Showing posts with label economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label economy. Show all posts

Thursday, July 1, 2010

The Culture of Celebrity: A Second Look


New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 26 -- July 3, 2010

This week in New World Notes, radio program #122, July 6:

The Culture of Celebrity:
A Second Look

In brief

The corporate media enthusiastically promote "the culture of celebrity." This culture does worse than yield trivial entertainment. It make people more passive and powerless, more inclined to blame only themselves for their misfortunes, less able to organize and fight back against The System. Celebrity Culture is a tool used to pacify the masses. Or so argues journalist-prophet Chris Hedges.

We'll hear more of Hedges' October 14 talk in Winnipeg. This week Hedges focuses on Michael Jackson's career and especially on his funeral-- "a variety show with a coffin." (Other parts of this talk are in New World Notes #115.) I'll add additional specific examples--a few dozen headlines from a popular news-and-entertainment Web site--and some commentary.

Top: American Idol, 2010, Lee DeWyze.
Bottom: Miley Cyrus.
Most photos: Click to enlarge.

Notes, Credits, & Links

This week's music: I read a few dozen celebrity-culture headlines over a "bed" of hit instrumentals by The Ventures. They are, in order: Wipe Out; Pipeline; Walk, Don't Run; and Out of Limits.

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

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

New World Notes is archived at both radio4all.net and The Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio.

Coming Soon -- Tuesday debut date shown:

  • July 13 -- Interview with health-care activist Susan Rosenthal, M.D., on her new book, Sick and Sicker: Essays on Class, Health and Health Care

Top: Michael Jackson. Bottom: Chris Hedges.

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):



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




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Friday, May 21, 2010

Bruce Gagnon on Endless War and the Economy



New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 21 -- May 23, 2010

This Fortnight in New World Notes, radio programs #116-117, May 25 & June 1:

Bruce Gagnon on
Endless War and
the Economy


In brief

Anti-war and anti-nuke activist Bruce Gagnon (pronounced GAG-non) explains how militarism and endless war are detroying the American economy and the lives of Americans.

In Part 1 (NWN #116), he discusses his radicalization during his own military service . . . and the connections among our crumbling infrastructure, increasing unemployment, decreasing educational opportunities for working-class kids, the increasing militarization of our society, the export of weapons (our #1 export), aggressive U.S. foreign policy, corporate globalization, our ruling elites' desire to control the world's oil supply, . . . and the wisdom of Progressives' forming alliances with the "Tea-partiers."

In Part 2, (NWN #117), Gagnon discusses the destabilization of the world by (a) the globalization and expansion of NATO and (b) the US's encircling Russia and China with "missile defense" installations. He discusses the increasing dependence of public universities on funding from the Pentagon (in exchange for secret war research); ... the joint support by Republicans and Democrats alike for "free-market" capitalism, oligarchy, and military empire; ... how spending on peaceful projects creates many more jobs than "defense" spending; ... and why his nickname for Obama is "The Magician."

Top: Gagnon in 2004. Bottom: Aegis-class destroyer USS Oscar
Austin leaves the Bath (Maine) Iron Works. Balloons for the kiddies
of Gagnon's home town. Maine's principal exports appear to be
Aegis destroyers and potatoes. Most graphics: Click to enlarge.


Notes and credits

No song on #116 (apart from a bit of Little Stevie Wonder on the "outro"). #117's song: David Rovics, After the Revolution

Recorded live at Saint James Church, West Hartford, Connecticut, by moi, on April 16, 2010. Bruce's talk was sponsored by the West Hartford Citizens for Peace and Justice (http://www.westhartfordpeace.org/ ).

#117 includes only one question from the very good Q&A. The entire Q&A (34 minutes--uncut & unedited) will be uploaded as a separate file along with #117 (link at the top of this page).

Bruce Gagnon is Coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space.

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

To send feedback, you can post a Comment to this page or else email kdowst at hotmail period com.

Free weekly NWN email newsletter on request.

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: Aegis-class destroyer Decatur touches off an SM-3 "missile defense"
missile. Bottom: Why "we" are in Afghanistan. The red curve shows the
desired oil and gas pipeline from the Caspian Basin to the Sea of Arabia.
A shorter route through Iran seems to have been Not An Option.


Coming Soon -- Tuesday debut dates shown:

  • June 2 -- Civil-liberties activist Paul Siegel on Gay Rights As a First-Amendment Issue.

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

Bruce Gagnon in South Korea, 2009. I'm not sure what "UFG" stands for,
but it almost certainly involves more US military/naval bases in that
small & oppressed country. When will the U.S. government withdraw
its troops from Iraq? Hell, after 57 years, it still hasn't withdrawn them
from Korea!
Postscript, May 24: A friend, knowledgeable about Korea, sent a
newspaper story on UFG. It stands for Ulji Freedom Guardian. It's a
joint training program for South Korean and "allied" (U.S. and/or NATO)
troops. Officially, they're training to defend South Korea from invasion
from the North. Skeptics believe that they're actually training to invade
North Korea. In either case, UFG is further destabilizing a region that had
little stability to begin with.


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


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Friday, May 14, 2010

Chris Hedges on The Empire of Illusion


New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 20 -- May 16, 2010

This Week in New World Notes, radio program #115, May 18:

Chris Hedges
on The Empire
of Illusion

Executive summary

In a brilliant and brilliantly interconnected talk, journalist-prophet Chris Hedges discusses the pacification of the exploited citizenry by the corporate media, the fraud at the heart of the national economy, Wall Street's destruction of the U.S.'s manufacturing sector, "Brand Obama," the perfidy of Obama and of other "courtiers" to the real power, the failure of the Left to challenge Obama's Bush-ist policies, & the funeral of Michael Jackson. Our best hope, Hedges concludes, is a revival in the U.S. of Democratic Socialism.

Top: Chris Hedges. Bottom: Abandoned factory.
All photos: Click to enlarge.

Notes and credits

This week's song: Leonard Cohen, Democracy (is coming ... to the U.S.A.)

This program contains half of Hedges' 50-minute talk in Winnipeg. The full-length original is here: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/36777. (This link is to the Program Information page at the archive. There's a download link near the bottom.) Thanks to producer Ethan Osland & Black Mask Winnipeg (http://blackmask.ca/).

Thanks to (and please help support) the invaluable radio archive, the A-Infos Radio Project / radio4all.net, whence I obtained the original recording.

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

New World Notes installments beginning with #90 are archived also at The Internet Archive, in a variety of file formats. This URL should get you a listing: http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=%22New%20World%20Notes%22%20AND%20collection%3Aopensource_audio&sort=-date .

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.


Coming Soon -- Tuesday debut dates shown:

  • May 18 & 25 -- Peace- & anti-nuke activist Bruce Gagnon on Endless War and the Economy (2 parts). Recorded live in West Hartford (by moi) on April 16.

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):



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