Category Archives: politics

art, politics

>The Art of Persuasion, Part 3: German propaganda posters

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>Originally posted July 18, 2007.


Part One (UK) and Part Two (USA) of these series.

—

Most nations would stop fighting when realizing there’s no chance of winning the war. Germany didn’t. They continued to fight long after they had abandoned all hope. I’d say this had very much to do with propaganda. And very much with a certain doctor.

On March 13, 1933, the Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda was founded under the direction of Dr. Josef Goebbels. No such thing had ever existed before, in Germany or in any other country. This was the time of the awakening of the (uneducated) masses.
Adolf Hitler had read Lord Northcliffe: “The bombardment of the German mind was almost as important as the bombardment by cannon”.
In Mein Kampf he writes:
“The psyche of the masses is not receptive to anything that is weak. They are like a woman, whose psychic state is determined less by abstract reason than by emotional longing for a strong force which will complement her nature. Likewise, the masses love a commander, and despise a petitioner”. One could say Hitler despised the masses…
He is also quoted saying:
“Haven’t you ever seen a crowd collecting to watch a street brawl? Brutality and physical strenght is what they respect. The man in the street respects nothing more than strenght and ruthlessness – women too for that matter. The masses need something that will give them a thrill of horror”.
Hitler argued that propaganda must be adressed to the emotions and not to the intellect. He had no need for educating the already educated. He spoke in black and white, and with enormous power and energy – always emotional.

With Goebbels as head of propaganda the Nazis rose to power. Goebbels described Hitler’s speeches as “religion in the most mysterious and deepest sense of the word”. He truly admired his Führer. And they used these very personal words – his Führer, my Führer – never the Führer; because it was a relationship, bonded by blood.

The propaganda machine worked the hardest at the mass gatherings. Each single individual underwent, in Goebbels words, “a kind of metamorphosis from a little worm to a giant dragon”. These huge demonstrations mostly took place at night when people’s minds were most open to persuasion. At the annual rally in Nuremberg half a million people attended to gather strenght.
Albert Speer was responsible for the art direction at the rallies, and the “cathedral of light” was his idea: 130 anti-aircraft searchlights placed around the rally field at intervals of forty feet. The huge eagle (over 100 feet in wingspread) was also one of Speer’s brilliant creations.

When the Second World War started, the Propaganda Ministry had complete control of the press, radio, film, posters, art, literature, music, theater… It is therefore nothing strange with people acting as they did. When every contemporay book you read, every newspaper, every film you see, every broadcast you hear for years and years, always with the same spirit, the same propaganda, you definitely lose your judgment.
Goebbels particularly enjoyed the cinema. He realized that this new art form could reach a far wider audience than books or theater. The old Motion Picture Law was replaced by the Reich Motion Picture Law in 1920, and from that moment nothing was approved that ran counter to the spirit of the times.
You’ve all seen Triumph of The Will (1935), and maybe even Olympia (1938), Leni Riefenstahl’s masterpieces of truly great art. There’ so much to say about those movies, but I intended these posts to be about the poster art, so… Maybe another time.


People may forget an article, but they won’t forget a picture, especially when they see it often, everywhere, and when the message is pure and strong, black and white. A flyer could be thrown away, the radio turned off, the political meetings not attended… Everybody walks the streets, though. The poster could not be avoided. Graffiti artists use this direct method as well.
The master of Nazi propaganda posters was named “Mjölnir” (real name: Hans Schweitzer). “What lenghty speeches failed to do, Mjölnir did in a second through the glowing fanaticism of his powerful art”, as one Nazi leader put it.

Personally, I find the Nazi propaganda the most fascinating, and certainly the most beautiful, dark, powerful and striking. Maybe this has to do with me too being totally intoxicated by their visual force? However, I am not alone. The Nazi propaganda resulted in billions of artifacts inspired by the powerful art of persuasion (hello Dyanne Thorne!).

Bonus propaganda:
Goebbels assembled a swing band called Charlie and His Orchestra to perform Nazified versions of the jazz hits of the day! How about that?
First volume of their music
Second volume of their music

And now, the magic of the mystic art…

















art, politics

>The Art of Persuasion, Part 2: American propaganda posters

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>Originally posted June 30, 2007.


