As I said, I've become shocked by the escalation of the take-over of American politics by corporations and the wealthy at a time I would have expected at least a pause.
That's why I recommended the lectures of Michael Parenti as background.
Now I am adding another new link to my list, an interview program:
Terrence McNally podcasts
Terrence seems to see things now as I do, especially in regards to our quickeng rush toward even more plutocracy, and this is reflected in his choices of who to interview.
This link will replace The Monthly Review, because I've decided after doing a lot of reading there that Monthly Review is too academic to be as useful as I had thought.
As for Terrence McNally, what makes him better than someone like Diane Rehm in my opinion?
Probably just the fact that he is not on NPR, which I suspect of being somewhat self-censored as I said. There are many good interviews on Diane Rehm. For example, just Tuesday her show interviewed another author outraged at the forces that led to the 2008 collapse. But if Diane Rehm decided to keep this issue on the front burner week after week she would probably be told to stop. Terrence McNally is not restrained in that way.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
Decontextualized News and Limited Discourse -That's It!
For well over a year I've been trying to identify something persistently caught in my subconscious. I've known it is what seems to disturb me most about America now, but I have been unable until yesterday to bring it clearly and fully into consciousness and put it into words.
Thanks to Michael Parenti, who I just mentioned for the first time in the last entry, I now understand:
The "decontextualization of news" and the "limits of discourse" are the names for what has been troubling me.
Mister Parenti has been talking about these and related manipulations of the public for years but it's all new to me because I only listened to his many lectures on such topics this month.
I want to recommend these lectures especially now to anyone reading this, particularly the last ten minutes of the 2008 lecture, "Contrary Notions", where he describes the decontextualization of news and the limitation of discourse and debate very well.
I don't want to try to summarize the story here of how these now define the media and public discussion in the United States, because listening to the lectures really is necessary for a full understanding.
I am anxious though to express some new thoughts I'm having now that I know someone has been describing what was haunting me.
First, the kind of resonance with me of Michael Parenti's analyses is something I haven't felt for fifteen years. -The last time I had this sense of relief when I learned that what was bugging me was being articulated was when I read James Kunstler's "Geography of Nowhere" in 1996.
Then it was a realization that America's landscape was driving me crazy; now it's the realization that public dialogue and media have been doing so.
Secondly, it's now clear to me why I dislike the news programs on NPR and public TV as much as those on commercial networks -because the decontextualization of reporting and limitations of debate are just as pervasive.
The only difference is that these are intentional in the case of the corporate media but are induced by fear in the case of NPR and PBS. We just witnessed this fear again since the House of Representatives was once more taken over by right wing members who immediately began threatening public broadcasting.
Thirdly, I want to emphasize, as Parenti does, that decontextualization of news and limitation of discourse are expressions of power, not accidents or coincidences.
Finally, America reminds me of an abusive family. We always hear stories of how silence is imposed as part of the abuse. For example, if a child reports molestation to her brother, she will be beaten. In the family that is America, if a reporter begins to give the full context of his stories, he will be fired, if a debater on a broadcast begins to overstep the boundaries set by the outlet, he will be cut off.
Thanks to Michael Parenti, who I just mentioned for the first time in the last entry, I now understand:
The "decontextualization of news" and the "limits of discourse" are the names for what has been troubling me.
Mister Parenti has been talking about these and related manipulations of the public for years but it's all new to me because I only listened to his many lectures on such topics this month.
I want to recommend these lectures especially now to anyone reading this, particularly the last ten minutes of the 2008 lecture, "Contrary Notions", where he describes the decontextualization of news and the limitation of discourse and debate very well.
I don't want to try to summarize the story here of how these now define the media and public discussion in the United States, because listening to the lectures really is necessary for a full understanding.
I am anxious though to express some new thoughts I'm having now that I know someone has been describing what was haunting me.
First, the kind of resonance with me of Michael Parenti's analyses is something I haven't felt for fifteen years. -The last time I had this sense of relief when I learned that what was bugging me was being articulated was when I read James Kunstler's "Geography of Nowhere" in 1996.
Then it was a realization that America's landscape was driving me crazy; now it's the realization that public dialogue and media have been doing so.
Secondly, it's now clear to me why I dislike the news programs on NPR and public TV as much as those on commercial networks -because the decontextualization of reporting and limitations of debate are just as pervasive.
The only difference is that these are intentional in the case of the corporate media but are induced by fear in the case of NPR and PBS. We just witnessed this fear again since the House of Representatives was once more taken over by right wing members who immediately began threatening public broadcasting.
