Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Marketing Agency, Branding Hope: War, Kony, and "Three Cups of Tea"

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Marketing Agency, Branding Hope: War, Kony, and "Three Cups of Tea"

Click here to access article by Sarah Lazare and John Wesley Jones from Jadaliyya.

This is an excellent analysis of the use of current methods that draw on sophisticated techniques created by modern advertising and public relations industries to manage the consent and dissent of the 99 Percent. Joseph Goebbels, propaganda minister for the Third Reich, if he could return to life today, would be astounded by the advances that have been made by those who manage minds to serve the needs of the current Empire. Nowadays, we witness the most heinous crimes against humanity not only hidden behind the veils of humanitarian concerns, but successfully promoted by such phony concerns.

This is an important moment to reflect on the ways that militarism has affected our lives and changed public perception of the use of military violence as normal. It also gives occasion to look at how an era of endless war has given birth to some political and social campaigns that accept militarism as given, and at times outright embrace military solutions to social and humanitarian problems.