People living shallow and meaningless lives and never knowing true satisfaction or happiness. The more things we have the less substance our lives seem to have, so to compensate for the less in out lives, we buy more, which in turn results in less. Its a vicious cycle, although no where near the level of suffering endured by those with the opposite of plentitude.
I also thought the noise section was quite interesting. One part of this section that really stuck out to me was the idea that "quiet may be to a healthy mind what clean air and water and a chemical-free diet are to a healthy body." I also really liked the the poet Marianne Moore's idea that the "deepest feeling always shows itself in silence." It's true, you can really understand how your feeling and decipher what you are thinking so much better when it's quiet and it's just you and your mind.
The jolts section was also quite interesting, it left me with the feeling that our instincts are being visually used and abused.
I thought the loss of infodiversity was also really interesting. The concept that "lack of diversity leads to inefficiency and failure...and the loss of one language, tradition, or heritage-or the forgetting of one good idea is as a big a loss to future generations as a biological species going extinct" really holds a lot of weight, and I don't think it should be taken lightly.
I also liked the Manchurian consumer section as well. The last part of this section really made me kind of step back and "take stock of my life". Would an anthropologist be able to assemble a portrait of my personality and would that portrait be " an original or a type?" It really made me wonder, and I'm still not quite sure, although I would hope the portrait would be an original one, but I'm not quite sure.
One part of the The Cult You're In section that stood out for me was that "We have been recruited into roles and behavior patterns we did not consciously choose."
In The End of The American Dream, the urban legend wedding sewage disaster example, however gross, I can see the parallels. Also, the idea of the American dream being so seductive that people just keep on dreaming is so true. People would rather just go on blindly living and ignore everything around them.

Values Not For Sale

Facebook:
Thesis: Facebook is a business, under the clever disguise of a social networking site, that is slowly taking a toll on the human relationship.
Agree:
I agree, that Facebook is “…profoundly uncreative.” The article states that it just “…mediates in relationships that were happening anyway.” All the while providing advertising agencies yet another way to reach the consumer. It’s true, if you think about it. Although I use Facebook and admit that it can come in quite handy when trying to make contact with someone you would otherwise not be able to, Facebook makes absolutely nothing. It’s just a space out in the wide-open internet for you to manage your relationships visually. Nothing more.
I also agree that Facebook is/has become quite the business (even though I don’t believe that Facebook is “…some kind of extension of the American imperialist programme…”) I had no idea the shear volume of money that Facebook was producing in investments and the like. A few people making butt loads of money off of the usage of what is essentially a product, however uncreative, by the masses…yup, sounds like a business to me.
I also agree that “…’share’ is Facebook speak for ‘advertise’.” That is quite the genius statement.

Disagree:
I disagree that Facebook is an ideologically motivated totalitarian regime. That seems a little harsh and slightly over the top. I also wouldn’t give it that much credit. I could be wrong, but I believe the people managing the site don’t do much but make occasional changes to the program hear and there. I believe it’s sort of a Twitter-esque situation where it is made into what it is today by its users. It’s only as much of a totalitarian regime as you let it be. If you let it completely consume your life, than yes maybe. But I think depending on how one uses it determines its level of totalitarianism regime-ness. Although I do not agree with a lot of what happens with Facebook, and the whole privacy issue.
I also disagree with Thiel’s philosophy of life. He ascribes to Thomas Hobbes view of life as being “nasty, brutish, and short.” He further feels that we should work towards a new virtual world where we have conquered nature…I’m going to have to dis agree 100% with this guy. Life is not nasty, brutish, and short. Its actually beautiful and the shortness of it makes one appreciate it ever so more (and last I checked, 80 or so years is quite a decent amount of time). And we should never want to conquer nature. It is not ours for the conquering. Furthermore, investing in immortality, artificial intelligence, genetic engineering are probably the worst, most dangerous, quality-of life-threatening things one could possible invest in, besides perhaps terrorism and death.


