REDWAVE
Urban Jungle Dweller
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2001
- Posts
- 6,013
Yesterday, I participated in an anti-war demonstration on the Las Vegas Strip. There were a number of different signs and chants, but the one that struck me the most was a small hand-made paper sign, held by a young man, which said "The life you lead is a lie." To me, that was the most profound statement made at the demonstration. The life led by most middle-class and all upper-class Americans (and Europeans, Japanese, Australians, Canadians, and New Zealanders) is indeed a lie, on a multitude of different levels.
On the most basic level of economics, our lives are a lie in that we fail to acknowledge and recognize the connection between our affluence and the poverty and squalor in which billions around the globe live. Many of the cheap goods which fuel the consumerist lifestyles of affluent people are produced in sweatshops under horrendous conditions. If the workers who produced them were paid a living wage, and worked under safe, healthful conditions, middle class (and up) consumers would not be able to buy so many trinkets, enjoy so many toys.
On a political and ideological level, most people think they are free, and that they live under government "for the people, of the people, and by the people." They totally fail to realize how virtually everything in our lives is arranged for the benefit and profit of the giant corporations, which run our lives.
On a cultural and esthetic level, the "entertainment" most people swill is not only cheap and tawdry, and these days increasingly vicious and hateful-- witness the show "Weakest Link," and the "Survivor" shows, all of which celebrate the culture of cruelty. More fundamentally, TV and movies promote a totally false and artificial, synthetic and homogenized view of the world, in which the warts and pimples have been airbrushed out. I don't watch much TV, but I do watch some (especially the news channels), because I want to see what propaganda the corporate media is putting out, and gain some insight into the mindsets of the backward and unenlightened. What I do see is generally so revolting and nauseating, so utterly inauthentic and distorted in a thousand ways, some subtle, some glaring, that I usually cannot stand to watch for long.
Even where it comes to sex, most people live a lie. They pretend to be prim and proper, while inside they are a cauldron of seething desires.
The life you lead is a lie.
On the most basic level of economics, our lives are a lie in that we fail to acknowledge and recognize the connection between our affluence and the poverty and squalor in which billions around the globe live. Many of the cheap goods which fuel the consumerist lifestyles of affluent people are produced in sweatshops under horrendous conditions. If the workers who produced them were paid a living wage, and worked under safe, healthful conditions, middle class (and up) consumers would not be able to buy so many trinkets, enjoy so many toys.
On a political and ideological level, most people think they are free, and that they live under government "for the people, of the people, and by the people." They totally fail to realize how virtually everything in our lives is arranged for the benefit and profit of the giant corporations, which run our lives.
On a cultural and esthetic level, the "entertainment" most people swill is not only cheap and tawdry, and these days increasingly vicious and hateful-- witness the show "Weakest Link," and the "Survivor" shows, all of which celebrate the culture of cruelty. More fundamentally, TV and movies promote a totally false and artificial, synthetic and homogenized view of the world, in which the warts and pimples have been airbrushed out. I don't watch much TV, but I do watch some (especially the news channels), because I want to see what propaganda the corporate media is putting out, and gain some insight into the mindsets of the backward and unenlightened. What I do see is generally so revolting and nauseating, so utterly inauthentic and distorted in a thousand ways, some subtle, some glaring, that I usually cannot stand to watch for long.
Even where it comes to sex, most people live a lie. They pretend to be prim and proper, while inside they are a cauldron of seething desires.
The life you lead is a lie.
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