In a message dated 2/28/02 3:16:25 PM, cgrimes at rawbw.com writes:
<< Well, part of the problem is a failure to recognize just how comprehensive the manufacturing of consent is, and how large a role the media play in creating and sustaining the state. In brief those together make the connection between the interests of US capital and empire and the US public intimate. So it is not just a matter of convincing some reluctant mass, but of systematically dis-entangling and articulating their interests from those of the ruling elites.
Chuck Grimes
>> Sure, but I think that people who envision some kind of "rebirthing" as part of the process are only half right. And here is where I descend into anecdote -- friend of mine years back went to see "Waiting to Exhale" and one of the trailers was for "Independence Day" so this audience largely of Black women saw the scene where the White House blew up and applauded. I am not saying this to provide a rationale for folks who expound upon the revolutionarity of Madonna, or Star Trek conventions or whatever, I think much of that is driven by the "publish or perish" imperative. But I think it is quite healthy for folks who identify as activists, revolutionaries, explicit advocates for radical social change, whatever to operate under the assumption that that we are the last to know. Because we wait to be told, in clever little book, on our clever little radio station, or any number of clever little media outlets. While for the folks who are outside our little Kevin Baconsphere these things are experiential and we are possibly the last to know on that level. It is important to be aware of the seductiveness of having a secret or knowing a relative secret. I submit myself as an example. Folks I encounter at the workplace and get to know might very well see me as a bookish oddball who looks at that snobby little web site that pokes fun at "hockey hair" during his lunch break rather than a proponent of human liberation. So then what is their concept of human liberation? Certainly they have one, it should inform mine, yours, or that of anybody seeking such a thing. The reverse won't work, we can't expect everyone to come around to being bookish oddballs. We have to learn from them. And if they did ever come around to being bookish oddballs how many of us would take to being even more odd and more bookish? (as i sheepishly check spelling and grammar) MCapri