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DOME, one of my favourite hardcore bombers. There’s a DOME piece pretty much everywhere you go in Gothenburg. Enjoy, and don’t forget to click the images to enlarge.
Most of the photos are stolen from GbgGraff. Go there for more delicious art crime.
Part Four of the highly debated movie Zeitgeist is out, and thinking about the great financial crisis the world is facing right now it should definitely be an eye-opener. The movies try to communicate those very important social understandings which most people are generally not aware of; for indeed, this is a sick society.
The first film, Zeitgeist, focuses on suppressed historical and modern information about currently dominant social institutions, while also exploring what could be in store for humanity if the power structures at large continue their patterns of self-interest, corruption, and power consolidation.
The second film, Zeitgeist: Addendum, attempts to locate the root causes of this pervasive social corruption, while offering a solution. This solution is not based on politics, morality, laws, or any other “establishment” notions of human affairs, but rather on a modern, non-superstitious based understanding of what we are and how we align with nature, to which we are a part.
In case you missed the first film, watch it here:
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Gilad Atzmon, amazing jazz musician (he plays the saxophone, clarinet, flute and laptop, and his album Exile recieved the “Best Jazz Album of The Year” by BBC in 2003 – go get it!), excellent writer and intellectual activist, recently published an article entitled Taking Elder Peres Apart.
Before you read it, bear in mind that Gilad Atzmon was born in Israel, raised as a secular Jew and served his military service in the time of the Lebanon war, a war that made him very sceptical about Zionism and its racist policies (which any sane human being should be).
Visit his website here, listen to some beautiful jazz and read some of his many articles. You may start with this one:
Taking Elder Peres Apart
By Gilad Atzmon
Sep 25th, 2008Truth must be said, I do admire fierce President Ahmadinejad almost as much as I despise war criminal Shimon Peres.
However reading the rant Peres gave Wednesday during the UN’s General Assembly is a rather amusing experience. The man who has more blood on his hands than any living Israeli politician was rather daring.
“The Iranian people are not our enemies,” declares Peres. This is a pretty interesting statement, bearing in mind that Israeli Minister Mofaz threatens to nuke Iran on a daily basis. “Their leader (Ahmadinejad) is a danger to his people, the region and the world.” Again, a very bold statement considering the established statistical fact that the vast majority of Europeans actually see Israel and the USA as the leading threat to world peace.
But Peres wouldn’t stop just there, following the tradition of the Jewish Marxists who always know better than anyone else what is good for the world proletariat, the Palestinians and so on, Peres, the Yiddishe Mullah knows what Islam is all about:
“He (Ahmadinejad) is a disgrace to the ancient Iranian people. He is a disgrace to the values of Islam.”
But it isn’t just Islam’s values Peres specializes in. He also knows better than the assembly of nations what is good and what is bad. Seemingly Peres must be convinced that Judification of the entire world is completed. This allows him to decide what the UN is all about and who should be allowed to speak on its platform.
“He (Ahmadinejad) is a disgrace to this very house, the United Nations, its basic principles and values. His appearance here is already a shame.”
Whether Peres was himself successful in addressing the nations is a question that will be left to historians and analysts, however, he himself wasn’t totally convinced by his own shallow arguments. Thus he ended up employing the most tedious overused Hasbara propaganda. The pathetic repetition of the “Elders of Zion” tale is one example.
Shimon, let me advise you, you had better keep quiet about this `Elder’ topic at least momentarily. You see, in crumbling America, a super power that was toppled by policies set by Wolfowitzes and Greenspans, the Elders of Zion is a devastating reality. You really do not want to go there, you really do not want to be the one who brings it up.
However, Shimon, just to remind you that amongst your own countless disastrous fatal personal failures was the Oslo Accord. It was you who coined the zio-centric idiom `New Middle East’ with the Jewish state as its `financial capital’. Let me tell you Shimon, this `dream’ of yours qualifies you as the epitome of the Zionist Elder.
