Return of the Radicals - Tribune-Review 10/23/08

Conversations from the other side, particularly colored remarks are just that, colored red.  

WASHINGTON

"Some of the very people now charged with advising President-elect Barack Obama on economic matters could be the root cause of the current mess.

Perhaps this is what prompted the leftists at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) to convene a forum here last weekend. Their aim was to confront the economic leaders of the G-20 countries with a "people-centered economy."  Among those joining with IPS to produce a new Bretton Woods were the Global Justice Institute, Jobs with Justice, Jubilee USA, US Action, the Washington Peace Center and the long-dormant Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).

While IPS and SDS are well known among the professional rabble-rousers, others are as little known as their memberships (but enough to justify police overtime).  Activities began with an SDS "Rally for Accessible Education" with about 60 students from D.C.-area colleges doing things they would never be seen doing in school today -- playing hopscotch and jumping rope -- while handing out leaflets showing how student loans are affected by the credit crunch.

Samantha Miller, billed as an organizer for SDS in Los Angeles, proudly told the media, "We want to show that there are alternatives to capitalism and explain how this crisis happened."
Who knows what Miller understands about economics -- or even SDS -- because she is most often to be found with the ultrafeminist peace group Code Pink or the immigrant-friendly Asylum Network. And, based on our not inconsiderable knowledge of SDS, Miller is a most improbable candidate for the job.  It wasn't Miller's fault but the march, designed to show contempt for orthodox economics and the current American Way, became part of a much larger march attended by thousands of gay men and women protesting the outlawing of same-sex marriage in a number of states.  Observers believe that both teams supported the other's viewpoint, so no harm was done, even though the SDS label was sadly misused.

While Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn captured headlines during the election season, no one has thought to explain the Weatherman faction of SDS in any detail.  The Weathermen and the SDS it emerged from were a creation of the League for Industrial Democracy, funded by a slew of do-good groups, including the Ford Foundation and a sprinkling of leaders at the national and regional levels acting as controlled intelligence assets.

The administration, wrong as usual, thought that students could be no danger to the power structure, as they had proven to be to Charles de Gaulle in France. So, the college kiddies talked and talked with small groups -- probably not more than 50 in a number of large schools -- set off bombs, robbed banks, formed alliances with real street fighters like the Black Panthers -- and fought with the police. Some believed that the Weathermen function was to discredit the anti-war movement. It didn't. The SDS was essentially defunded and its national organization dismantled."

The rest of the article rambles on about the Weathermen terrorists and their terror teams returning to academia or seeking asylum in Cuba or Algeria.  Then, points to the absurd extravagance of the White House menu considering these hard economic times, in a pathetic attempt to rally the 'taxpayers' who provided this 'official working meal.'

Really, it is quite riveting.  We should all take to the streets.  

Dateline D.C. is written by a Washington-based British journalist and political observer.

threadless

I wanted to cite the images in the right border. political tees from threadless.

exhibit A (left): a timeless brotherhood. fine gentleman relishing in the joys of the bicycle.
energy efficiency and alternative transportation. a fine foreign policy.

Birth. Craving. Impetus.

Authorial Context
I preface the exploration that is to follow from this birth.  media. It is about words, images, sounds.  That which reaches us and more importantly that which does not. The abundance. The Proliferation. The Impact.  

Adhering to the Salgado doctrine, I “believe that there is no person in the world that must be protected from pictures. Everything that happens in the world must be shown and people around the world must have an idea of what's happening to the other people around the world.” I have a profound faith in an image’s ability to forge intimate human connections and create a newfound understanding for other individuals’ experiences. Through this understanding, we generate a more profound relationship with collectivism and it becomes increasing difficult to dehumanize any person. Dehumanization makes the social-ills and the atrocities of this world easier to come by, whereas universal understanding fosters a greater regard for human rights. Such a process that cultivates tolerance and respect cannot thrive in an environment where a minority of the populace has complete jurisdiction over the media. True freedom of the press needs to be upheld in democracies, as desirable (theoretically) by their very nature. “In democracies, freedom of the press is essential to inform the public about the truth. The truth must be known.” (His Holiness the Dalai Lama)

I seek that will alter or shift my current perspective; there is no one ideal reference frame. As a young person grappling with many an idea, I do not prescribe to one particular dogma.  I expect to have access to anything I wish to search for, but this process is inherently limited. I have to hunt for images. I do not receive images. All people should receive images. I think it is silly that we so closely hold onto the idea that we somehow reserve the right to not ever be offended.  