During the last years of World War II the Office of War Information, a US department of psychological warfare, was showering occupied Europe with 7 million flyers a week, which was made possible due to the invention of the leaflet bomb which could hold 80,000 leaflets in one piece. On July 16, 1943, 16 million leaflets alone were dropped in every part of Italy, informing the Italians that they could either die for Mussolini and Hitler, or live for Italy.
That’s how much used propaganda was, and still is.
But the propaganda flyers didn’t only try to convince or persuade – they worked as warnings as well, often telling of coming bombing attacks, thus allowing time to leave the area. That’s why propaganda was read by so many.

Besides flyers, leaflets and posters, radio was a very important propaganda medium. Playing on the emotions of the public, utilizing great speeches and announcers, this made a deep impact. It frightened and inspired the people into action.
The Americans also used film to a great extent. “That which is done by Hollywood today will be emulated by American cities tomorrow”. Hollywood had very strong Jewish and British elements, and it did what it could to help. They created cruel stereotypes of the enemy, and it worked out really well, speaking directly to the primitive emotions of the American audience. The bad guy gangster became the bad guy Nazi, and so on.
Music was also used as propaganda, the well known label Decca Records, for example, producing vinyls entitled We’re gonna have to slap the dirty little Jap (and Uncle Sam’s the guy who can do it), and Columbia released Praise the lord and pass the ammunition, while Bluebird had their Good-bye mama (I’m off to Yokohama).

As stated in Part One of this series, the American propaganda used God, democratic values and stereotypes to persuade the public. A lot of the posters also speak of the danger of careless talk, most of the time depicting women as those careless talkers.

So, here’s some amazing propaganda posters, done the American way.
















art, politics

>The Art of Persuasion, Part 1: British propaganda posters

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>Originally posted June 28, 2007.


Propaganda posters. They are commercials of evil; mindfucking the people, enslaving the masses. They don’t win any wars, these fascinating weapons of destruction, but they certainly play a huge part in creating hostility, fear, national pride and false consensus.
But first and foremost, as with almost any totalitarian art, the posters are beautifully crafted and do indeed hold some ancient power of belief, spirit and fanatism. Their influence cannot be denied, neither in the political sphere, nor in the world of art.

As strategic weapons, propaganda though flyers, posters, radio broadcasts and television serve as a compliment as good as any to military campaigns, diplomatic negotiations and economic sanctions. Back home people are being told to produce more for their country, to keep silent and to hate the enemy. At the front propaganda seeks to strengthen the morale of the troops and to weaken the enemy’s will to fight.
The strategy for propaganda differs between countries and ideologies. The Nazis idealized the Aryan übermensch and blamed Jews, bankers and Bolsheviks for everything bad in the history of the world. USA speaks of democratic values, the trust in God and creates grim stereotypes of the enemy. Britain, during World War II, used the “hate the enemy” themes, and the Soviets invoked the nationalist image of Mother Russia to make its people gain power and confidence.
The war game would not be the same without the art of persuasion.

First out in this small series: The art of British propaganda.













movies, politics

>Great movies of the 80’s: Threads

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>Originally posted June 10, 2007.

You’re in for something really dark and depressing here. Mick Jackson’s Threads (1984) really got to me the first time I saw it, and by reading the reviews it seems I wasn’t the only one having a hard time sleeping for a couple of nights. Some say they still have nightmares twenty years after watching this movie.

So what makes this film so horrifying? Obviously because it’s so very real.
It’s set in Sheffield, England, in the mid 80’s during the Cold War, and in short shows what might happen if the world would face a nuclear war. It brings society to its knees, forcing us to go back to our very basic principles and needs. There’s no comfort to be found anywhere. Everything is bleak and hopeless, still the people are fighting for survival. Survival for what? one might ask. Survival to face even more death and destruction? There’s no electricity, no clean water, hardly any food and all hope is gone. Outside the world is dying as rulers of the earth wage their pretty little video game war.
What would you do?


