Journal of the mental environment
“Be regular and orderly in your life so that you may be violent and original in your work.”
Seize the Opportunity for Change
In the wake of Obama’s victory, we must rise together and manifest a cultural shift.
- Wed, 05 Nov 2008 2:33 pm — Posted by Sarah Nardi
- | 38 comments
Despite today’s euphoria, when Barack Obama takes office in January 2009, he will inherit a decidedly grim reality. He will preside over a culture of overweight, overwrought and overextended Americans who may not have the capacity to sustain the sense of hope on which we are now so happily drunk.
He will have to stride unflinchingly into the economic aftermath brought about by an overgrown model and preach measure and moderation to a country that has long worshipped at the altar of consumption. He will be singularly charged with purifying our toxic collective consciousness, with eradicating the seeds of cynicism, apathy and malaise. Once inaugurated, Obama is Atlas – the weight of the world and its future resting on the shoulders of one man. Now is the time for us to truly rise. To come together as a single entity of disparate parts working to recreate American culture and resurrect the American dream. Our hopes, our dreams and our strength cannot concentrate in the body of one man. It is our job, as cultural creatives, jammers and meme warriors, to truly seize this opportunity for change. This is our window. The world is listening.
We are hopeful, we are strong, we are alive. The future is up for grabs – it’s time to make our move. What will we do to carry this momentum forward?
Comments
Obama spent the better part of last autumn proving that he wasn’t the wild-eyed socialist that the Republicans tried to paint him as, and you guys expect him to be receptive to the agenda of Adbusters?
That said, America absolutely dodged a bullet by keeping John “Tax the poor to feed the rich” McCain and Palin out of office. Especially Palin: If she had become vice president, that would have confirmed the depressing idea that the politics of empty-vessel symbolism and mythical “Real American” bullshit works. This election was, if nothing else, a repudiation of empty Republican hucksterism.
And while Obama may not actively help Adbusters, I believe he won’t do anything to hinder us, either. The public at large is pissed off at the old guard, hungry for change, and willing to play a part in it. This is an opportunity like never before, and anyone who takes reducing corporate influence seriously must seize it. I have an ominous feeling that once the economy inevitably does return to glory, we’ll slide right back into Bush-era excess. That is unacceptable.
The team at www.jobswork.co.uk will just wait and see if Obama will make a great change to America and the rest of the world.
We at the Influx Project believe that change is possible and are optimistic about what an Obama presidency means for the whole world not just America. The Influx project aims to make the UN more effective through public participation: http://www.influxproject.org/index.php/us/intro-slide-show we Know the UN isnt perfect but believe that when individuals unite and work together change can be achieved. The American election is proof of this possibility. Congratulations to Obama supporters and America and please do take the time to look over our sight to extend this change for a better world even further!
http://www.influxproject.org
Thankyou!
By this time next year people will be asking for a new president after they find out Oboma is just another puppet .
People… We our have chance to change things. Let’s not fuck it up.
Damn. There are motivators that waste time with blemished rhetoric, then there is the simplistic realist, with a message that only needs a few words to get across. Dig it!
The article asks what are you going to do to bring this vague concept of change to reality and everyone that posts is either cynical or simply says “yeah! Let’s change! Awesome!” and then moves on with their lives.
Here is how we change:
1. Stop going to major American news websites, stop watching them on television
2. Don’t buy anything from any company if you don’t agree with their ethics and practices.
3. Write letters to your elected officials that states clearly what your concerns about the countries future are
4. Take your money out of the bank
If you think that Mr. Obama is going to be killed then go out in the street the day he dies and riot.
Coming to this website and posting a comment does nothing for any cause you belong to. You’re still being apathetic.
Leaving the fate of the world in the hands of any elected official is retarded and if you do such a thing then how can you be upset when they don’t come through. Sitting on your couch and whining to your buddies over a bong solves nothing.
Obama’s landslide victory is a solid repudiation of eight years of neoconservative rule. It comes precisely at the moment when it should and when it must: within this century humanity faces die-off if it does not get its collective act together. Despite Obama’s victory, I harbor strong doubts that this will occur.
His ascension to the presidency only allows me to offer a meager handful of chances to our species, to our world. But I will take that handful over the alternative any day.
America is a consumptive, piggish, apathetic, and profoundly slothful nation. Our grandparents, who fought their way out of the Great Depression, would not recognize it today, were they still alive (some still are). We expect everything to be handed to us; we are slobbering subscribers to planned obsolescence, to obesity, to status-seeking, to money. We claim we want change: we voted Obama into office. But what I fear is that we will expect him and his administration to do all the work (impossible on its face) whilst we kick back in our Barka loungers and add another twenty pounds of flab to our asses. Given that recipe, he will fail utterly.
