Hear hear. I don't have the image on this computer, but it's a picture of the 99% with labels pointing out all the things they have that are made by the corporations they're protesting.
It's easy, these days, to shout so loud that you don't realize you're not actually saying anything.
isn't that a stupendous image ? I highly suspect it was created by Ad-busters, the initiators of the OWS movement as an educational tool to raise awareness and empower consumers to make the decision to consider buying locally produced goods from small independent merchants rather than supporting the megalithic corporations.
It's designed to stimulate inner reflection while at the cash register and meant to inspire questioning whether ( or not ) the consumer is making a ethical/moral purchasing decision. What do I mean ? Let's take p the purchasing of say, a t-shirt with a corporate logo on it and let's take The Gap as an example.
After viewing that annotated photograph a consumer might just come to the realisation that spending the extra money for a t-shirt that prominently displays a corporate logo might not be a wise idea. The consumer may reflect on the idea that they've been brainwashed by the corporate media and question whether GAP is a message they really want to communicate to the world.
The consumer may make the right decision in this case, put down that sweatshop made piece of corporate iconism, march out of the store empty handed and seek out a small local retailer selling fair trade goods.
I understand there's a fair amount of resistance to become conditioned to the manufactured need to openly display corporate logos and I'm rather dismayed to see that programed behaviour among my self appointed representatives, the occupy protesters.
Imagine, if you will, my dismay at our local occupy protesters failing to get ( or, horrors, actually ignoring ) this message. Last night when visiting the protesters in the middle of the night I happened to notice that one of the tents had the words The North Face proudly displayed across the top of the fly. This logo was so big, I'm sure you could pick it up on google earth.
Rousting the occupant of the tent I demanded to know why that logo was there demeaning the purity of the protest and all I got in response was a series of muttered profanities. I decided to raise my voice a little as the occupant was obviously reluctant to come to grips with the sin he was committing, some say I was shrieking, but, truth be known, sometimes my normally deep and authoritarian voice becomes somewhat shrill when I'm overwhelmed with passion.
After much "shrieking" I managed to not only raise the occupant but the entire camp as well. My new students were somewhat reluctant to receive my anti-corporate message as well as my suggestions that they make their occupy tents out of recycled materials. I decided a demonstration of the power of handmade goods over the mass produced corporate offal was needed.
Taking a cue from post #635 in this very thread, the one with the words,
ya gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet.
Aside: Did you ever notice how tents resemble eggs, how they're egg shaped and how they "hatch" occupants out of them in the morning ?
I decided it was time to break some eggs, to take a little "direct action" against the oppressive corporate presence that was polluting the entire scene. Reaching into my back pocket I produced a cleverly concealed, hand made using centuries of tradition, Japanese katana and proceeded to deface that corporate logo in what some say, a very "maniacal" manner. Passionate is the descriptor that I prefer.
So what do my students do ? They get on their corporate produced smartphones and call the very people they themselves are claiming to resist, the police. The fascist enforcers of the capitalist system.
Which is why I'm posting this from a mental health facility, being held here against my will but at least I'll be able to add survivor of the mental health industry to my resume.
Viva la Revolution !!!
