Reinventing Memorial Day: Beyond the Mattress Blowout Sale

Why has Memorial Day, like so many of our national holidays, been reduced to appliance sales, fast food specials, and vacation deals?

With the recent near-collapse of our economy, the ways in which we understand and celebrate national holidays seem particularly challenged. This erosion of meaning is just one of many examples of the growing gap between the promise of America–freedom and opportunity through sacrifice and unity–and how people experience Brand America. Like any brand, America will have to close this gap to thrive in the future.

Remembering Memorial Day is not about believing in war. It’s an opportunity to reconnect the American Experience with its core promise, and reinvigorate the nation’s signs, symbols, myths, and metaphors with authenticity and relevance. The following is the first in a series of thoughts exploring how design thinking might help do this.

Read The Rest AT: Orwell's Dreams

Mall Riots: Why Are Some Americans Becoming Violent Shoppers?

Americans used to protest in the streets; now some have resorted to fighting each other in shopping malls. What happened?

Read The Rest Here

The video that Walmart does not want you to see

The American Sheeple! The American Slaves! God Bless America!

By Carlos Miller
Walmart did an excellent job in controlling the crowds during Black Friday this year.

At least that is what the mainstream media is telling us.

But then again, they were not exactly allowed to enter the stores to see for themselves (except for four pre-selected locations in the country).

While we’re all relieved that nobody lost their life this year, the chaos seemed uncontrollable, according to the above video which was submitted by a Photography is Not a Crime reader.

I’m betting we’ll be seeing more videos in the next few days.

Waking up

By Pablo Ouziel

We wake up in the morning to hear and watch the newest tragedy that has swept the attention of the world’s media.

One morning it is the tragic crash of an airplane, the next some contested elections that turn violent as people rebel. Soon, the media lens is directed to the death of a star, but after a few days, the media bites ease and as a few specialized commentators continue discussing previous events, cameras and microphones have gone somewhere else. Amidst this media frenzy, the future of the world is being orchestrated as attentive spectators watch in silence and (sometimes) disbelief.

Serious events and acts are taking place everyday which merit serious social debate, yet because of the fact that our societies are deeply fragmented, broken and clashing with each other, we are unable to grant ourselves the necessary pause, required for conciliation and unity. Because of this, we are easy to control as a mass of isolated individuals, which is held together by norms and regulations, bureaucracies, military, and police, and concepts such as the nation-state, the church and the corporation. If we stay in this model of society, I fear we will live in perpetual war until we destroy ourselves by not paying attention to the fact that something is drastically wrong.

We are living in societies plagued with corruption at all levels, we are constantly expanding our militarized societies surveilled by police forces and colonizing armies, which are rapidly eroding our freedoms. In the meantime, the resources of the world are generating massive amounts of wealth for a small minority, as our natural heritage is being rapidly dilapidated. In exchange, the majority of the global population receives what we have come to identify as ‘security,’ when in effect, it could be clearly labelled as racketeering. As a collective, the mass of the population gets terrorized and soon succumbs to authoritarian rule.

In the Western world -- the bastion of democracy -- we console ourselves with the thought that we are free, we refer to ourselves as members of the free world and compare our free societies with tyrannies that govern in other parts of the planet. This we justify by the fact that our elected officials have reached the podium through an electoral system of some kind, thus, in effect, being representatives of our interests as citizens. It can be argued that this is a fair assumption, as long as we conduct our field research in a laboratory, but if we engage with members of the numerous sub-communities, which exist within the boundaries of delineated nation-states, we quickly realize that there is tremendous discontent and frustration brewing amongst the population. At the same time, there exists in our societies a sense of impotence and fear that if the boat is rocked, things will get worse.

As the world globalizes on different planes -- intellectually, spiritually, socially, politically, economically and militarily, to name a few -- we are faced with the realization of the global consequences of our actions, or our inactions. At this point, all we can do is practice the great and often forgotten virtues of just analysis, honest critique and self-amelioration, hoping to contribute something of value to the global village. Without these virtues, we fall into the trap of blaming others for our barbarous crimes.