The documentary style along with the grim scenes makes for some truly memorable moments. The fact that it could happen any day, without warning, adds to the realism. You won’t find any over the top Hollywood special effects in this movie, just the disturbing truth of what would really happen living in a radioactive environment while there’s a war going on outside no one is safe from (hi Mobb Deep!). There’s no second chances here.

When will we push the button?
When will the warheads hit?
When will the madness end?


Keep in mind that there are many thousand nuclear weapons ready to be fired at any time aimed at any place in the world within minutes. Look at the US and the Soviet Union at this very moment, june 2007:
USA is planning to place missile defence systems in eastern Europe (according to the US: “to counter the threat from Iran”), and Putin (who fears USA is planning to aim their missiles towards Russia, since he argues that the threat from Iran is non-existent) will respond by aiming his nuclear arms towards Europe!
Holy fuck, this surely is a video game to those asshole leaders!
Seems like there’s a new arms race around the corner… Read about it in Swedish here, and in English here.

You really should watch this film on a proper system, but for those of you who can’t get a hold of the DVD it’s available online here. Please, do NOT fast forward – you’ll miss out on the whole thing, you dumb fuck.

But then again, mushroom clouds and fireballs can look pretty beautiful…



Afterword: Square Leg was a British government project made in 1980 that estimated what would happen in Britain in the event of an actual nuclear attack. It projected the mortality rate at 29 million, serious injuries at 7 million and short term survivors at 19 million.

philosophy, politics

>Oswald Spengler – The Decline of Cultures

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>Originally posted June 03, 2007.

Excerpt from the Sick Of It All song Just look around (1992):

The question they keep asking me
How can one so young be so bitter and angry
Well, the answer is plain to see
Maybe if they weren’t so blind they’d see what I see
I see the homeless livin’ out on the street
on every corner they’re asking for money
I try to help them whenever I can
but sometimes I can’t afford to help myself
I see diseases and modern plagues of our times
The greed of our leaders has made them blind
to our problems, they spend millions overseas
people right here are fightin’ wars everyday

I see the whites that hate the blacks
blacks against the jews
race against religion
and they’re all too blind to see
…

So you digest that for a moment. Take a look around. What do you see? It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the world is marching towards death in the fast lane, speaking of morals, art, spiritual beliefs and the environment.

Oswald Spengler (1880-1936), german philosopher and historian, took this look around and came to some mighty fine conclusions. He summarized those in 1918 in his book Der Untergang des Abendlandes (The Decline of The West – Form and Actuality), which later on was completed by a second volume, Perspectives of World History (1923).

Spengler makes two clear points:
• That histories of various cultures can be shown to follow a similar pattern
• That all aspects of a culture – arts, politics, mathematics, science, etc– have related underlying principles, which differ from culture to culture

Spengler looks upon history as an organic cycle, rather than linear, that has to pass through the stages of birth-development-fulfillment-decay-death. In the West we tend to look upon history as something always moving forward, evoluting to the better. This, according to Spengler, is the result of the Western man’s ego, thinking that everything in the past pointed to him, making him the center of the world and so on.
The cyclical movements of history are not those of nations, states, races and events, but of High Cultures, each and everyone of equal importance. So when Spengler speaks of the decline of the West, he speaks of the decline of its culture. Thus, the people live on, but their culture is destroyed.

The eight High Cultures so far are:

• Babylonian
• Egyptian
• Chinese
• Indian
• Mexican (Mayan/Aztec)
• Classical (Greece/Rome)
• Arabian
• Western (European-American)

These eight cultures have all had a life span of 1000 years.

Spengler uses seasons as an analogy to elaborate:
Spring is the birth of religion and where the basic principles of this culture are being formed.
Summer is when acts of lasting value and great accomplishments are being made. This is the peak and the cultural prime.
Autumn is when all this start to break down and turn into Winter. We’re there already.
Politics is motivated by money and moves through imperialism. Science no longer reaches certainties. There is much cultural confusion. The arts do not speak from or to the soul of the people, but rather follow materialistic fashions with lots of changes of styles, not asking much from neither the artist nor the people. After a moment of atheism the people will turn to a renewal of religion and spiritual faith, based on the religion developed in the spring of the culture.