Thirdly, I want to emphasize, as Parenti does, that decontextualization of news and limitation of discourse are expressions of power, not accidents or coincidences.
Finally, America reminds me of an abusive family. We always hear stories of how silence is imposed as part of the abuse. For example, if a child reports molestation to her brother, she will be beaten. In the family that is America, if a reporter begins to give the full context of his stories, he will be fired, if a debater on a broadcast begins to overstep the boundaries set by the outlet, he will be cut off.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
new view of the political crisis
I still see the future as an array of inter-related collapses which have all begun. Climate and environmental harm are the most important in terms of creatures affected over time. Then, for humans, peak oil is the next most serious issue.
Then I've tended to see economic and political collapse as the next most important.
The political is very important though because it is what those of us who want to help make the future better will be up against.
But, since almost a year ago, I've gradually realized I have never fully understood what has been happening to politics in the US.
I thought the biggest factor driving the cultural and political decline was simple mass ignorance, worsened by hyper-consumerism.
But events have not unfolded in the way I expected since 2008, the year the financial collapse I long anticipated happened.
The complete lack of reform of the injustices that caused the meltdown have shocked and horrified me.
So has the amazing spectacle of what Obama turned out to be -a corporatist and oligarch even worse than Bush!
And then came Citizens United last year!
...All of these, and many other signals are pointing to much more than just ignorance and distraction of the population. Instead they are exposing a much more aggressive agenda of those with lobbying and campaign power and wealth than I ever would have imagined before 2008.
I now realize the most cynical on the left have always beeen right for my whole lifetime and we have now begun to live their ultimate nightmare!
Ralph Nader, Naom Chomsky, Amy Goodman, and all the voices of the radical left since before the sixties foretold all this, but I never took them as seriously as I should have.
So, where am I going now?
Well, I am beginning to learn the names of more of these people, and to study what they have written over the many years. Since they foretold what is happening, I hope they can maybe predict or at least hint at what all the next stages are going to be.
I have just made two new links to my starting points for this new self-education:
First, here are many online lectures from Michael Parenti available courtesy of the excellent website TUC Radio: "Michael Parenti is among the nation's best informed progressive speakers. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Yale University in 1962 and has taught at colleges in the US and abroad. He lectures around the country and discusses the problems of American democracy, US foreign policy, and the invented reality of the media.":
Michael Parenti Archive
Then there are the hundreds of articles available online from "The Monthly Review -An Independent Socialist Magazine", which has been published since 1949:
The Monthly Review -archives
I've just begun to read and listen to articles on these sites but maybe in the future I can point out here ones I especially found informative.
Then I've tended to see economic and political collapse as the next most important.
The political is very important though because it is what those of us who want to help make the future better will be up against.
But, since almost a year ago, I've gradually realized I have never fully understood what has been happening to politics in the US.
I thought the biggest factor driving the cultural and political decline was simple mass ignorance, worsened by hyper-consumerism.
But events have not unfolded in the way I expected since 2008, the year the financial collapse I long anticipated happened.
The complete lack of reform of the injustices that caused the meltdown have shocked and horrified me.
So has the amazing spectacle of what Obama turned out to be -a corporatist and oligarch even worse than Bush!
And then came Citizens United last year!
...All of these, and many other signals are pointing to much more than just ignorance and distraction of the population. Instead they are exposing a much more aggressive agenda of those with lobbying and campaign power and wealth than I ever would have imagined before 2008.
I now realize the most cynical on the left have always beeen right for my whole lifetime and we have now begun to live their ultimate nightmare!
Ralph Nader, Naom Chomsky, Amy Goodman, and all the voices of the radical left since before the sixties foretold all this, but I never took them as seriously as I should have.
So, where am I going now?
Well, I am beginning to learn the names of more of these people, and to study what they have written over the many years. Since they foretold what is happening, I hope they can maybe predict or at least hint at what all the next stages are going to be.
I have just made two new links to my starting points for this new self-education:
First, here are many online lectures from Michael Parenti available courtesy of the excellent website TUC Radio: "Michael Parenti is among the nation's best informed progressive speakers. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Yale University in 1962 and has taught at colleges in the US and abroad. He lectures around the country and discusses the problems of American democracy, US foreign policy, and the invented reality of the media.":
Michael Parenti Archive
Then there are the hundreds of articles available online from "The Monthly Review -An Independent Socialist Magazine", which has been published since 1949:
The Monthly Review -archives
I've just begun to read and listen to articles on these sites but maybe in the future I can point out here ones I especially found informative.
