The TVs were on at the bar we ran to tonight. It was the annual lighting of the City Hall Christmas tree here in Philly, but tonight the event was interrupted by protestors. I know this because I was following on Twitter. Had I been watching TV, it would have been a different story.
I will have photos later -and perhaps the text of a phone call or two- but Philadelphia’s local media was live on the spot, and going to absurd lengths to ignore what was going on around them. It was truly bizarre: protestors chanting “No Justice No Peace” drowned out a kid singing “Silent Night”, while the bobblehead clowns from our local media yapped a lot about the ice skating rink while showing TONS of B-roll.
On another TV, “Christmas at Rockefeller Center” was airing. Same thing. No acknowledgement of the chaos in the streets, which as I write saw the Lincoln Tunnel shut down because of protests and swarms of angry people on the FDR Drive and the West Side Highway.
And I remembered how the media tried to ignore and suppress the Iraq War protests back in ’02 and ’03, and how complicit they were in what followed. It’s the same thing all over again… only this time I’m not sure how well it’s going to work. But the effort was fascinating. I largely believe Huxley was more accurate in predicting our future, but what i saw on my TV was nothing less than an Orwellian manipulation of the truth.
Good night.
Before I go though, just wanted to share the video from Jon Stewart tonight on the Daily Show. The show was taped right after the Eric Garner grand jury decision was announced.
Jon Stewart goes off on serious Garner case rant: `We’re definitely not living in a post-racial society’
Two things. They should look to shutdown the Staten Island Ferry at rush hour. If they can reach that mass, Change really is gonna come. Two, gotta take over the various network buildings. Gotta storm 30 Rock. And where ever CBS and ABC are. That way they have to cover things. What are the rent-a-cops going to do if 5,000(hopefully more) people take over 30 Rock? Gotta throw tons of sand in the gears of capitalism. It’s what finances the injustice after all.
I might get relentless with the two local reporters tomorrow. I already asked one on twitter if she used her empty skull for breadbox.
As of 1:00 AM EST, Brooklyn Bridge now shut down.
As I’ve said before I rather like Huxley’s world.
I don’t. It’s preferable -barely- to Orwell’s “boot in the face forever”, but nothing I like.
The infantilization of the public is particularly disturbing.
Last week, when Ferguson protestors disrupted Seattle’s tree-lighting ceremony so thoroughly that it was impossible to avoid, the focus instead became that the protestors “scared the kids.” Seriously. They’ll say A-NEE-THING to discredit citizen activists.
The whole situation is easier to understand if you apply “traditional” labels to the relevant groups:
0.001%ers = Royalty
1%ers, politicians = Nobility
Cops = Knights
everyone else: commoners, peons, serfs
Each of these categories has their own “private law”, so that they can abuse those below them without consequence.
“A Republic, if you can keep it” Oh, Ben, always with that irony.