Spengler also uses a “prime symbol” for every culture. For example, the ancient Egyptian culture had the “Way” or the “Path” as symbol, pointing to their preoccupation in art, religion and architecture and its symbolism – the passages of the soul.
The prime symbol of the Western Culture is the “Faustian soul” (soul meaning “mentality”), symbolizing the upward reaching for the infinite, which in itself is an impossible feat (which we all know), and thus we will soon face the final doom and the end of our culture.

And so we’ve entered the Civilization phase which is – as opposed to the Culture phase we’ve just left behind – occupied with materialism, continual wars, mass movements of people, environmental crises, rootlessness and lack of vitality, strenght and intellect.
The history of High Culture is the only history that counts, according to Spengler, because pre- and after-Cultural man is simply without history: as man plunges into materialism and advocates the degeneration of his mentality he loses his historical weight.

Spengler speaks of cities, mega-cities, “megalopolis”, huge urban and suburban centers that breed a mindless mob and suck the life and vitality out of the countryside. Religion starts in the open, moves in to the cities where it loses its gist and then dies in the world-cities, engulfed in the flames of materialism.


Spengler is, just as Nietzsche, seen by some as an intellectual precursor for National Socialistic ideas. However, Sprengler didn’t see any bright future for Europe and his motherland, and he defied the Nazi ideas of racial superiority and anti-semitism until the very end. His thoughts on these subjects can be explored in his work The Hour of Decision (1933).
As for the term “race” used by Spengler, he is quoted saying: “race that one has, not a race to which one belongs. The first one is ethos, the other – zoology”. Apparently not the narrow definition as used by the National Socialists at the time.

On another note, in his book Man and Technics (1931) he is occupied with the development and usage of the technical, a development which is unique to the West. His prediction read that coloured people of the Earth will use the very technology of the West to destroy the West.

Public Enemy said it on Fear of A Black Planet (1990):

Breakdown, 2001
It might be best to be black or just brown
Countdown!


For further reading:
The Oswald Spengler Collection
On The Decline of The West from Wikipedia

music, politics

>Tool and die

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>Originally posted April 17, 2007.


NOV 2007 UPDATE: Click here.

The Virginia Tech Massacre.
30+ killed this time.
And still people ask the same stupid question: Why does this always happen in the United States of America – the land of the free, the biggest and best democracy in the world?
To answer this, once again I turn to rap music: one of the few genres where social realism and urban youth is allowed to collide head to head, no holds barred, free from moral restrictions (as we all know, punk and hardcore ought to be like this, but is far from it…).

Back in 1992 there was this pretty strange rap group called Consolidated. Strange because they were white, and strange because they were dealing with political issues on a higher level than most other rappers at the time. They weren’t in it for the fame. And not for the game either. They wanted world wide change. They were the white equivalent of Public Enemy, in a way, and they started already in 1989 unleashing the This is Fascism EP.
Their song Tool and Die is still as relevant today as it was back then, 15 years ago. Sadly, not much has changed. The NRA and the gun lobby are working hard for gun rights instead of gun control.


Download Tool and Die here, and get with the lyrics. Truly great stuff!
No lame bling-bling shit, this is true hardcore.
Can you deal with it?

Consolidated – Tool and Die

Damn, this is madness
its the fourth consectutive week I’ve had this
reoccuring nightmare of a woman who tries to walk her child to daycare
they pass some liquor store
see an average looking kid running out the door
in a moment frozen
they watch as he reveals a handgun
terror in her voice, no sound,
he unloads a round, her son goes down
then I wake up screaming but am I dreaming
cause its just another day
so many killings repeated until people have no feeling
when every two years guns take more
american lives than the whole vietnam war
Six teens and children die every day in gun homicides
and the NRA lobby fool
pay athletes to tell kids to stay in school
whoever said that must be joking
go tell that to the kids in Oakland,
DC. Detroit and Newark
and you wonder why kids don’t do their homework
the school is a warzone
teachers and students alike are afraid to leave home
hallways are an innocence tomb
the principal’s office a grieving room
this is a malignant cancer
guards and metal detectors won’t be the answer
hundreds of thousands of students say
they carry guns to school daily
growing up with fear and panic.
Bang – Nine – Automatic!

