Slothrop
Tight but Polite
You can't blame them, they're just victims of what a consumer-capitalist media culture has turned them into.
humour: media / politics
- Thread starter zhao
- Start date
redcrescent
Well-known member
Disclaimer: sorry, major derailment up ahead.
The Goya reference made me think of this picture
.
Resistance is obviously very strong in Mexico (for a start, it's the only developing country that shares a border with the US!) especially in areas where there is still a sizeable indigenous population and the ancient knowledge is still part of everyday culture. I've been thinking a bit about corn as a symbol of resistance today, thanks to your mention of it, Gavin, and I've noticed how things like the GMO corn issue strike a much deeper chord here than elsewhere, possibly because it's seen as the ultimate destruction of Mexico's indigenous heritage, which goes way beyond the anti-corporate, environmental or human health angle you get elsewhere (this is a topic in the Future of Food documentary, too, which I really recommend if you haven't already seen it).
Crop circle in a field of GMO corn. This is in the state of Mexico in the central part of the country.
Millions of Mexicans are dependent on rain-fed corn grown as a subsistence crop, in southern Mexico alone over 200 types of corn are grown and there is a huge stock of knowledge about traditional agriculture. This wealth is in serious danger of disappearing with the continued influx of GMO crops and the extension of industrial plantations. People on the land are very aware of this and try to resist it at every level - it is no coincidence Oaxaca and Chiapas are hotbeds for civil unrest and are under de facto military occupation. For example, there was an enormous uproar in Oaxaca (led in part by artist/activist Francisco Toledo) when it was announced a McDonald's* was going to open on the zócalo (main square) of Oaxaca city - fast food triumphing in the heartland of Mexican food culture - the symbolism of this struggle is staggering because you are not only protesting against the animal rights, worker issues, health effects and environmental damage, but the undermining of people's identity and their creation myth. Thus the ears of corn on the murals are not only a reference to the artist's homeland but a shorthand form of expressing a long and complex relationship about identity (you will often hear people in Mexico emphatically stating they are "men [made] of maize", which I think is a nice contrast to the traditional "dust").
(* McD's finally did open a very low-key franchise near the university. Last I heard, it was firebombed by protesters last December)
The Goya reference made me think of this picture
Resistance is obviously very strong in Mexico (for a start, it's the only developing country that shares a border with the US!) especially in areas where there is still a sizeable indigenous population and the ancient knowledge is still part of everyday culture. I've been thinking a bit about corn as a symbol of resistance today, thanks to your mention of it, Gavin, and I've noticed how things like the GMO corn issue strike a much deeper chord here than elsewhere, possibly because it's seen as the ultimate destruction of Mexico's indigenous heritage, which goes way beyond the anti-corporate, environmental or human health angle you get elsewhere (this is a topic in the Future of Food documentary, too, which I really recommend if you haven't already seen it).
Crop circle in a field of GMO corn. This is in the state of Mexico in the central part of the country.
Millions of Mexicans are dependent on rain-fed corn grown as a subsistence crop, in southern Mexico alone over 200 types of corn are grown and there is a huge stock of knowledge about traditional agriculture. This wealth is in serious danger of disappearing with the continued influx of GMO crops and the extension of industrial plantations. People on the land are very aware of this and try to resist it at every level - it is no coincidence Oaxaca and Chiapas are hotbeds for civil unrest and are under de facto military occupation. For example, there was an enormous uproar in Oaxaca (led in part by artist/activist Francisco Toledo) when it was announced a McDonald's* was going to open on the zócalo (main square) of Oaxaca city - fast food triumphing in the heartland of Mexican food culture - the symbolism of this struggle is staggering because you are not only protesting against the animal rights, worker issues, health effects and environmental damage, but the undermining of people's identity and their creation myth. Thus the ears of corn on the murals are not only a reference to the artist's homeland but a shorthand form of expressing a long and complex relationship about identity (you will often hear people in Mexico emphatically stating they are "men [made] of maize", which I think is a nice contrast to the traditional "dust").
(* McD's finally did open a very low-key franchise near the university. Last I heard, it was firebombed by protesters last December)
mixed_biscuits
_________________________
Who are you to say whether these outpourings were phony or not? Isn't this extremely condescending (and goes counter to your belief that we are not all the media's puppets)? I dare say that many of the people showing public grief were tagging along for various reasons, but to tar all with the same brush is downright wrong. Also, bear in mind that people are naturally gregarious and truly live through interaction through with each other, so this 'being seen to do something' should not be considered particularly baffling.
Mediatized real-life tragedies are the equivalents of the fictional tragedies that fulfilled a similarly cathartic function (for admirable and not-so-admirable reasons both) in days gone by. That's why the public passes from tragedy to tragedy on a whim - it is the generality, not the specificity of each case that attracts people.
I don't know why everyone's tying themselves up in knots over this phenomenon.
vimothy
yurp
Aphex!
vimothy
yurp
In the West! The %&"$**n West!!!
God, I wish I wasn't white and that I lived in a underdeveloped dictatorship - I'd have much more "political sway", and I wouldn't have to feel so guilty about all the classic addidas trainers I keep buying...
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
Well of course I'm not the media's puppet - I was thinking more of tabloid readers...
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
Great minds, etc.:
Hahaha, yeah, unlike the rest of the world, where everyone has so much democracy they don't know what do with it...
N
nomadologist
Guest
Tate, we actually agree on something :O !
N
nomadologist
Guest
Maybe for the same reason some people tie themselves up in knots over frozen cell clusters getting tossed in the trash can at fertility clinics? i.e. because it affects the social/cultural realm
mixed_biscuits
_________________________
I find it annoying when ppl stretch for huge generalisations and the knotty tangle of high-falutin' analyses before exploring the more mundane options.
N
nomadologist
Guest
I find it annoying when people assume that "common sense" or the "mundane approach" are somehow epistemically privileged forms of experience/debate.
vimothy
yurp
*Chokes on biscuit*
Fucking hell! Maybe it's good to live under tyrants then, yes? At least our "art" means something...
What a load of facile sub-TAZ nonsense.
mixed_biscuits
_________________________
You're just spoiling for a fight, aren't you.
Saying that people can bear an aversion to the mundane, humdrum and commonplace isn't exactly controversial.
If you had read my post carefully, you would have noticed that I do not privilege one kind of explanation over the other. All that I want is to get to the truth. It's just that my truth-finding algorithm is this:
CONFUSION -> CHECK ALL AVAILABLE MUNDANE (ie probable) EXPLANATIONS -> CHECK LESS MUNDANE (less probable) EXPLANATIONS -> END
whereas others' can be this:
CONFUSION -> ATTEMPT TO APPLY OUTLANDISH EXPLANATION WOT I HAVE READ ABOUT IN CRITICAL THEORY -> END
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
Have to pick you up there, _biscuits: the second algorithm doesn't usually END at all, it just loops back round to the beginning...
mixed_biscuits
_________________________
Have to pick you up there, _biscuits: the second algorithm doesn't usually END at all, it just loops back round to the beginning...
heh heh
N
nomadologist
Guest
Yes, "mundane" explanations are always more "probable" explanations for things, right Mr. Tea? Isn't that what they taught you in particle physics? That things work exactly the way they appear to work. That's why the earth is at the center of the universe. And all of that.
N
nomadologist
Guest
And who's "confused" here? I'm not.