The Making of a Media Literate World:
I found this article to be quite interesting. Especially the idea of who or what owns the media that we are consuming. I liked George Gerbner’s point about how “…whoever is telling the stories within a culture has enormous power to shape how people act, think and buy”. And now since the “people” telling the stories are not actually people, but rather large corporations, our society is being run not by the people, but by the corporations. We are being sold our ideals and values through the media. I also like how Gerbner said that the people who do have stories to tell aren’t telling them because they are being drowned out by the distant conglomerates “…that have little to tell and everything to sell.”
I also thought it was great how towards the end of the article it talked about a hope for the future where the people will make the media instead of just blindly absorbing the media that is fed to us. It’s sort of a take-charge kind of message. I like it. We should be promoting our own values and ideals and beliefs, not accepting those values a company wants us to accept so they can later increase their profit….my values are not for sale, thank you very much.


Killing Us Softly:
-Advertising sells more than products. It sells values, images, concepts of love and sexuality, and of normalcy. It tells us who we are and who we should be. In this way, if they sell us what is normal, than they can always advertise products to sell along with this idea of normalcy. For them it’s a win-win situation. Sell us the concept, and then sell the product to “help” the consumer get closer to achieving this concept.
-Its bad enough that models are retouched so much so that as the film said, they have no pores, but now they have computer generated models. As if the ideal of beauty being sold was unreachable before, now even the basis of the picture isn’t even a real woman.
-I find the concept of turning people into things to be quite interesting. The film talked about how, in this case, females are turned onto/portrayed as things. The film then goes onto say that turning a human being into a thing is usually the first step towards justifying violence against that person. It was also crazy with what happens with women of color who are portrayed as animals and so called less-than-human. It’s just not right.
-I also found it kind of interesting how one aspect of the female anatomy can be used to sell such a wide variety of products. Who would have thought breasts would be a good advertising strategy for fishing line?
-I also found it interesting the concept of silencing women, where women were often portrayed with their mouths covered, or messages that implies that women should be quiet and passive and let their body do the talking and keep their mouths shut. And when women are portrayed with power, it is often with masculine power or the power is silly and trivial, such as using the men’s bathroom, ooohhh, how powerful.
-Sex is being used to sell everything from rice to jeans. And when one looks at the world of advertising, it appears to be the most important aspect of life, when really, its not the only thing out there. What continues to confuse me are the clothing advertisements where the people are, oh I don’t know, not clothed?!? And bondage being used to sell neck-ties…really? Come on people.

Ad Nauseam Part 5 and 6, Twitter, and Merchants of Cool

Ad Nauseam: Part 5
One of the things I found really interesting in part five was the advertisements that made use of famous quotations from deceased icons. The book gave quite a few examples, one of which was a quote by Einstein that was used in ads for Apple Computers, Nikon cameras, and the like. The quote read, “The trite objects of human efforts-possessions, outward success, luxury- have always seemed to me contemptible.” Maybe they just don’t know what the word contemptible means or they hope the consumer doesn’t know what it means, but it sounds to me like they insulted themselves. In my opinion, if they were trying to associate themselves with the great Einstein, they certainly picked the wrong quote.
I found the concept of subliminal messages in advertising to be quite… interesting, as well. I do think that advertising companies engage in what could be considered sneaky activities, but the word sex embedded into the dough molds at the Ritz Cracker factories? Sex orgy and bestiality in a clam plate placemat? Really? I’m going to have to disagree with Wilson Brian Key on this one. What, no one else has the ability to pick up on these things but him? Has he been bestowed with some great subliminal message debunking power that none of us happened to get? Furthermore, I understand that advertisements play on our emotions and basic human desires and what have you, but I can honestly say without a doubt in my mind that a donkey licking a long mustached man does not make me want to by a clam plate… Not even a little bit. I don’t think the whole concept of subliminal messages is to be disregarded, but the way Key interprets the concept just don’t seem quite feasible to me.
Upon reading the Idiot Consumer section, I felt somewhat offended by the advertising companies. “Stupid people…hogs…illogical mess…” Really? I feel like they should be describing themselves rather than the masses of people that make up the consumer body. I guess advertising is important for our economy and keeps it up on its feet, but if you think about it, those ad companies are the stupid ones. Using Kurt Cobain in an advertisement. What did they think was going to happen? They (as a generalization) just sound like an office of blundering idiots running around trying to be the first to use subliminal messages and then not because they are supposedly ineffective. And then be the first to advertise to the supposed fourteen-year-old consumer mind of the thirty year old adult, etc…
My question is what’s next? Advertising has evolved quite a bit over the years to bring it to the point we are at today. So we’ve gone through the subliminal message scare, and now there are apparently special codes that will make us buy more things. What else can they throw at us? (As a side note, the PANEXA ad was absolutely hysterical!!)
Ad Nauseam: Part 6
In part six, one of the quotes that really stuck out for me was when they said, “Public outrage has a shelf life: people can protest an issue for only so long before surrendering and getting on with their lives.” Sadly, it’s true. The majority of people are only fired up about something so long as it’s being covered in the news. Other than that, all you’ve got is the minority vote. For the vast majority of the people, their beliefs and passions fluctuate with what the media tells them they should be outraged about. It’s sad, really.
It’s crazy that none of the people who had foreign objects appear in their shopping carts did anything about it. Are people just blindly walking through life, not really giving any care to what they spend their hard earned money on? One would have thought that at least one person would have questioned the object. I would hope that I wouldn’t purchase an obscure item such as a meat thermometer just because it happened to be in my cart.
The credit card prank, although quite funny, was also appalling on the part of the credit card companies. No wonder so many people’s identities get stolen. The fact that he actually got away with an actual balance by completely BS-ing his mother’s maiden name and mumbling is amazing in a scary kind of way. Then the operator told him his mother’s maiden name! As if pretending to understand a mumble wasn’t bad enough, let’s just inform the kind gentleman of what he failed to be able to come up with the first time, shall we?
My question is how do we get more people to socialize in ways that don’t “…center around consuming stuff…”? I think the pranks, and “grocery store research,” if you will, are great. However silly it might be, at least people are thinking outside the box and using the brains they have been given by whatever higher force(s) they may answer to. Versus, being fed how to live and how you should live by the media and advertisements etc… So advertising has successfully created blind consumers, how do we deconstruct this and resurrect the independent thinkers?