However, the Elders of Zion is just one Zionist weapon, once it is brushed aside. The last Zionist weapon of mind destruction is there to be launched, the Shoah and its denial:
“Their despicable denial of the holocaust is a mockery of indisputable evidence, a cynical offense to survivors of the horror. Contradictory to the resolutions adopted by this assembly.”
Listen to me carefully president Shimon, we better admit it, the Zionist Holocaust narrative is falling apart and you have only yourself to blame. For the last 60 years, you and your people have been killing Palestinians in the name of Jewish suffering.
Consequently, Israelis are regarded by many as the `Nazis of our time’. In other words, your present sinister ugliness is far more concerning for all of us than the Nazi crimes that happened 65 years ago. Differently than any other historical event, the Holocaust is a closed book for research, with its crimes that we are not even allowed to scrutinize properly, due to strict laws about what can and cannot be researched or even uttered.However, in order to maintain the Holocaust Zionist narrative untouched, a strong dollar maintained by `friendly’ bankers is needed. Unfortunately, as you may realize, the dollar is not doing very well at the moment and your `friendly’ bankers are about to be subject to a federal investigation. If I were you Shimon, I would ask my Hasbara guys to come up with something slightly better than the old Holocaust to distract everyone from reality.
At a certain stage in his speech, Elder Zionist Peres becomes either a stand up comedian or senile, I just cannot make up my mind yet.
“Iran,” he says “continues to develop enriched uranium and long range missiles. They introduce a religion of fear, opposing the call of the Lord in respect of life.”
Shima’le, look in our eyes when you say it, wasn’t it you yourself who launched the Israeli nuclear project? Wasn’t it you who introduced the entire region to the nuclear threat? Shima’le you are no doubt a disgrace to human intelligence. No wonder the Israelis themselves never voted for you in your entire political career.
However, once you start to spread Israeli Hasbara lies, no one can really stop you:
“Iranian support for Hezbullah divided Lebanon. Its support for Hamas split the Palestinians and postpones the establishment of the Palestinian State.”
I was always sure that Israel loves to see the Arabs divided, was I wrong? And if Iran indeed divides Lebanon and the Palestinians you should really support Iran, am I wrong again? You are obviously lying. Being an Elder Zionist you stand in front of the nation and fib. You know that neither the Lebanese nor the Palestinians are divided. You know very well that the Hamas and the Hezbullah is the new spirit of Islam.
May I advise you, Mr Israeli president: We all support the Hezbullah especially when they crushed your `mighty’ army. We all support the democratically elected Hamas. As the truth of Zionism unveils itself, we all come to know who are the enemies of peace. May I suggest to you one more thing. You should never be worried about the Palestinian people being split. As split as they may look, they are far from being divided. They all see the victory at the end of the dark Zionist tunnel !!
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This disaster capitalism, climate crisis and consumer society dystopia is finally getting some serious recognition in the mainstream press. Even though it’s already way too late (in my humble opinion), people might at least begin to think about quality stuff instead of quantity crap. That’s a good start in getting some value out of life. I mean, if you really want to live why not make it worthwhile? That’s the least one can do.
And speaking of disaster capitalism and the current economic crisis:
Naomi Klein claims in her very interesting book The Shock Doctrine – The Rise of Disaster Capitalism that big business and politics use global disasters for their own ends, and that (unpopular) reforms come in times of crisis when countries are in shock. She claims that for (mainly) the neoliberals to create their ideal free market economies, violent destruction of existing economic order is required. Now is an interesting time to study this.
Uncertain times forces media to take notice about a worried population. In May 2008 CNN published an article titled Survivalists get ready for meltdown, and in July another article named Massive Economic Disaster Seems Possible — Will Survivalists Get the Last Laugh? was published by AlterNet. The introduction in the latter article sums it up:
With multiple crises on the horizon, survivalist views don’t seem as marginal as they did before. They used to be paranoid preparation nuts who built bomb shelters for a place to duck and cover during nuclear dustups with communist heathens, but their tangled roots go back to the Great Depression for a reason. If you want to get sociological about it, survivalism started out as a response to economic catastrophe. And now, with a cratering stock market, a housing meltdown that has devalued everything in sight, and skyrocketing prices for food, gas and pretty much everything else, survivalists are preparing for — and are prepared for — the rerun. In fact, they may be the only people in America feeling good about the prospects of a major crash.