I am incredibly tired of feeling like everything surrounding me is static.  I want the ground to shift beneath me. How. I shall take a note from our predecessors.  Notably Gramsci and Chomsky. 

Chomsky’s Model
Chomsky identifies three major players in media control. Within the Chomsky framework, the ‘dissidents’, ‘specialized class’ and ‘bewildered herd’, have very discrete positions. In his model, the three groups are perceived to be mutually exclusive, reside in concrete spheres, carry a specific weight, and compose a specific portion of society. Chomsky poses that the ‘specialized class’ ‘manufacture consent’ by controlling the media and persuading subordinate groups to accept, adopt and internalize their values and norms. The ‘bewildered herd’ accepts the imposed doctrine, while the ‘dissidents’ are not so easily convinced. The essence of this set up is not something new. One just has to look back to the epoch of the French Revolution to draw striking parallels.  I bring this comparison into contention to call to attention that the system is not locked in place. Recalling history, we know that the power-relations, size, and significance of the proletariat, bourgeoisie, and the clerics changed drastically throughout time. We need a blueprint for change and to not just a declaration of the stagnant status quo. By integrating Chomsky’s media model with that of  Antonio Gramsci's concerning hegemonic structures, one can identify a means to achieve a more egalitarian home for media.

Cultural Hegemony
Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks (1948), lay out much of the framework needed to understand the entrenched power relations that exist within a society. Rooted in Marx’s notion of false consciousness, Gramsci defined hegemony as the process of political domination through ideological dominance. The willing acceptance of the subordinate group, the ‘bewildered herd’, allows the ruling class, the ‘specialized class’, to maintain its hegemony by creating cultural and political consensus through mass media, educational systems, popular culture, religious groups, and political parties. Through this process, the ‘specialized class’ is able to maintain the status quo, societal privilege, and effectively control the ‘bewildered herd’.

However, hegemony is readjusted and re-negotiated constantly. While the hegemonic maintains absolute power, consensual control ensures that the ‘bewildered herd’ voluntarily assimilates the worldview of the ‘specialized class’. The hegemonic power notably uses the mass media as its primary instrument to wield consensual control. The ruling class tries to produce and distribute only those images and messages that align with its prescribed dogma. Images and messages that challenge its stance are edited, censored, muffled, or discredited. It is suffice to say that much of this process is dictated by legislation, socio-political influence, and financial clout. If the ‘specialized class’s’ leadership is low or fractured, coercive control is used through direct force or its threat to keep the subjugated class ‘bewildered’. This system seems to be cyclic, but there are opportunities for the ‘herd’ to subvert the ‘specialized class’.

A Not-So-Bewildered Herd and Numbering Dissidents
An organic crisis may develop in which the ‘specialized class’ begins to disintegrate, thus creating the opportunity for the ‘herd’ to transcend its limitations and build up a broad movement capable of challenging the existing order. During this time of general disillusionment action must be taken, otherwise the balance of power will shift back to the status quo, reestablishing hegemony.

One can challenge the dominant hegemony though political activity. Gramsci provides two different forms.  A war of maneuver is recommended for societies with a centralized and dominant state power that have failed in developing a strong hegemony within the civil society. The latter, the war of position, is more characteristic of some of the undercurrents that are currently driving the dissident force in the United States. A war of position is characteristically a long cultural and ideological struggle across many institutions of civil society. This second means is recommended for liberal-democratic societies of Western capitalism.

Under this model, the players to emerge as the ‘dissident’ leaders, the revolutionary intellectuals, should originate from within the working class rather than being imposed from outside or above it. The ‘dissidents’ serve the role of thinkers, writers, artists and, most importantly, organizers. While the mass media is predominantly used as a tool of the ‘specialized class,’ the counter-hegemonic can also use the media as an instrument of insurrection.

What will be our generations legacy? Apathy perhaps? 

Collecting Dissidents
 Anne Wilkes Tucker, the photography curator of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, understands the importance of a liberalized media market. I will depart from this paper with a choice memento from Anne, "If we have no reflections on the heart of the social debate for any particular decade, I find that an arid interpretation of our culture." 

LET US STRIVE TO BE SATURATED.     I WANT TO BE WET.                            TOGETHER.