It’s genocide
America has the most homicides
Society devouring its own young
Take away the guns we need gun control

How can we stop the violence
when everywhere we look is the image of gun death
the Rodney King explosion is just one result of inner city erosion
take away all hope and kids will turn to robbery and dealing dope
you don’t care about elections
what urban youth want is protection
from a life of war
could be the Iraqi war or war in the Filmore
There is no more tragic sight
than a heavily armed youth with no respect for life
The leading cause of death in African American males under thirty five
at the funeral the friends will cry
but on the streets they tool and die
and Hollywood has done
more than anyone to glamorize the gun
movies, music and TV.
Its Genocide…can’t you see…
Got to take the profit out of crime
stop glamorizing death on primetime
Cities are the only places
where kids are waging arms races
in suburbs and rural areas
Across the country kids are carrying
three more hours and another teenage youth will have committed suicide
while his mothers crying
gun advocates are on TV lying
to the public
about how people are the ones who kill and guns don’t
until we have gun control
we can’t stop these ten year olds
from going in their father’s closet
were the gun was left unlocked and loaded
Where does it end?
When everyone gets their own piece, dividend

Driving down Guerrero
cut off a psycho kid looked like Sendero
Luminoso, words were froze so
I don’t start talking shit or acting macho
you could get popped in a minute
this is the wild, wild west and we’re in it
and my kids don’t want to play
when they have to worry about ducking spray
or two drunks having an argument
in front of our apartment
when I hear that sound
I yell: Everyone get inside and get down!

politics

>Living with the dying

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>Originally posted February 12, 2007.




Global warming.
It’s a fact.
And a terrible threat.

So what can we do about it?
I truly believe that it’s already too late. We’ve fucked with nature for far too long, being far too ignorant and failed to see the consequences of our utterly stupid and egotistical actions.
I believe in the apocalypse now.

I believe that when and if I reach the age of, say 70 or 80 (in year 2050 or something), we’ll see the beginning of the end quite clear. It’ll probably happen much sooner, but hey, I’m trying to be optimistic here…
Some people I talk to seem to have forgotten about the extremely disastrous Katrina already. And look at Jakarta right now. There’s natural disasters happening all the time and I wouldn’t be surprised if they soon got to our territory as well. In a way they already have…
Remember Gudrun, Swedes?

Sure, there’s always been big, drastic changes in nature. No newsflash there. The thing is that this time it’s happening incredibly fast. A quick example:
The ten hottest years on record have all occured in the last 14 years. Five of them in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005. That ought to ring a bell, baby. A bell of doom.

On another topic: I got into a long discussion the other day about the future and stuff like that, and a friend asked me if I didn’t want kids of my own. Sure, it’d be cool as hell raising a child, but looking at the world today I would never do it. What kind of world would this poor child enter? What kind of future are we looking at? And top that with all the fears and fuck ups you have to live through just being a regular normal human being. No way I’d place another baby here. I’m simply not that sadistic.
I’m thinking about the child here, not about my pity self.
Let’s face one horrible truth: The child would suffer and face a future not worth facing.

Apparently, I’m a humanist, and the best thing would be if this whole godforsaken planet and all of its futile inhabitants got wiped off the map of the universe forever. That’s my humanism right there.

Back to topic. Global warming.
I really recommend you watching An Inconvenient Truth, an astonishing documentary on Al Gore‘s campaign to make the issue of global warming a recognized problem worldwide. Oh, if he’d been president…

Watch the movie. That’s the least one can do.

“And so, to the end of history, murder shall breed murder, always in the name of right and honor and peace, until the gods are tired of blood and create a race that can understand.“
George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright


By the way, Living with the dying is a brilliant song by Night Sun, a 70’s progressive hard rock band from Germany that you really ought to check out. They only made one album, Mournin’ (1972), and it’s bloody amazing.