Saturday, September 30, 2017

Celebrities

New World Notes #500, 28:49 (October 3)
Broadcast quality MP3 (28 MB)
Decent quality MP3 (13 MB)


An interesting look at our fascination with celebrities ... and corporate marketers' exploitation of this to sell products.

In fact our attraction to celebrities appears rooted in our evolution: the closer our ancestors got to the alpha male, the more likely they were to survive.

The show includes parts of the documentary film Starsuckers and Chris Hedges' critique of Michael Jackson's funeral.

Chris Hedges' speech was recorded on October 14, 2009, by Ethan Osland, of Black Mask Winnipeg (www.blackmask.ca). Thanks to Ethan and Black Mask for permission to rebroadcast.

Previously broadcast, as NWN #183, in September 2011.




Sunday, September 24, 2017

Potpourri 5

New World Notes #499, 28:29 (September 26)
Broadcast quality MP3 (39 MB)
Decent quality MP3 (13 MB)

Salvador Dali celebrates National Lobster Day

A hodgepodge of interesting stuff.

The show includes a Press Review of oddball stories you may have missed--National Lobster Day, the US claims to have "conquered" Jupiter, and more. David Rovics sings about a huge London riot the US press chose to ignore. Then Noam Chomsky explains some of the ways the US's ruling elite keeps "the 99%" powerless, obedient, and economically insecure.

Plus remarks, here and there, by KD.

Homer Simpson channels Gerard de Nerval

Chomsky audio courtesy of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour for May 20, 2017. Chomsky's recent publications include a film and book, Requiem for the American Dream (2017).

National Lobster Day is September 25, 2017--if Stop and Shop Supermarkets' weekly circular is to be believed.


Monday, September 11, 2017

Chris Hedges: The Corporate War On the People


This fortnight in New World Notes, radio programs #497-498, September 12 & 18:

Chris Hedges:
The Corporate War on the People



December 16, 2010: Hedges at an antiwar protest outside the White House. Hedges, Daniel Ellsberg, and others later chained themselves to the surrounding fence. 131 were arrested.
 

Journalist, columnist, and former war correspondent Chris Hedges discusses the corporate attack on the American people and on the "liberal" institutions that once helped empower the people.

Part 1: How we got here. In the first of two installments, Hedges discusses how things got to their unhappy current state. He explores the mass-propaganda machine created during World War I, the rise of the public relations industry to serve corporate power, the campaign against labor unions and other liberal institutions, militarism, the replacement of traditional American values (such as thrift) with corporate values, and the sell-out of the Democratic Party.

Part 2: How to fight back. In the second installment, Hedges discusses totalitarianism, American-style; the Christian Right; why the Tea Party (rightly) hates the Liberal Establishment; the perfidy of the Democratic Party; U.S. parallels with the former Yugoslavia; the necessity of resistance; and the importance that the resistance be nonviolent.


Top: Master propagandist of the Wilson administration, George Creel manufactured American public support for World War I. After the war, Creel's techniques would serve the interests of the large corporations.Bottom: Creel-sponsored propaganda film. Most graphics: Click to enlarge.

Notes, credits, & links


NWN #497 and 498 rebroadcast an interview conducted by Mike McCormick, of the radio program "Mind Over Matters," on December 2, 2010 (slightly condensed by me). http://www.talkingsticktv.org/ . Thanks to Mike for a fine interview and permission to rebroadcast it.

New World Notes originally broadcast these two installments, as NWN #150-151, in January 2011. Files downloaded from the links, above, are identified as #150 and #151.

http://www.truthdig.com/chris_hedges

Chris Hedges' recent book is Death of the Liberal Class (2010).

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "table") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Top: abandoned U.S. factory 


A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net

Sunday, September 3, 2017

Dubious Achievements

New World Notes #496, 28:28 (September 5)
Broadcast quality MP3 (39 MB)
Decent quality MP3 (13 MB)


We remember magazines that have bit the dust--and defunct magazine features, too--notably Esquire magazine's wonderful Dubious Achievement Awards (died February 2008).  This funny annual satire on the year's vice and folly is much missed--and much needed today.

Surely a Dubious Achievement Award would have gone to the Keystone Pipeline. And to Saudi Arabia, for joining the Paris march celebrating freedom of the press.  And to the U.S. Senate, which just decreed that humans are not causing global warming.  And to ...

We still have Conn Hallinan's "Are You Serious?" Awards. We'll read some of the latest. Plus another take on the Keystone Pipeline by singer David Rovics.

 Conn Hallinan

This program was originally broadcast, as NWN #361, in January 2015. MP3 files downloaded from the links, above, are identified as #361.