Twitter:
Thesis:
Twitter, although it seemed to have some negative connotations is actually a social platform for people to not only feel connected to others but also take advantage of various discussions and educational conversations but also to organize and implement social, political, and intellectual change.
Agree:
I definitely agree that “…a whole new empire of distraction has opened up.” People can now continuously text other people they aren’t with while supposedly hanging out with the people they are with as they compulsively check Facebook, and Twitter one their phones. At the same time they can surf the web ,while watching TV, just to throw in some more media before the day ends, only to wake up the next day and the first thing they do: locate phone…www.twitter.com…just woke up, going to shower and then have breakfast! P-lease, we have enough media connections. Twitter is just one more thing for people to be ridiculously obsessed with.
I also agree that Successful businesses will have millions of Twitter followers, and will most definitely pay good money attract them. I’m not sure I see this as a good thing though. It’s just one more way for people to be reached by the advertising agencies. As if people aren’t connected enough to them. It’s just one more way that advertising is becoming part of our atmosphere, as was mentioned in The Persuaders.
Disagree:
I disagree with the amount of praise and accomplishment that is given to the concept of end-user innovation with regard to Twitter. Yeah, great, so we now have another way to talk to each other and snoop into each other’s lives. Wow, somebody had the genius idea of creating the ‘hashtag’ to better organize Twitter conversations and now lots of Twitter users do it, it’s called a trend. But have they cured a disease etc..? No, I don’t think so. Obviously communication is not a problem that needs to be solved. We’ve solved it already, at least six times. We can communicate in pretty much every form except maybe telepathy, depending on who you talk to. So leave communication methods alone for a while. Focus on something more important to society. Focus this end-user innovation into something more productive. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but it seems like a waste of this so-called wealth of innovation that America supposedly has as demonstrated by Twitter.
I also disagree with this whole concept of ‘following’ people. First of all, it’s kind of creepy. Everybody ‘follows’ everybody else. It creates a society of followers; where are the leaders? Last I heard, there was no lead button on Twitter. Yes, it is just a word, but as far as I can see, it can’t help the human psyche any.

Relationship with Twitter:
I do not have a Twitter account. I do however, have a Facebook, and in all honesty, it can be kind of annoying. To be honest, the only reason I have a Facebook is because senior year of high school my best friend convinced me that it was a good idea and set it up for me. I can definitely say that if Facebook somehow exploded, I wouldn’t miss it, not even a little bit. But one social networking site, or whatever you’d like to call it, is enough for me. Between using the phone, texting, emailing, facebooking etc… I feel overly connected. If I were to get a Twitter account, something else would have to go, and at the moment I don’t see it necessary to put the time into actually get the account and get rid of something else. My life is much better spent elsewhere.