When starving kids in poorer nations are dying and have no access to food or water, we blame the country’s tribal lords and corrupt politicians, we forget to mention the exploitation and extortion carried out by our corporations with the aid of our governments and laws.

When we go to war, we blame tyrannical leaders for forcing us to attack them -- we unload bombs on civilian populations in the name of preemptive strikes and the defence of freedom. We forget to question whether we have become monsters and have lost all sense of reason.

When our free-market banking system collapses and our politicians tell us that institutions are too-big-to-fail and must be bailed out by the taxpayers, we are quick to accept their jittery explanations and swiftly approve their actions. We forget to wonder whether we are being conned.

Finally, when a surveillance society rises from within our democratic communities and our freedoms are radically eroded, engrossed in our own delusion of freedom, we forget to evaluate whether we are still living in democratic states, or have transcended into something different.

It is this lack of questioning which has paralyzed us as a collective-mass, and keeps us extracted from the true decision making process -- the one that defines our present global reality and is shaping the future we will leave for others to inherit.

Although I believe professor Chomsky is right in advocating that “prediction in human affairs is a very uncertain enterprise,” I think it is safe to predict, that tomorrow we will wake up in the morning and the media will be playing out the show of the day, perhaps it will report on North Korean bombs, street fights in Iran, the failing state of California, the Madoff financial scandal, or the bombings in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, amidst millions of other news stories, which will navigate through our systems of communication mobilizing us in one direction or another.

It is also safe to predict, that unless there is a drastic change in the will and choice of the majority, at most tomorrow, we can expect isolated demonstrations making isolated requests: stop the war in Gaza, fight for gay rights, defend freedom of speech in Iran, or save the polar bear.

We are still far from defending a globally united cause for environmental sustainability and continuity, equality, freedom and justice for all, a fair system of distribution, and an end to oppression and war. If we can one day unite under that banner, all together at the same time, prolonging our request, popular uprisings in Iran, in Gaza, Iraq and Afghanistan will inspire us all and we will unite under the same cause. If this happens, together we will break our chains from the elite that govern us, and bridge the abyss, which has separated us from each other.

A brilliant man I know once told me, that despite what we are told, human beings are not too different from each other. I believe he is right, but we must wake up in order to understand this.

Source: Online Journal

Americans Love Government

Philosopher Bertrand Russell suggested that "Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education." And, it was Albert Einstein who explained, "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." So which is it -- stupidity, ignorance or insanity -- that explains the behavior of my fellow Americans who call for greater government involvement in our lives?

According to latest Rasmussen Reports, 30 percent of Americans believe congressmen are corrupt. Last year, Congress' approval rating fell to 9 percent, its lowest in history. If the average American were asked his opinion of congressmen, among the more polite terms you'll hear are thieves and crooks, liars and manipulators, hustlers and quacks. But what do the same people say when our nation faces a major problem? "Government ought to do something!" When people call for government to do something, it is as if they've been befallen by amnesia and forgotten just who is running government. It's the very people whom they have labeled as thieves and crooks, liars and manipulators, hustlers and quacks.

Aside from the general level of disgust that Americans have for congressmen, there's the question of whether there is anything that Congress does well. What about Social Security and Medicare? Congress has allowed Social Security and Medicare to accumulate an unfunded liability of $101 trillion. That means in order to pay promised elderly entitlement benefits, Congress would have to put trillions in the bank today earning interest. Congressional efforts to create "affordable housing" have created today's financial calamity. Congress props up failed enterprises such as Amtrak and the U.S. Postal Service with huge cash subsidies, and subsidies in the forms of special tax treatment and monopoly rights. I can't think of anything that Congress does well yet we Americans call for them to take greater control over important areas of our lives.

I don't think that stupidity, ignorance or insanity explains the love that many Americans hold for government; it's far more sinister and perhaps hopeless. I'll give a few examples to make my case. Many Americans want money they don't personally own to be used for what they see as good causes such as handouts to farmers, poor people, college students, senior citizens and businesses. If they privately took someone's earnings to give to a farmer, college student or senior citizen, they would be hunted down as thieves and carted off to jail. However, they get Congress to do the identical thing, through its taxing power, and they are seen as compassionate and caring. In other words, people love government because government, while having neither moral nor constitutional authority, has the legal and physical might to take the property of one American and give it to another.

