I agree with you on the athletes and our obsession (in general) with sports. Why do we feel the need to clump together academics and athletics in our universities? I personally consider the Arts as important as the Sciences. (Someone has to make the design of great inventions work well with the people and environment benefitting from such inventions.) Why do “jocks” get out of History 101 for away-games, but art students can’t get out of a single class to prepare for their Senior Art Show? And eventhough I agree that we as a society should re-evaluate our priorities, I would NOT go so far as to say communism is the way to correct the issues we currently face. Otherwise, good jorb homesar.

- Posted on Friday, July 14, 2006 at 17:18 [ Permalink to this comment ]

Amplifying what is already somewhat popular, controlling media consumption habbits, and/or consistently beating a branded message into people’s heads about what people should consume or how important other people are does three highly important things

- creates large target markets
- creates arbitrary standards that you or I can’t meet such that we are inadequate and are receptive to product / service pitches that will make us complete in a consumeristic society
- keeps people focused on arbitrary things outside of the sphere of power & social policy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSxYEzSpFdc

The market for something to believe in is infinite.
http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/000823.html

- Posted on Sunday, July 16, 2006 at 20:49 [ Permalink to this comment ]

Jimbo… I definitely was not blanketly advocating communism, but I do think we can learn a lot from the ideals of both communism and socialism.  So many Americans blindly assume that either our current form of capitalism or “true” capitalism (if they’re a bit more thoughtful) is irreversible, ultimately inescapable, and absolutely desireable.  When Bush, for instance, insists that we impose democracy on the world, what he really means is capitalism.  “Free markets.” The two concepts are NOT interchangeable.

Aaron… I’m not sure whether to attribute much more than creative cartoon’ing to the gapingvoid guy quite frankly; while both he and Noam (in the video you’ve linked and elsewhere) make use of abstract concepts and even “buzzwords,” I am not convinced that Hugh is adept at making coherent and focused arguments and outlying specific action plans.  At least Noam, IMHO, has a history of adhering to a larger, global vision

- Posted on Sunday, July 16, 2006 at 21:06 [ Permalink to this comment ]

IMHO, Hugh really sells into the whole concept of selling stuff.

Maybe he only knows cartoons on business cards, but he was able to use it to do whatever he wanted (while being overpaid at it, too).

Obviously Hugh and Noam are quite different in their approaches, but I think it is rare that an individual gets at either of their level of success while being as transparent, vocal, and unfiltered with expressing their opinions as they are.

I stopped associating the US with free markets long ago. Daily I am reminded of how free market oriented our government is when I read about playing down net neutrality and I think about paying $40 a month for DSL that worked ~50% of the time this last month (in spite of nearly daily calls to Verizon), especially when Bruce Sterling said at his 2006 SXSW speech that he pays $20 a month for reliable internet access in a third world country where the company servicing his account is ran by convicted war criminals.

I could delve a bit deeper into that free market topic, but my knowledge is limited and I should keep my deep rants on my blog. Would hate for you to associate my name with “troll” on my first day of commenting on your blog.*

*unless, of course, Google has a troll boost in the relevancy algorithms.

- Posted on Sunday, July 16, 2006 at 21:23 [ Permalink to this comment ]

IMHO, Hugh really sells into the whole concept of selling stuff.

Ah, indeed!  And no doubt a savvy businessperson on many different levels. 

And re: the “free markets” in our country… yeah, ‘tis a bit of a sham, eh?  And a shame.  I had a Dutch friend visiting me recently, and he told me stories about the high quality and low price of broadband and media offerings in his town and I practically wanted to cry.

Oh, and don’t worry about posting on my blog; there’s a very strong and deep firewall between my blog’s server and the Googleplex

- Posted on Sunday, July 16, 2006 at 21:39 [ Permalink to this comment ]