Merchants Of Cool:
1. Seventy five percent of teens have a television in their room, (is this really necessary?!?!) and one third have a personal computer.
2. Paradox of cool hunting: It kills what it finds. As soon as marketers discover cool, it stops being cool. There is no solution. By discovering cool you force it to move on to the next thing, only to be discovered again.
3. It’s called Market research, not human or people research. This begs the question, is more about understanding who people are as a customer, versus understanding who someone is as a person. Advertising companies listen to the people not so they can give them what they want, but so they can give them what they want them to have.
4. “The most advanced form of marketing today comes in the form of a three hundred pound body slam…professional wrestling.”
5. TV shows kept getting edgier and edgier, channels keep trying to one up the other on the sex scale to keep up with the demand of the audience. “Teenagers are consumed with sex.” “Sex is part of teens lives, so it should be portrayed in the media too.” The media sells kids an image of what they should be like, the kids then mirror that, and the media is there to see it. Feedback loop.

Ad Nauseam Parts 3 and 4, Is Google Making us Smarter?, and The Persuaders...

Ad Nauseam:Parts 3 and 4
What struck me as quite interesting was a the chapter in section 3 titled Shopping for Cancer. Part of this chapter talked about the flu season and what the book referred to as the flu economy. It blows my mind that the CEO of Walgreens told some of the people attending a meeting that if they were sick, they should go to highly populated areas to spread their germs. What is this world coming to where companies go out and infect the masses to make a profit? I understand the economics behind it all and if no one is sick chances are, people aren't buying cold medicines, but honestly where is the moral compass? Its bad enough that other forms of advertising work to create conflict in people so they will go out and buy products, but actually trying to spread sickness to force people to purchase products, thats a new all-time low.
In Part 4, I found the Shopping Spies chapter to be kind of creepy. It reminded me of the film Consuming Kids where children were studied in every aspect of their lives to the point where it was just inappropriate, so that advertising agencies could better target the children. You don't grow out of this stage apparently because researchers are now targeting adults in grocery stores. This is just plain creepy. Companies are now essentially stalking their target audiences. It also reminded me of in the Persuaders film where the man was being asked about how he felt when he was eating the bread. Granted, he was fully aware he was being studied, but the questions the researcher was asking just made no sense. "Do you feel lonely while eating white bread?" And this whole stalking method of research just makes no sense either. Let people do their grocery shopping in peace. Nobody wants a researcher trying to get inside their head without their permission as they casually stroll through the grocery store. It's just weird and unnecessary.

Is Google Making Us Smarter:
1. Thesis: Increasing technology will only serve to continue to augment our intelligence and make us smarter as humans, just as it has done throughout history.

2. Agree:
I agree that humans, evolutionarily speaking, have coped by becoming smarter. Our brains have "...changed to meet the challenge..." If there was an obstacle, our brains changed to overcome it, and as a result we have such things as written and spoken language, foresight, long-term planning, the telephone, and the automoblile. All of which have helped our species come to be what we know it is today.
I also agree that the "...age of the cyborg and the suoer-genius has already arrived." Everyone has all types of gadgets that they just take for granted. Were someone from 150 years ago to see the technology that we have now, they would be blown away. We have instant access to all kinds of information with just the touch of a button.
Disagree:
I disagree with the fact idea that we have been augmenting our intelligence for years and it hasn't proved to be a hazard so now shouldn't be any different. I believe that everything has a breaking point, and just because something hasn't caused problems in the past, doesn't mean it wont in the future. I think this rapid advance in external intelligences is not good for the human brain. I think it is making us dumber and not smarter. Everything in moderation;but we are not handling media and technology in moderation in the least sense of the word, and I do believe this will have adverse affects.
I also disagree that these reliances on certain drugs helps to increase our intelligence as well. I don't believe it does. I personally think that intelligence is something that comes from within the mind and cannot be falsely mimicked by way of a particular drug. This sort of drug-induced intelligence is not the kind of thing our brains need to cope with and change according to new challenges that arise. We cannot rely on a substance or technology to to our evolutionary adjusting for us.