If you want real, authentic change, as I’ve yelled many times on this very site, you must first change yourself. You must learn to think, then you must learn to think for yourself. Three things: authentic change, learning to think, learning to think for yourself. Very, very few, I fear, will bother. It’s too much work. It takes courage and the willingness to move beyond the known. It takes discomfort. It takes the rejection of sloth.
Game over.
So many on this site claim they want change. They mouth big words and post comments and whatnot; but its all bullcrap. They continue with their corporate jobs; they continue being cogs to the machine they claim to hate; they continue supporting suburbia and its culture of death; they IM their friends from the safety of their cute little surburban enclaves, sucking madly on the collective herd teat. They’re posers. Are you one?
Until you wake to the fact that you are—I mean really wake to it, which forces change upon you—then all your hope and optimism is mastubatory and laughable.
Wake up.
I think Obama is a good, well intention person. But the system cannot be changed from the inside. The system was misdesigned from the beginning. It can only be changed from the outside in and the bottom up.
As Gandhi said, “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.” Finally the US has the president that represents that. I keep my fingers crossed for him.
It is time to dust ourselves off and work together towards change!!!
to the person with the ralph nader link your brains a myth
I think Obama represent a new change of direction in the Usa
Right on! Time for hope. Time for optimism. Time for a new concsiousness.
making magic + other comments of a new start are inspiring if Obama acts as a catalyst towards what i would define love, it´s absolutely great, undoubtedly and absolutely great but like said before here, he won´t do it for you. there can be a new start to all things anytime, so in that way there is nothing special in this time.
to believe that “we” exist is a matter of taking everybody with you. otherwise there will be “them” and we all end up in where we started.
Absolutely right! We should not allow ourselves to be hypnotized by this “change” narrative just because THIS one feels good to US. These media/cultural narratives are always thought-stifling semi-truths.
stifling.
But to me, here are our choices:
1. Decide that this “change” movement siphons off pressure toward a more profound revolution, and so FIGHT IT. We tear Obama down with irony and cynicism. This is the battleground we’re used to,
right?
2. OR as AB suggests, we catch this spirit and run with it. We let ourselves be inspired by this moment when people have had enough and we build on it. But never as zombies.
That’s “magic:” you intuit all the forces coming together and find just the right time and place to push, and with just one finger….
CRASHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And we can find completely NEW ways to push.
How to push?
>>>>>>>>>-ART POST BUSH———————>
During the Vietnam era, Kurt Vonnegut wrote that the combined protest-power of the world’s artists, united to end the war, amounted to no more than the impact of a banana-cream pie in the face.
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A marginalization of the role of Artist has defined art since.
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Futility.
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“Post-modern” may be “what’s the point of Art?”
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Drinking pepsi-the-choice-of-a-new-generation we watched the soul searching of hippy-era-art morph to whatever representation of Individual vs. The Banal Machine.
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Even *happy* wore a cynic’s grin.
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I wore a cynic’s grin.
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The West’s sole obsession has been managing systems with increasing efficiency and speed while acknowledging the inevitable destination as disaster.
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Goal 1: Burning economies hotter.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
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That human flesh has been fuel is irrelevant.
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“I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that.”
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The role of collective intuition, or “Art” may be to provide course correction. A marginalization of the role of Artist has defined art.
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If you Google Images for “Obama Art” you’ll see this revolution is not limited to politics.
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If you Google Images for “Bush Art,” you’ll see a real asshole.
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+ reflections of utterly ruthless but efficiently and neatly maintained systems, anatomical dissection, the
relatively soft meat component is extruded under pressure as the bone and
bone matter is easily separated.
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An examination of the differences of “Bush Art” and “Obama Art” is profound and inspiring.
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When I examine my own recent work, it more closely resembles “Bush art.” But I finally feel that a course correction is possible….
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The reach of this moment and the role of artists/culture-jammers/meme-warriors cannot be ignored.
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The question of “Post-modern” and “post-post-modern” may be: “what’s the point of Art?”
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Is the new question:
———————————>
“what is possible?”
????????????????????????????????????????????
How will you respond?
-A messege from the internet mecha, Mosobot64
Mosobot64.deviantart.com
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The shift is going to be into either a new modern era or a new Romantic era…perhaps a new eco-romatic era is possible, the ideal of human life defined as that of a being of great understanding being at harmony with the natural world.
~.~
The question is not “what is the point of art?”
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The question is not “how does one change the world through art?”
