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Write “The Truth Is That” Only to Erase It Later

What is it of freedom that you fear?

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conscientizacao: learning to perceive social, political, and economic contradictions, and to take action against the oppressive elements of reality (Freire).

We must be able to look at ourselves as on paper, or in a mirror, to understand the implications of our arguments, the ways we move through the world, the lives we affect through the ways we move, all to develop a sensitivity to one another, to act not in fear of but in love of.

when you privilege an ideology over another human being 

Why stomp on the seeds pre-tree?

Deprive “others” from shade

Folks you’ve never met.

Who are you to say

They need the sun?

There is no hope

in the faithless. No faith

in the uniform: clothes,

bodies, ideas. No faith

in the hopeless who flee

from a God who says,

“You do not fit

My truth.”

 

Now this is our kind of play

We haven’t seen it, but it sounds great, right? Too bad tickets are north of $60, plus if you don’t live on or near Manhattan, you’ll probably never see it, unless you SpLuRge~. But who has time? We’ve compiled a collection of similar entertainments that are free because they are on what’s left of the free internet.

 

Just kidding. We couldn’t find much. Watch this video instead.

 

Oh goodie, lower wages and higher efficiency for global industries! Just what the common man needs. Oh wait, who is the common man? Depends if he has the means to be self-made. In capitalism, if you don’t own the means, the means own you. Beat the system and go to college, become middle class!

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http://money.cnn.com/infographic/economy/what-is-middle-class-anyway/

Wait, is the self-made man still in debt? Living paycheck to paycheck?

middle-class-wealth
http://money.cnn.com/infographic/economy/what-is-middle-class-anyway/

Welcome to America. We’ll mark up your labor and never tell you about it. And if you don’t like it, be happy you have a job. Or you’re fired.

 

Celebrity Vice

 

In December 2016, George Monbiot published an article in the Guardian about how “our failure to understand the link between fame and big business made the rise of Trump inevitable.” To the many of us who saw through the circus-charade (read:”politics”) of the 2016 election, this is no surprise. Even so, has it still accomplished its initial goal: to make a monkey out of us?

According to Monbiot’s research, people who involve themselves in celebrity gossip are three times less likely to participate in community-growing organizations and activities. In a word, they are isolated. The tragic aspect of the 2016 election is that it was a roundup of celebrity gossip disguised as politics (read: “shit-slinging”) which, in turn, pitted us in a battle of us versus each other, where we, the knowing, are fighting amongst ourselves to understand what went and continues to “go wrong.” We think we know, but we have no idea. The media machine is set up that way. We are entitled to be so disillusioned, to have a right to troll the news and gather and hoard evidence that we can use to forge allies or make enemies.

What we’re really facing is the enemy of our neighbor. “Virtual neighbours replace real ones,” writes Monbiot. Our neighbors exist in the media not as a person, but a persona. Underneath the persona, sure, is a person, but we may never know that person. The enemy of our neighbor is the shapeless, capital-driven corporation that needs a distinctive face, mask, or persona, to be known. And when it comes to choosing these faces, “the less transparent they are, the more airtime they receive.

Have you ever been with a small group of friends who are suddenly all talking about something you don’t care about? Instead of walking away, Monbiot, it would seem, would advocate shifting the conversation, working to strengthen people-bonds even under the looming threat of ignorance. Make friends with the threat, seek a neutral stance, gain compassion. He is about connecting people, not further driving them into their own separate orbits of misery. He is on tour right now with a musician in the UK, promoting their album, “Breaking the Spell of Loneliness,” the lyrics of which are based off his earlier writings.

What can you do today to connect with someone who is not conscious of the isolation and frustration their fixation on celebrity can cause in their daily lives? Can you persuade them to turn off the TV, put down their phone, confront their unhappiness? Hey, if they’re happy, that’s great. Just don’t be surprised when they walk into the next room to sit alone in the glow of a (de)vice.

Watch

The Russian Ambassador Get Shot. The Gunman Wail a Manifesto. The Truck That Crashed Through a Berlin Christmas Market. Syrian Evacuation Buses Catch Fire. The Suicide Attack in Yemen. Gunmen Kill Afghan Airport Workers. The Car Bomb Kill 13 in Turkey. ‘Aleppo is now a synonym for hell.’  The Eiffel Tower Go Dark. Countries Declare Solidarity. Japan and Russia Fight over Land. China Urge the United States to Stay True. The Holes In Our Global Consciousness Widen. Our Consciousness Needing More Light.

the everyday work of being yourself

What will you sacrifice to be what you feel pressure to be? Will you give up your freedom to acquire what you need? If money can’t buy happiness, why do we behave as if it could? Here’s a nice bag. Here are some nice shoes. Pretend as if you own them. Forget that they own you.

when i was a little girl, women used to me if i wanted to be a model. but before they could ask me, they asked my mom if i was, and why not. it was never my choice

to feel insecure. Is it yours? Is it your choice to feel loved? When you wake up in the morning, who do you see? Someone who is trying or choosing to be? either way it’s work, believe me.

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when we sell ourselves out, we sell out each other