The Persuaders:
1. "What advertising has always wanted to do is not simply to suffuse the atmosphere but to become the atmosphere and wants us not to be able to find a way outside the world that it creates for us." Essentially, advertisement agencies are trying to pin us, the consumers, into a world where we cannot escape their ads.
2. Brands started to try to forge an emotional bond with the consumer america, a concept known as emotional branding. With emotional branding, "...brands become more than just a mark of quality , they become an invitation to a longed for lifestyle, a ready made identity." It plays on something beyond human logic and reason.
3. There are agencies who go through every script and look for places where they can insert different products into programs.
4. People are watching fewer adds by either ignoring them or Tivo-ing them out, so advertisers are trying to place advertisements in places where people can't ignore them, such as in the shows themselves. And here we have what is known as product placement, although advertising agencies prefer to call it the "...seam-less integration of merchandise and narrative." But really its all the same.
5. There are certain codes that correspond with products and ideas that help to advertise it to the masses. Focus groups are done to find out how people react to certain words or codes.(Reptilian actions)

I do say, you shall not consume me with your constant drivel-A statement for the need of balance in advertising

For the Environmental Art Project, I chose to focus on the need for balance with respect to advertising. To do so I created a paper-mache figure. I then covered the figure in advertisements to represent how we as humans are constantly bombarded with advertising. Practically every part of our bodies and minds are constantly being advertised to. The figure is in the process of peeling an advertisement off of its arm. In front of the figure I constructed a scale to represent the balance that needs to be found. Overall, the meaning I intended for my project was that advertising and media is okay, but we need to have a balance and not let it entirely consume us to the point where we can't tell what's up or down, although, you can derive whatever meaning best suits you, its more fun that way :)

Yours Truely

Hello! I’m Sarah Schipelliti. I lived in Bradford, Massachusetts until I was about seven and then I moved to North Reading, Massachusetts. I have lived in Massachusetts my whole life until I came to lovely UVM.
The fun media experience I had, would have to be a movie that I saw and a book that I started to and am still in the progress of reading. The movie I watched, which I highly recommend, is called The Cove. It is an exciting and intense documentary type film that exposes the dolphin slaughter occurring in Taiji, Japan. It delves into not only the obvious animal cruelty of the whole situation but also other more under cover issues which include, but are definitely not limited to, the major health problems that surround the topic (such as mercury poisoning) as well the political issues. It was quite the eye-opener for me. The book I’m reading is called “The Dalai Lama, A Policy of Kindness: An Anthology Of Writings By And About The Dalai Lama”. I’ve really just started reading it, but of what I’ve read so far it’s quite good.
Twenty-first century media culture is an interesting concept. One thing that this media system is good for is allowing people to have quick access to information, practically everywhere they go. Nowadays all one has to do is “google it” to find any random obscure fact and they have an answer. Although I suppose there is a downside to this aspect as well. In a way, it decreases the need for libraries. Books will soon become obsolete if all information can be accessed via the web. Which, in a way, is sad. There is something special about going to the library picking the book off the shelf, turning page after page full of words written in ink on the otherwise blank paper, versus staring at a screen and scrolling down. One thing I absolutely dislike about today’s media culture is this concept that the text message is a conversation substitute. People will send a text and immediately expect one back. It’s as if not immediately responding to a text is like you saying something to someone in conversation and the person just stares back at you without speaking. As far as I’m concerned, text messages are phone emails, not a method of conversation. I’ve noticed differences even with my younger siblings in how we both utilize the text message. With them, whole conversations can be had via text messaging. The communication aspect of the human connection is being altered. Conversation is becoming more and more impersonal and distant, where “☺” replaces an actual face to face smile or inflection in the voice over the phone, where “lol” is supposed to replace that infectious sound we so fondly call laughter. It scares me to think of what the future media culture and media technology will do to the art of conversation.
The vision I have for my own future involves me gradating from UVM with a Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing. I hope to get a job at a hospital somewhere in the Boston area that is very involved with research (that I hopefully could be involved with as well). I also hope to get a Masters in Public Health and a Masters in Nursing. In addition, in the summer of 2012 (the summer after I graduate) I will be biking across the country with my friend!! (Who is also in this class and who also mentioned this in her post as well.)