Media Mindfulness

Yet another attempt to argue that the problem with the Iraq war is the communication and information strategy. It doesn’t matter how good a propagandist you are, ultimately it’s your intentions that count. As the saying goes, denial ain’t a river in Egypt. Yes, US war information officers are idiots, but hasn’t it occurred to [...]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE

This video by Kansas State University’s Mike Wesch explains so much better than text as to why new media are in many ways vastly superior modes of production and communication, which begs the question: how is an education system based on 19th Century modes of thinking going to deal with this emerging reality? More [...]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5832390545689805144

Do media start wars? Many critics believe that if the MSM (AKA US corporate mainstream media) had been critical of Bush and Co.’s arguments for war leading up to the invasion of Iraq, the campaign would never have been supported by the public. I’m a little dubious of this argument, only because people’s opinions are [...]

America’s Army is Rated ‘T’ for Teen
As you probably know, the US military is having trouble recruiting. Various strategies include massive ad campaigns, video games, and aggressive campus presences. While working at a Native American boarding school, I recall classes getting cancelled so students could watch the Air Force rock band perform in the gym. [...]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8935382857862902744

So many movies, so little time. Staying informed is serious work. Still, looks like there’s another excellent documentary on the war, Iraq in Fragments. Judging from the trailer it appears beautifully shot, which makes me a little nervous. I’m coming to believe that images that spectacularize war tend to make it more palpable, as if [...]

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If you read 1984, you may recall that one of the features of the Big Brother-led government is that they would change alliances or history on a dime, denying completely contradictory information to the contrary. It would simple be erased and sent to the “memory hole.” One of the most important propaganda techniques is the [...]

These days Martin Luther King Jr. has been so drained of meaning that he is cynically appropriated by parties as diverse as the Republicans and Chevy (some of you may have seen the recent John Mellencamp Chevy ad (click here to view) that argues through its strategic deployment of symbols that Chevy and American dissent [...]

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This is an good thought form:
The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community:
Will they speak in anger and frustration of the time of the Great Unraveling, when profligate consumption exceeded Earth’s capacity to sustain and led to an accelerating wave of collapsing environmental systems, violent competition for what remained of the planet’s resources, and a [...]

I guess the Marine training that equates a hard-on with a deadly weapon translates well to the optical unconsciousness. At FreeVideoBlog soldiers are posting their combat footage (and in other cases doing things as mundane as doing BMX bike tricks in the middle of a vacant desert). Some of the clips are straightforward sad, with [...]

Yes, well it was bound to happen. The liberals have declared war on Easter! Good thing we don’t have more important things to think about, like say, World War IV?

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So I was being snarky when I posted on a wingnut’s case to nuke the moon. As I explained in that post, crossing the “insane” threshold is a political and military strategy to make people believe you will do anything to rule the world. After all, when logic fails, why not scare the shit out [...]

Ad Council’s new support the troops ads are a thinly veiled pro-war campaign. Its tag line, “Don’t let their enemy’s presence be felt more than yours,” with a classic war movie silhouette at sunset, reaffirms all the noble stereotypes of war. When ever the war gets unpopular we always get hit over the head with [...]

NBC reports the latest blame game: the war in Iraq is the media’s fault. Kinda funny since the mainstream media, thanks to the Pentagon, is generally only allowed the US military’s POV (point of view). I suppose you could blame the government’s PR handlers for losing the war. After all, bombs don’t kill people, cameras [...]

Two words: Humpty-Dumpty.

This morning you woke up buried in $30,000 more debt, thanks to the new Congressional budget, and what you will pay in taxes to cover it.

This image, created by the artist mibi, does a nice job of mapping out what taxes actually pay for. Guess what the big circles represent… The image speaks volumes [...]

War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning - Written by a former war correspondent, this beautiful little book explains succinctly why war is such a tragic waste of human potential, a necessary handbook on why war is stupid.

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