Interesting song which points out what really sucks about nowadays...

Well, I hate racist blokes, telling tasteless jokes,
And explaining where people belong.
I hate ignorant folks, who pay money to see gigs,
And talk through everything fucking song.
I hate people in nightclubs, snorting coke,
And explaining where you're going wrong. 

Well, if you agree, come hate it with me,
And feel free to sing along.
And it goes la, la la la la, la la la la, la la la la etc.
And it goes la, la la la la, la la la la, la la la la etc

And I hate pointless status updates on Facebook,
'FYI', we were never mates.
We pretend to be friends on the internet,
Yet when in real life we have nothing to say to each other,
Oh, brother, I've love for my mother, 
For good times, for music and for my mates.
Yeah, I love and I live, and I have love to give,
But sometimes, all you can do is hate.

And it goes la, la la la la, la la la la, la la la la etc.
And it goes la, la la la la, la la la la, la la la la etc

I hate them fussy eaters, you cook them fajitas,
They only eat pizza and chips.
I hate stepping outside for a smoke, and some guy coughs,
Like your lungs are his.
And I hate queuing up for festival toilets,
Especially when you need a shit.
I hate the X-factor, for murdering music,
You bunch of money grabbing pricks. 

And it goes la, la la la la, la la la la, la la la la etc.
And it goes la, la la la la, la la la la, la la la la etc

And I hate them magazines, aimed at insecure teens,
They make ten year olds race to throw up.
"Hey kids lets be anoerxic", or better, eat chocolate 'til you throw up.
Keep your Hollywood stars, in their stupid cars,
And the botox, that makes them looked fucked.
Just grow old with grace, have you seen Cher's face?
It looks like it's been hit by a truck.

And it goes la, la la la la, la la la la, la la la la etc
And it goes la, la la la la, la la la la, la la la la etc
And it goes la, la la la la, la la la la, la la la la etc
Read more at http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107859429811/#D2u6X52fvVF5IrU6.99 A wanderful passinger

If you can't beat them,join them.Just a proverb or a fact from reality?

I just ended up a talk with a friend who has always been passive towards many issues.Especially issues from a social character that do not concern him directly.But the more i talk to him the more i can hear sayings like:Fuck the system! Capitalism is slavery! Art for freedom! Consumerist cunts! Silence no longer! and so on...Oh yes,in fact ,Che Guevara is his personal idol but he is against saying it loudly because "one should not have idols" So he likes to say that he just appreciates the work of Che(and i actually find this as something very smart but then it seems to me that we are running away from a witch ,who in fact stoped by to drink water  and does not chase us for such a long time ago but still ,we run away as if it does) He also likes to listen to Bob Marley because he is the voice of peace and freedom,according to him.I will not go to an extend where i will comment the work and ideas that Che Guevara  or Marley followed although to be honest i really do not appreciate(at least not fully) them since they are either "kill the enemy" or 'let's get together and feel alright'.

Few days ago i heard" the revolution as a pop product" and that somehow it became fashionable to be/look/sound rebelious.Now,the question is:Who actually made the revolution so popular because i still remember my father telling me that he really liked to listen to Sex Pistols but usually his mates will ask him if everything is alright with him(with derogatory tone) so he would do it only when nobody can see him.

I somehow feel that we live in society in which the anti- system rethorics only cause pro -system outcomes.

I will not explain how this happened,although i can not help myself and mention Lakoff and his theory on "Mutal univision" and his example of "Don't think of an elephant"(But for this ,i will write more in some of my next posts)

Faced with all the global  crises(especially the economic one) and knowing from the previous experience in the past,the guards of the capitalist system(marketing agencies,film industry and so on) knew that there will be attempts for bringing down the system,expression of the revolt against the system,revolutions, so  they (the system guards) offered a plan:a plan of neutralising the revolt by making it popular,thus superficial,a revlot on the surface.In other words:IF YOU CAN'T BEAT THEM,JOIN THEM.

The pop industry useS the revolution as a fashion trend.For example the pop industry used Curt Cobain and his revolt against the life and the system  for its own and for the current system profit and they sold it as a T-Shirt,as CD and other products that only bring money to the system .The  rebelious super hero who criticize the system in fact maintains the system since criticising the system by the model offered by the pop culture(of course only superficially- because saying Fuck the system! does not change much if there are no real arguments and no real actions) is presented as popular and so it just helps the system maintains itself.So practically the 'learned by heart' rebeliousness against the system ,help the system benefits.