And the interesting thing about the once-fringe movement at this moment in history is that survivalism has now gone green — at least in theory.
From peak oil and food crises all the way to catastrophic payback from that bitch Mother Earth, there are more reasons to hide than ever. Conventional society as we know it is already undergoing some disastrous transformations. Ask anyone ducking fires in California, floods in the Midwest or bullets in Baghdad. Maybe it didn’t make sense to run for the hills, stockpile water and food, grow your own vegetables and drugs, or unplug from consumerism back when America’s budget surplus still existed, its armies weren’t burning up all the nation’s revenue and its infrastructure wasn’t being outsourced to a globalized work force.
But those days are gone, daddy, gone.
Well hell, that’s what we’ve been trying to say for ages. Read Spengler, please.
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On another – funnier – note, googling on “survivalism” I found this photo:
All I can say is: Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Actually, God said that.
Mrs. Big Nose in Monty Python‘s fantastic movie Life of Brian puts it this way: Blessed are the meek! Oh, that’s nice, isn’t it? I’m glad they’re getting something, ’cause they have a hell of a time.
The film version of The Shock Doctrine should be available on Google Video (doesn’t seem to work right now, though…). Meanwhile, check this interview where Klein talks about her book:
EDIT:
Naomi Klein: One Year After the Publication of The Shock Doctrine, A Response to the Attacks
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If you want to look for a Truth that seeks out to crush the freedom to seek the truth, look no further than The Holocaust.
Once again a Holocaust revisionist has been arrested for asking questions about what really happened during World War II. Dr. Fredrick Töben, Australian citizen, was arrested yesterday at the Heathrow airport, UK, for “posting online materials” discussing the Holocaust. In Germany they have these sick Holocaust denial laws which means they sentenced Töben to seven months in jail in 1999 when he was travelling from the US to Dubai. Fortunately, Britain does not have these laws, but instead they slipped in this offence as “race hatred” and “cyber crime”. He now faces up to five years in prison!
This is insane, people. If you believe that discussing the Holocaust should be a crime, you should wake the fuck up. This madness must come to an end.
Australian Holocaust denier arrested at Heathrow
Times Online
Töben writes on his website (yes, it’s ugly as hell…):
If you wish to begin to doubt the Holocaust-Shoah narrative, you must be prepared for personal sacrifice, must be prepared for marriage and family break-up, loss of career, and go to prison. […] This is because Revisionists are, among other things, dismantling a massive multi-billion dollar industry that the Holocaust-Shoah enforcers are defending, as well as the survival of Zionist-racist Israel.
>There’s a crappy free paper here in Stockholm, Sweden, called City. They’re running this series about people who choose to live their lives without having kids. Should be pretty interesting. You can read the first article here (in Swedish, obviously).
I’ll give you my thoughts on the matter when they’re done, but if you’ve read this blog for a while I think you know what I have to say…
Until then:
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Yeah, you know, that old graphic novel (i.e. comic book) by Alan Moore (writer) and Dave Gibbons (illustrator) which is now being adapted to the screen. I love that comic. It’s kind of Ny Moral in a nutshell.
Because to me Watchmen is about the delusion and condemnation of humanity. It’s about what happens when we abuse power and responsibility, when ”soft-spoken” fascism dictates the rules of everyday life. When people who think they know what’s best for you tell you what to do. It’s about what needs to be done to save humanity. And it asks two questions:
Who watches the watchmen?
Does the end justify the means?
The solution to humanity is rather dystopic and misanthropic, I’d say.
