Assignment #8- Culture Jam

Observations:

1. Immediately, on pages 73-75, I was struck by the stories of young adults so affected by how sexuality is perceived in the media. In order to sell products, the beauty industry has lead us to believe that if we have the correctly proportioned body (skinny) and the right clothes (expensive, useless ones), than we will be worthy of love. Each of our insecurities are targeted, so that our bodies aren’t one entity which allows us to live our lives and have fun, it is a set of features that are supposed to look a certain way. Of nearly all of the topics we’ve discussed in class, this is the one that frustrates me the most. I have a couple of friends who deal with eating disorders, and body image issues. These days, it seems like everyone is on a diet. I even feel that the “sexy woman” image is not even considered attractive by a lot of men, and yet women completely buy into it. We are being conditioned to believe certain features are sexy. What would we find attractive if there wasn’t media to influence us???

2. “Gone the connection between the actual growing of food and its consumption (pg. 80).” Immediately I thought of the film Food, Inc.- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqQVll-MP3I

If anyone in class has not seen it, I would highly recommend watching it. In essence, agriculture has become industrial and mechanized to the point that cement factories, machines, and chemicals are more involved with producing food than are land and people. The majority of people have been so distracted by modern entertainment or whatever, that they’ve not stopped to think mindfully about where their food comes from. More than that, huge corporations, like Monsanto, keep details of food production and safety away from the public eye. I notice this conspiracy on a daily basis. I have found that most people are convinced that cows “need to be milked”. They don’t even consider the fact that, just like humans, cows are mammals, which means they lactate if and only if they have offspring to feed. The dairy industry has become mechanized to the point that hundreds of cows are kept in cement barns 24/7, feed corn (which they can’t digest) instead of hay, are artificially inseminated and kept pregnant all the time, and the calves are taken away at birth to be slaughtered for veal. There is absolutely nothing natural about the process, and the only reason they can be milked is because the natural recipient of that milk, the calf, is taken away.

3. I liked the section Two Schools of Thought which started on page 86. I was excited to see a good discussion of Ecological Economics because some of the most infamous experts in the field do their work right here at the UVM Gund Institute. It is so clear to me why neoclassical economics (capitalism) is inherently unsustainable. In order for capitalism to work, there must be constant economic growth. Growth requires input of natural resources, which come from a finite planet of scarce resources. The environmental and social impacts aren’t taken into account under capitalism. In a society where corporations are completely interlaced with the government and the media, it is not at all surprising that the effects of capitalism (externalities) are hidden, or made to seem insignificant. Disasters are even considered positive, or beneficial, because they lead to an increase in GDP. An obvious example of externalized costs, yet very controversial, is the current war between the US and several countries in the Middle East (it seems like new countries are attacked every time I pick up a news paper). I think we can agree that at least a significant piece of motivation for the US government is access to oil sources. The US is completely dependent on foreign oil, and will do basically anything to make sure that we can get it. Billions of dollars are spent, thousands of young men and women from this country are taken away from home and productive lives, and thousands of civilians in other countries are killed in vain. Needless to say, the cost of a barrel of oil is much more than what lies next to the dollar sign. At what point will human life hold enough significance to change the materialistic, selfish consumption paradigm of the western world?

4. My favorite section was The Revolutionary Impulse. The author compares the culture jamming movement to that of civil rights, hippies, anarchists, and other countercultures. “What we all have in common—besides a belligerent attitude toward authority—is a willingness to take big risks, and a commitment to pursue small, spontaneous moments of truth (page 99).” I can really relate to, and draw inspiration from, the idea of ‘spontaneous moments of truth’. The key to changing people’s perspective isn’t necessarily to be a radical, but rather to be someone everyone can relate to, but invoke critical thought at key times.

5. I loved the section on new activism. The examples of simple little actions were really inspiring. I have done a lot of guerilla activism, and it is really liberating. I was really excited to see Edward Abbey quoted: “Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.” I have had that quote handwritten and taped to my bedroom wall since I was fifteen. It is something that I try to live by each day.

My question is: How can the public go about placing restrictions of corporations, when they have so much money invested in the government? Is democracy effectively dead?