The revolution is becoming a  pop culture.So nobody is mainstream today and everyone is alternative.And the ones who want to be alternative say that the alternative is mainstream so they decide to be alternative of the alternative.Alternative,mainstream,alternative,alternative...Mon Deux,i have a headache!And it all goes in hell! Since it seems that being alternative became value itself and nothing deep and nothing more.The revolution is commodificated-commoditized. And it is all paradox.Comodified to that extand that the system sells(something that it is supposed to be against the system) it as its own product and focuses the people not on essential questions such a "social changes" but to individual image/reputation and that is how we are more concerned if we are mainstream than about what is going on and how can we change the system that produces structural every day violence.

And just a small Facebook session of pictures of protests and 'rebelious' quotes make one even more confident about their 'rebeliousness'.But now wander.It is Facebook-the best makrketing tool of the capitalism.

So,I was listening to my friend who was complaining how even the alternative became mainstream and when i aked him:Ok but why dont you just fuck all of this,which seems to me  to be closed circle of who is alternative and who is rebelious and  why don't you just  do something for the things you believe  without labeling it as alternative or rebelious and he said :Oh come on,i don't want to be just like everyone else who is protesting.Protest for this,protest for that.I am done with it.

And actually this made me think very much.He seems rebelious,but then what he lacks?And on the way home I realized:Solidarity! This is what he lack.Solidarity and social responsability.Those are the mottives,the driving force that make us think ,criticise,act.If he had this he would not stay at home critisizing everything and everyone but take the responsability and face the problems.And this is exactly the difference between the revolution as pop product and the real revolution that brings changes.

So let's face it,it is trendy to be rebelious,but it is not trendy to act/think rebeliously.The guys,who point Che as idol do not follow the ideas,the actions of Che Guevara,they follow the image of Che Guevara and wear a T-shirt with his image..So, we live in  ostensible ,imaginary world of revolution.And so we think there is revolution going on.And so that is how we stay calm,because there is revolution-at least we think so.But the question is:where is and what kind of revolution?We do not have revolutioners,because what the nowadays 'critical pop  thinkers' lack is the feeling of solidarity,social responsability because if they had them and felt them the social frustration would lead them to take action.Those are the foremost elements of the real  revolution.Of course it is not the only ones.

I somehow feel that we live in the paradox of "Fight club" life style.We tend to become fight clubers.

A movie that was casted in the studio of 20th Centary Fox and paradoxixally enough that presents alternative ,sub cultures as a way to be out of the system.I do not want to criticise this movie because i am really not introduced in cinematography but when i saw this movie i remember the though in my head: how can such a violent reality that in fact does not awake any kind of critical thinking but most probably just spreads out some kind of violent passivity and runing away be an alternative? 

So let's go out of our clubs,shall we?

Irony:It is repeated often enough and it becomes a truth,indeed.

"If you repeat a lie often enough,it becomes a truth".-the biggest misquotation of the propaganda minister in Nazi Germany,J.Goebbels.Do not get me wrong.I do not want to say that this saying is not valid for propaganda in general.My pervious post on propaganda can only affirm that it totally is but i just want to underline that this is more common technique for the modern propaganda ,than the propaganda in Nazi Germany.I do not say that the Nazi Propaganda did not use lies, but only that Goebbels did not usedit as technique(at least not conciously) and that the so called 'big lie' is not revealing the big secrets of the 'dark art' of Nazi Germany by Goebbels,as most of the members of popular internet culture and admirers of internet quotations think.

What Goebbels in his speech "Churchill's lie factory" has said is :The essential English leadership secret does not depend on particular intelligence.Rather,it depends on remarkably stupid thick-headedness.The English follow the principle that when one lies,one shoul lie big and stick to it.They keep up their lies,even at the risk of looking ridiculous.
So in fact,he has refered to England and the Allies and their usege of  the technique of lying. 

But this quote is for sure true since,it is so many times repeated that it is Goebbels who has said it and that by it he is discovering the hidden sides of Nazi propaganda' ,that it finally becomes truth.

What if we are just an animals which think they are good with the ratio,my dears?