The unanticipated problem with this agenda is that as Congress uses its might to take what belongs to one American to give to another, what President Obama calls "spreading the wealth around," more and more Americans will want to participate in the looting. It will ultimately produce something none of us wants: absolute control over our lives.

The path we're embarked upon, in the name of good, is a familiar one. The unspeakable horrors of Nazism, Stalinism and Maoism did not begin in the '30s and '40s with the men usually associated with those names. Those horrors were simply the end result of a long evolution of ideas leading to consolidation of power in central government in the name of "social justice." In Germany, it led to the Enabling Act of 1933: Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Nation and, after all, who could be against a remedy to relieve distress? Decent but misguided Germans, who would have cringed at the thought of what Nazi Germany would become, succumbed to Hitler's charisma.

Today's Americans, enticed, perhaps enchanted, by charismatic speeches, are ceding so much power to Washington, and like yesteryear's Germans are building the Trojan Horse for a future tyrant.

Source: George Mason University

New Givens in America

Here is a list of the new truths in America today. You dare not challenge any of these. You must accept them as fact based on consensus opinion.

People who believe this and sell it to you have a special aura. The young people who knock on your door with Bibles have this look. Kids who believe in Santa have it when you take them to see Santa. It’s a glow. It’s a special knowledge that the possess and know you need to possess also. Watch carefully as you see them present their case for these givens. They are just so special.

Global warming. These missionaries know it as fact. It gives them an advantage over the non-believers. Like religion, it will assure their place in heaven. They are saving the world. They are making a difference. No price is too big to pay for the rewards that will come later.

Universal Health Care. America is a rich country. No one should be without health insurance. This is a given. Doesn’t matter how much it costs. Doesn’t matter whether it doesn’t work in other countries. Doesn’t matter if the government can’t run Medicare and Medicaid. Doesn’t matter if there aren’t enough doctors and nurses to cover another 46 million people. Doesn’t matter if tort reform doesn’t happen. Even if doctors work 5 months a year to cover their malpractice insurance. None of this matters. It’s the same logic that said: every American should own their own home. How did that work?

Too big to fail is a given. We must selectively bail out those designated entities that get this label. No price is too big to save any organization that is too big to fail.

President Obama is a smart man and he is doing all the right things. This is a media given. Not necessarily shared by millions of Americans. More may be falling off this wagon every day. We must do all the things he feels we need to do and do them at mach speed. If he is wrong, we can fix all the mistakes. Really, can we fix the deficits? Can we recover the lost time not spent doing the opposite. Is America too big to fail? Where did this special knowledge Obama possesses originate? From the community organizer days? From the Illinois senate? From the 6 years in the US senate spent campaigning? Can we equate oration with judgment?

Our government can run things. We can run GM, Chrysler, banks, AIG, health insurance, two wars, medicare and medicaid, the post office, NASA, Amtrak, and maybe even the oil industry, the airline industry, and many projects yet to come. All of us know how good our government is at running things, big and small. It’s a given.

Green energy will replace fossil fuels and nuclear. It’s a given. It’s been a given for 25 years with no progress. Just not enough money and government attention has been dedicated to this end. Someone should add up all the billions we have spent without results pursuing this given.

The dollar is the currency of the world. That’s a given. Will it be a given in 5 years or will something replace the dollar?

The US is the world leader, that’s a given. We must dole out aid to all countries who need help. And, military help. It comes with the job. We will always be top dog. That’s a given. If we are making too many mistakes and going too deep in debt chasing all the givens, will this always be the case?

Brainwashing is not a pretty thing. Every day we are inundated with the givens we need to accept. Even with all our supposed freedoms, we must not question the givens. Tack this list on your wall or put it on the fridge. Every day you must go over this check list so you can be true to your country.

Source: No Smoke Blown