When Alan Moore unleashed Watchmen in 1986/87 he created a whole new way of looking at comics. All of a sudden comics where of literary value. When TIME Magazine picked the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present, Watchmen was right up there alongside The Catcher in The Rye (J.D. Salinger), Catch-22 (Joseph Heller), 1984 (George Orwell), Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy), Tropic of Cancer (Henry Miller), A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess), Lord of The Flies (William Golding), Gravity’s Rainbow (Thomas Pynchon), Slaughterhouse Five (Kurt Vonnegut), The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck) – to name my personal favourites – and other novels by William Burroughs, Doris Lessing, J.R.R. Tolkien, Ernest Hemingway, Salman Rushdie, Virginia Woolf, Graham Greene, Toni Morrison… The list goes on. Watchmen is also the only graphic novel to win a Hugo Award. All this elite stuff is almost hard to believe, but when reading Watchmen you’ll understand. Or else, in a fascist kind of way, they will make you understand, with the help of the written word, commercials, money, capitalism, corruption, chaos – a maximum overload of information. That’s how it works. But constantly being told what to do raises scepticism amongst individuals, and anti-authority works both ways; some like it, some don’t.
Watchmen thrives on the complexities of life, of being human, and adds to that the odd twist of what it would be like if superheroes – or rather masked ” heroes”, devoid of supernatural powers (Dr. Manhattan excluded), acting as vigilantes – really existed in our modern world. What if God all of a sudden walked the Earth? ”Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”, quoted from Genesis chapter 18, verse 25.
Obviously, it’s not that easy.
What Moore does is that he gives coherence to these complexities. In his own words: ”it is possible to think about politics, history, mythology, architecture, murder and the rest of it all at the same time to see how it connects”.
Catching up on Alan Moore, and watching The Mindscape of Alan Moore DVD (watch it here!), I find I really like this guy. Check out what he says about information in this great interview:
Information is funny stuff. In some of the science magazines I read, I’ve found it described as an actual substance that underlies the entirety of existence, as something that is more fundamental than the four fundamental physical forces: gravity, electromagnetism and the two nuclear forces. I think they’ve referred to it as a super-weird substance. Now, obviously, information shapes and determines our lives and the way we live them, yet it is completely invisible and undetectable. It has no actual form; you can only see its effects. Information is a kind of heat. I would suggest that as our society accumulates information, from its hunter-gatherer origins to the complexities of our present day, it raises the cultural temperature.
I feel that we may be approaching a cultural boiling point. I’m not saying this is a good thing or a bad thing; I really don’t know because I can’t imagine it, quite frankly. But I think we may be approaching the point at which the amount of information we are taking becomes exponential, and I’m not entirely certain what kind of human culture will exist beyond that point. Except it will happen sooner than we expect, and the difference between us and the kind of people that will exist after such an event will be vastly different than the difference between us and the hunter-gatherer society we’ve evolved from.You’re saying we might not be able to recognize human beings of the future that well.
Yeah, it could be a quantum leap, a sudden, massive and unprecedented leap. Boiling point is a good analogy, because what you have before that stage is water. What you have after it is something that does not behave at all like water; it’s a completely different substance altogether. And that’s what I see looming for society — and it’s probably necessary, probably inevitable, probably scary. That’s my prognosis. I suppose, as an artist, one of the obligations upon my work is to try and prepare people for the more complex world, to try and make it more palatable and accessible to them and not quite so frightening. That would seem to be a worthy goal, illuminating reality.
On another note: As for the nobel prize in literature I’d suggest we give it to Cormac McCarthy. Or Iain Sinclair. Or why not Alan Moore? But maybe it would do them and the fans more bad than good, so let’s not make it complicated.
PS. If you’re really interested in Watchmen, you should check out The Annotated Watchmen!
And here’s a Watchmen Wiki…
And this blog post pretty much concludes that Rorschach is a Jew…
As you can see, we’re dealing with information overload here as well.
And as for the movies, From Hell, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, V For Vendetta and Watchmen, here’s Alan Moore talking about his disgust for Hollywood, stating clearly that the comics ”were written to be impossible to reproduce in terms of cinema”. He obviously hates them all.