'We must shape a new reality.Men's desires must overshadow their needs.' I believe this sounds very familiar to most  of us who want to make mental gymnastics(so called thinkking) from time to time.And no,It is not only familiar because that is what the father of public relations and nephew of Freud ,E.Bernays said,but because that is the reality that we are faced with nowadays.

And then ,there is one very essential question rising up here:if men's desires has overshadowed men's needs,then, how it all happened and we did not notice it? And even more important ,what are the ideas that the current system is based on?

 Just to give a little hint ,i will quote once again the famous Bernays:If we understand mechanisms and models of the group ,if that is possible ,we can control the masses according to our own will,WITHOUT THEM KNOWING THAT. Of course this does not explain everything ,but hopefully gives some directions. And hopefully it makes You freak out.

So where can we start from if not from the beggining.The very word propaganda comes from the Latin word 'propagare'' which means to set slips .In 1622 in the times of the Pope Gregorij XV  ,in favour of the contra-reformation ,the Pope amen the Sacra Congregatio De Propaganda Fide  and actually that is the first apperence of the word propaganda.

Many times i have heard 'everything is propaganda'.At first sight it seems true but actually it is not.There is a slight difference between what rethoric  is and what propaganda is.Rethorics is the art and the skill to be able to convince or persuade someone.And yes,then everything is rethorics and we all use it,except for the ones who do not interact with anyone.

And propaganda,it is just a part of the whole set of  rethorics ,a subset that uses manipulations with emotions and reasoning.

Of course,like everyone else who is interested in propaganda ,i will mentions Orwell and his 1984.It is a great work,like all of his other works .I can not say that I am all impressed by Orwell as let's say I am impressed by the George Lakoff and his critics on Orwell. Although Orwell is personal hero to Lakoff,the second one clamims that Orwell  failed in many segments when  explaining how propaganda works.

Orwell  claimed that the only way to be saved from propaganda is to let the meaning choose the word.According to him meanings are truth conditions."Words have unitary meanings.If people are told the truth they will reason to the right conclusion-unless they are stupid or ignorant.And ignorance can be cured by truth in good prose."I really like the trust that Orwell had  in the human capacity to be  all intelligent,but unfortunately this is not a matter if one is intelligent or not and  this point of view is not just false but also dangerous according to my personal hero:Lakoff  who actually introduced me to my other two heroes:neuroscience and cognitive science.

I do not want to say that all the people are stupid and as human being we are unable to think and reason.God,forgive me but i will sin(This is of course but a sarcasm since i am agnostic and even more i believe that nobody is so powerful to give me the permission to express my opinion) and say:some of us maybe are a little bit limited (I am not talking here about people with disabilities but about people who refuse to think because it is convinient for them,that way). But generally we are able to reason.But that is not the point since 

unfortunately,we are not capable to understand most of the concepts and ideas (even the very basic one )in our lifes conciously. According to the science,our reasoning is below the level of conciousness and  98% of our reasoning is unconcious.Welcome!

Many times i have heard 'Oh you are so reasonable.Different from you I am very emotional'.Well my dears,not really.According to Lakoff reason is emotional.In other words,we can not be reasonable if we are not emotional.We are not able to do something reasonable if we do not have a feeling about it..The feeling does not need to be pleasurable.It can be also a feeling of disgust.But in any way,the feelings are the things that make us reasonable ,that say to us:look,you will enjoy it.Or you will have use from it.Or do not do it! You will feel bad ,or indiferent when doing it.

In fact ,during a car accident,if the person looses their capability to feel,the person will behave irrationally because there will be no 'landmark' which will give a direction to the behaviour.

In order to explain that most of our reasoning is unconcious , the thought as such should be pointed out.The thought ,in fact is physical.Surprise,surprise!It uses the sensory-motor system and so to one concept our brain reacts in one way and for another idea our brain makes different nural stimulation.But for simmilar ideas our brain has the same reaction so for example as Lakoff will give the example:to imagine to move the brain uses the same areas of the brain as when actually moving.And exactly here we can see  why we are so amenable to propaganda.Once our brain learns one thing,it reacts in the very same way to the learned thing and the learned neural structure can not be erased.Something more that makes us unconcious beings is that we think metophorically.At least most of the time.For example ,we connect quantity with verticality just because x times in  lifes we have seen that when pouring water in a glass,the level of water raises up.That is why we say:the prices have risen up and nobody is confused .And that is why that we do not say:the prices have gone to right.Although i can see some connection but i will try to put my ideological orientation aside.