~.~
The question is “What can we do with art?”
~.~
There is a tremendous amount of unlocked potential which we have yet to see come into being. Mostly because art has been encouraged, yet strangely distilled by corporate advertising.
~.~
Hopefully, soon, we’ll see more individual and underground art come to take on the mainstream. I fact, I can see it a little already…
~~~
Is this pretentious jibberish supposed to help engage people in political dialogue, or is it just a sort of self-indulgent, post-modern political commentary?
I often wonder whether this approach to politics actually pushes boundaries and inspires people, or whether it just serves as an ego-boost for the artist while hindering real socio/political communication and progressive organization.
I’m all for art and creativity and the possibilities it opens to us in writing our communal histories. But effective political art needs to be direct and approachable to a greater community, not just this uppity-artsy b.s.
That “gibberish” was me exploring my feelings about this historical event with unrestricted creative licence. Not being bullied by “making sense” or “effectively” selling a political ideology. Just open exploration. But, thank you for offering your aesthetic critique.
—>”Political art” is a contradiction in terms so any attempt at it is bound to fail. “Real socio/political communication” is never art it’s manipulative propaganda. But as Jasper Johns says, “Art is either a complaint or do something else.”
—>”To impose a single text on readers is authoritarian and oppressive. Making texts visually ambiguous and difficult to fathom is respecting readers. —Kalle Lasn, Adbusters.
—>The question of “clarity vs obscurity” is an old one in progressive-minded art.
—>”Clarity” has greater breadth, is more approachable but leaves a lot of artists feeling like the snake-oil-salesmen we despise. Like we’re dumbing things down for people and “selling” something.
—>”Obscurity,” the theory goes, has greater depth, forces an audience to commit, to really delve into something in order to get it. Plus, it feels nice to think your audience is smart enough to figure stuff out.
Probably, the best art balances the two.
—>to me, that gibberish didn’t seem that difficult or “uppity” at all. Just honest, no dumbed down “selling.”
—>Anyway, thanks, it’s an interesting topic….
It seems as though likening Obama to Atlas is not a far cry from likening him to a messiah. Either one is dangerous unfortunate and dangerous.
One thing I hope to see come out of this election, is more people willing to be more involved in civic life.
I don’t look forward to people expecting a born-again experience from a politician/messiah. Are we ready to enact change not only in our external environment, but in our internal environment? Probably not. Are we in for more of the same? Probably.
When will we stop looking to an external source to transform our internal lives? Isn’t our external environment a reflection of our internal selves? Do we put all this energy into doing this, but not that, that, but not this, and fail to understand that true change is an everyday occurance, a moment by moment way of exploring our internal landscape?
Its all too easy to get swept up in the optimism of this moment. America has failed in the past many, many times. Anyone who thinks this is the answer to their problems is going to be in for a big surprise. Personal responsibility is paramount right now.
I look at this with VERY cautious optimism, we all know the mess he has to clean up, and all the special interests and lobby groups that could possibly stand in the way, HOPEfully he’ll be able to stand up to them.
He has majority in the Senate and the House along with the radical groups like Acorn and the environmentalist. You will not have to worry about him getting checks and balances very often.
I would urge creatives to be cautious of this. Change is often promised by government and rarely delivered at least in the way they assured us it would. To have a Black President is massive for America and although i don’t doubt we might see a more liberal government his intentions towards the middle east are cloudy, pulling out of Iraq and pushing more into Afghanistan and hints of the same anti-terror rhetoric apparent from the Bush Administration.
I write from my swampy confines in Central Florida with a sense of hope. The conservative heartbeat has been stilled. Yet, us conservatives can not stand amongst the mangroves and howl. America has long been a spectator sport for commentary and whispering. America must stand tall and embrace maturity.
Ditto - be the change you want to see.
Obama the progressive is largely a myth:
Is he green, anti-corporate subsidies, pro-Palestinian, anti-militarist?
Read Ralph Nader’s critique:
www.nader.org/index.php?/archives/2083-Between-Hope-and-Reality.html
And look whose been selected as 2nd most powerful man in Washington - Rahm Emanuel.
Pro-militarist, Nafta lobbyist, multi-millionaire spin doctor.
as to the person with the ralph nader link and maybe 2 other people 90 percent of the time when someone says there going to do something they usually they do it.if you want to experence a hell live next to a valcano. o yeah your brains a myth
As John Dos Passos said a century ago, “If we need a leader to lead us out of the wilderness this year, next year he will lead us right back in again!”
… . make magic? We are magic!
CONGRATULATIONS AMERICA
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