This journal is now revived
...and not called a "blog" anymore by me, and with a new subtitle, "Thoughts and Ideas" rather than "Thoughts and Essays".
"Blog" and "essay" imply commentary by someone with insight. In the past year I have realized I only have well-developed insight regarding a few things. For many others, I am still probing for deeper understanding and am not at all confident I "have it figured out".
Otherwise, the goals and introductions from when I began in early 2010 are still correct and relevant.
I think I will now call this my "thought journal" and the other my "life journal".
"Blog" and "essay" imply commentary by someone with insight. In the past year I have realized I only have well-developed insight regarding a few things. For many others, I am still probing for deeper understanding and am not at all confident I "have it figured out".
Otherwise, the goals and introductions from when I began in early 2010 are still correct and relevant.
I think I will now call this my "thought journal" and the other my "life journal".
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
I survived and am doing well
I am thinking about posibly reviving this blog because I have been doing well again.
Whether I revive it or not, I need to refer to my journal now:
http://mikemonett.livejournal.com .
Unlike this blog, I've been updating my journal since I first got back on my feet, and will continue to add to it even if this blog remains dormant.
Hopefully it won't remain dormant. We will see.
Whether I revive it or not, I need to refer to my journal now:
http://mikemonett.livejournal.com .
Unlike this blog, I've been updating my journal since I first got back on my feet, and will continue to add to it even if this blog remains dormant.
Hopefully it won't remain dormant. We will see.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
my life as I have known it is over
This message will be posted on both the new blog that I tried to start in 2010 and on the journal I started in late 2006.
If things stabilize back to some kind of a norm again someday I may reactivate these.
--------------------------
I have been stricken by a black swan event or a rogue wave. It has cascaded into a meltdown of my life.
Here is what happened, starting from the beginning:
It had been becoming unbearable for me to live in my condo anyway since early 2009 because I have been unable to restore the financial health of the treasury, in spite of extreme stress and sacrifice of huge amounts of my spare time. There are fifteen units here, in a building that needs lots of care because of it's age. Too many owners have not been paying their condo fees and although I put a huge dent in that problem, it has not been enough.
Unless ALL the remaining delinquent owners pay ALL that they owe NOW, there will be NO heat in this building in the coming winter.
I am going to call all the owners together for an emergency meeting, make this fact clear, then resign from the treasury and announce that I can't continue to try to solve these problems because I can't live here anymore anyway and am ready to give my condo away for $1 and just write off the $17,000 I paid for it in 2007.
This is just the backdrop for the natural disaster that struck like a rogue wave...
I am referring to something I never heard of until last year known as "bed bugs".
These have exploded into a frightening epidemic and are making whole buildings permanantly uninhabitable in Dayton and other cities.
Not only did we need to mobilize several weeks ago to make sure we don't have these infecting our building, but I had to take extra precautions because my employer wants NO chance that even one of these bugs could infect our workplace via my clothing or cell phone or any other way.
This is an extremely tall order, so as of last week, at a cost of many thousands of dollars of my savings, my condo has been gutted to make sure none of these are in the walls or floors, and it has been treated heavily with strong chemicals. I have been told that my condo and my car must be inspected every two weeks for a year, and there is no guarantee that it won't be gutted further.
I do not know if I really still have a job after being there over 20 years, or if I do, when I will return to it.
I will never feel secure there again because if a bug is found in my condo during any of the inspections twice each month I will be quarantined away from my workplace indefinitely again.
The insurance company threatened to cancel the policy on the condo building if the 5-car garage roof was not replaced immediately. Just by luck, this was just finished yesterday (but I had to lend money to the condo treasury from my savings to pay the roofer). This means I have a place to hide without going 30 miles out to Camden where I own my own garage. A week ago the roof in this 5-car garage leaked like a sieve so the whole structure was permanantly soaking wet. Now, it is dry and I've scrubbed and swept a part of the building and have been sleeping here on a lawn chair and feeding the cat in here. If I need something I go up the balcony four stories and get it from my trashed condo.
This can't continue very long. The neighbors will be getting uneasy if I try to stay here for long. Some of them don't like me anyway since I have been harassing them for their condo fees for a year and a half.
----------------------
I am doing OK because it is Summer when I never have problems with depression.
