IDEOLOGY
ACTUALITY
Critique of the WEF and the environmental or 'green' concern upcoming.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
The End of Protest (Pt 2)
(2)Continuing the theme of protesting, next time you march in a protest look around you, are the individuals there because they believe in the cause or are they getting paid to do a job. Yes, a job! Well apparently the expansive commodification of reality has hit a new low, with a German company finding the uncommodified niche of protesting and turning it into a profit-oriented activity. “Good-looking protestors can help an organization get its political message to the public for as little as €145 a day.”
Talk about the end of protest and the growing commodification of rebellion. Protest as a form of political action has waned in the western world, particularly the U.S. since the 1960s and 70s, but now protesting as a job, this is another low for capitalism. Turning another activity that historically has been relatively spontaneous and a manifestation of the autonomous struggle for power by the downtrodden into work, into a profit orientated activity. That is the goal of capital, to enforce work and the commodity form upon individuals, as this is the only way it can realize surplus-value (profit). Without commodities capital cannot accumulate capital. Additionally, these pseudo protestors are not down for the cause nor will they be militant long-term followers willing to be engaged in the movement. They are merely the entry-level short-term temporary functionaries in a bureaucratized organization that is attempting to grab a little bit of the cheese from the system.
This is just another step in the dominance of one-dimensional thought and the decline of protest. Now actual protest of the system strengthens the system, through its commodification no longer is protest commodified solely into consumption [which can be seen as labor/work designed to strengthen the domination of capital], but now actual protest is commodified into work. Capital will not let any activity not be commodified or fall outside the system. Capital must commodify all productive and consumptive relative activities, productive for the creation of surplus value and consumptive for the realization of surplus value.
Talk about the end of protest and the growing commodification of rebellion. Protest as a form of political action has waned in the western world, particularly the U.S. since the 1960s and 70s, but now protesting as a job, this is another low for capitalism. Turning another activity that historically has been relatively spontaneous and a manifestation of the autonomous struggle for power by the downtrodden into work, into a profit orientated activity. That is the goal of capital, to enforce work and the commodity form upon individuals, as this is the only way it can realize surplus-value (profit). Without commodities capital cannot accumulate capital. Additionally, these pseudo protestors are not down for the cause nor will they be militant long-term followers willing to be engaged in the movement. They are merely the entry-level short-term temporary functionaries in a bureaucratized organization that is attempting to grab a little bit of the cheese from the system.
This is just another step in the dominance of one-dimensional thought and the decline of protest. Now actual protest of the system strengthens the system, through its commodification no longer is protest commodified solely into consumption [which can be seen as labor/work designed to strengthen the domination of capital], but now actual protest is commodified into work. Capital will not let any activity not be commodified or fall outside the system. Capital must commodify all productive and consumptive relative activities, productive for the creation of surplus value and consumptive for the realization of surplus value.
The End of Protest (Pt 1)
(1)The U.S. government finally unveiled technology that has long been rumored to be in existence. The technology is a heat-ray gun called the Active Denial System (ADS). How does it work? It shoots an invisible millimeter-wave beam at individuals, penetrates the skin to 0.4mm and heats up the water underneath the skin at a ‘gentle’ clip up to 130 degrees, at which point the individual is supposed to run away.
Ok, a few things, now the manufacturer and the government say there are no long-term effects, that it is a relatively harmless event. Are we to trust this, they said the same thing with Agent Orange in Vietnam and Depleted Uranium in both Iraq wars. This is because either (1) they do not conduct tests before hand, wait until enough outside research is conducted and years later they go back and run tests of their own or (2) they conduct tests and know the adverse effects but do not release them because it would not be profitable to the corporation or government to do so. With the short production times of technology like this, conducting years of tests to determine their health risks is not conducive to the bottom-line of the corporation and will of course not occur for this reason. In reality it is probably a mix of both reasons.
Secondly, they say this is largely for military purposes to stop ‘suspicious’ individuals or clear a crowd with gunmen. Come on, this technology will definitely be used against civil disobedience and protestors. The U.S. used water cannons and tear gas against civil rights protestors and anti-war activists during the 1960s and 1970s and this technology will be used by the police-state against anti-war protestors, free-trade protestors, etc. Saying the government will not turn this technology against its own citizens flies against recorded history, where technology that was once ‘only’ for military purposes against ‘foreigners’ is then brought to use against the country’s own citizens who refuse to tow the line of totalitarianism, imperialism etc.
Ok, a few things, now the manufacturer and the government say there are no long-term effects, that it is a relatively harmless event. Are we to trust this, they said the same thing with Agent Orange in Vietnam and Depleted Uranium in both Iraq wars. This is because either (1) they do not conduct tests before hand, wait until enough outside research is conducted and years later they go back and run tests of their own or (2) they conduct tests and know the adverse effects but do not release them because it would not be profitable to the corporation or government to do so. With the short production times of technology like this, conducting years of tests to determine their health risks is not conducive to the bottom-line of the corporation and will of course not occur for this reason. In reality it is probably a mix of both reasons.
Secondly, they say this is largely for military purposes to stop ‘suspicious’ individuals or clear a crowd with gunmen. Come on, this technology will definitely be used against civil disobedience and protestors. The U.S. used water cannons and tear gas against civil rights protestors and anti-war activists during the 1960s and 1970s and this technology will be used by the police-state against anti-war protestors, free-trade protestors, etc. Saying the government will not turn this technology against its own citizens flies against recorded history, where technology that was once ‘only’ for military purposes against ‘foreigners’ is then brought to use against the country’s own citizens who refuse to tow the line of totalitarianism, imperialism etc.
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