However, I am having those PTSD-type episodes where I have "dread waves" that sweep over me, especially in the middle of the night. But luckily they subside quickly enough and then I just calmly try to plan my next step to get through all this and my moods stay calm. I am getting help, but this too is depleting the savings I worked so hard for.
I am only feeling sick from the chemicals when I get really hot from the July weather. But when I go to the bathroom, my liver or kidneys get activated and that stuff pours out of them and I feel nauseous and have a horrible taste in my mouth for about two hours.
---------------------
I don't think anybody but my Dad still read these journals, but I told him all of this on Sunday so I am not worried about shocking him. If anybody else is reading this, I love you very much, and wherever I have to go to try to re-build my life, I will start a journal up again if I can.
If things stabilize back to some kind of a norm again someday I may reactivate these.
--------------------------
I have been stricken by a black swan event or a rogue wave. It has cascaded into a meltdown of my life.
Here is what happened, starting from the beginning:
It had been becoming unbearable for me to live in my condo anyway since early 2009 because I have been unable to restore the financial health of the treasury, in spite of extreme stress and sacrifice of huge amounts of my spare time. There are fifteen units here, in a building that needs lots of care because of it's age. Too many owners have not been paying their condo fees and although I put a huge dent in that problem, it has not been enough.
Unless ALL the remaining delinquent owners pay ALL that they owe NOW, there will be NO heat in this building in the coming winter.
I am going to call all the owners together for an emergency meeting, make this fact clear, then resign from the treasury and announce that I can't continue to try to solve these problems because I can't live here anymore anyway and am ready to give my condo away for $1 and just write off the $17,000 I paid for it in 2007.
This is just the backdrop for the natural disaster that struck like a rogue wave...
I am referring to something I never heard of until last year known as "bed bugs".
These have exploded into a frightening epidemic and are making whole buildings permanantly uninhabitable in Dayton and other cities.
Not only did we need to mobilize several weeks ago to make sure we don't have these infecting our building, but I had to take extra precautions because my employer wants NO chance that even one of these bugs could infect our workplace via my clothing or cell phone or any other way.
This is an extremely tall order, so as of last week, at a cost of many thousands of dollars of my savings, my condo has been gutted to make sure none of these are in the walls or floors, and it has been treated heavily with strong chemicals. I have been told that my condo and my car must be inspected every two weeks for a year, and there is no guarantee that it won't be gutted further.
I do not know if I really still have a job after being there over 20 years, or if I do, when I will return to it.
I will never feel secure there again because if a bug is found in my condo during any of the inspections twice each month I will be quarantined away from my workplace indefinitely again.
The insurance company threatened to cancel the policy on the condo building if the 5-car garage roof was not replaced immediately. Just by luck, this was just finished yesterday (but I had to lend money to the condo treasury from my savings to pay the roofer). This means I have a place to hide without going 30 miles out to Camden where I own my own garage. A week ago the roof in this 5-car garage leaked like a sieve so the whole structure was permanantly soaking wet. Now, it is dry and I've scrubbed and swept a part of the building and have been sleeping here on a lawn chair and feeding the cat in here. If I need something I go up the balcony four stories and get it from my trashed condo.
This can't continue very long. The neighbors will be getting uneasy if I try to stay here for long. Some of them don't like me anyway since I have been harassing them for their condo fees for a year and a half.
----------------------
I am doing OK because it is Summer when I never have problems with depression.
However, I am having those PTSD-type episodes where I have "dread waves" that sweep over me, especially in the middle of the night. But luckily they subside quickly enough and then I just calmly try to plan my next step to get through all this and my moods stay calm. I am getting help, but this too is depleting the savings I worked so hard for.
I am only feeling sick from the chemicals when I get really hot from the July weather. But when I go to the bathroom, my liver or kidneys get activated and that stuff pours out of them and I feel nauseous and have a horrible taste in my mouth for about two hours.
---------------------
I don't think anybody but my Dad still read these journals, but I told him all of this on Sunday so I am not worried about shocking him. If anybody else is reading this, I love you very much, and wherever I have to go to try to re-build my life, I will start a journal up again if I can.
Friday, June 25, 2010
great book (so far) I'm reading
As I've said recently, I'm out and active too much lately to be in the mood for writing, but I have been reading, and here is the latest new book that I have started:
So far, I am very impressed with its ideas and arguments.
Here is more about the book:
The Empathic Civilization - Jeremy Rifkin
So far, I am very impressed with its ideas and arguments.
Here is more about the book:
The Empathic Civilization - Jeremy Rifkin
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