And yes,this might sound a little bit absurd but then,let's think about it.If we connect quantity with verticality just because our brain has experienced it for so many times and has made neural structure for it then if one word is repeated for so many times,we will have the same reaction to it ,even if the word is put in different conotations.I do not know about you,but i can see a whole room free for propaganda here.

So once the word is learned the same metaphores  and worldview structures are going to be waken up the next time we repeat it-according to Lakoff.

So how propaganda comes on stage here is that we can take an idea and make it as silly ,as immoral as possible and have a lots of people  hear/see/say it over again in long period of time.In the 1960's that is  exactly what the Republicans did to the Liberals.The started labeling the liberals as tax and spend liberals,liberal elite and after so much repeating ,slowly  they got across the idea to lower the meaning of liberal  and present them as elite ,as financially irresponsible,although before it to be liberal was quite popular at the 1960's.Funny,isnt it?.

The modern propaganda is using these techniques in order to propagate an idea and so on and it is not only well written and focused on the emotions and concepts and metaphores but to the whole worldview a person can have.The nowadays propaganda uses the words that people use every days(which means the conceptual metaphores and worldviews that are already learned so well) in a way of ' just as we would normally say it' and just directs them to a desired outcome and here Bernays' saying '...to control the masses according to our own will without them knowing'perfectly fits.So the person or group of people that has/have been manipulated with is not rationally convinced ,but still behave as if they are.

So let's talk about free will,shall we?

There are so many techniques that has been promoted as the 'secret'of propaganda. According to the Institute for Propaganda Analysis in 1938 there are these structuralisations:

-Assertation-enthusiastic,energetic statement presented as a fact ,although it is not necessarily true.

-Bandwagon -appeal to the subject of the propaganda to follow the crowd,just because the others are doing it so as well.The propaganda here pictures a relation of winners(the side that propaganda recommends as 'the one that should be followed') and loosers.

-Card stacking(selective omission)-take an idea and presenting only the good sides about it ,while omitting informations which confront with those statements.

-Glittering generalities-linking words to highly valued concepts.The idea of this technique is to demand approval without thinking,just because the  very word is linked to a higly approved concept(freedom,democracy,love of country,glory).

-Lesser of two evils-to convince the people of the need for sacrifices or to justify some decisions.This technique often is adding a blame to the enemy.

-Name calling-use of derogatory language or words when describing the enemy with attempt to arose prejudices in the public.More often sarcasm is employed as well .

-pinpointing the enemy:simplifying a complex situation by presenting one specific group or person as enemy.

-plain folks:attempt by the propagandist to convince the public that his/her views reflect the common person view that they are working for the benefit of the common person.The propagandist usually use the same limited(often) vocabilary as the mass uses,maybe employ the same speaking accent,imperfect pronanciation and so on just to give impression  of spontanity and sincerity to the public.This is very simmilar to what Lakoff said about nowadays propaganda and it using the already learned concepts so that the public will have impression of emotional familiarity with the propagandist.

-Simplification(stereotyping):reducing a complex situation to a clear cut choice ,oftenly involving good and evil.

-testimonials:linking quotations or experiences of respectable person to an idea or item.

-transfer:to make the subject of propaganda see one item in the very same way as they see other item. Or to link the two in the subject's mind.Transfering bad feelings from one politician to another one or to his party.

Before approaching to an example i would like also to mention the attampt of Professor Galtung who while explaining how media fail to deal with violence,explained very well how propaganda might work.I want to underline that i will try to adopt his theory not on violence but on propaganda.This has been already done by Danny Schechter but i disagree with some of the categories that he used and he practically linked violence and propaanda together .I will try to transfor it and adopt it  on propaganda only.

So this is the theory:

-decontextualising violence which we can name as decontextualising the problem:focusing on irrational explanations while neglecting the real causes.

-dualism:reducing the numer of parties on two.I believe that this technique can be used in order to make the choice of the public easier,because we people like it when it is simple,at least i believe so and more likely to be manipulated while negelecting all the other external factors

-Manicheanism: a mayor gonstic religion which portrays the world as struggle between good and evil.The propagandist portrays themself as good and the enemy as evil.

-armageddon:presenting violence ,or i would say or certain actions as unevitable and ommiting other alternatives.This can be used in war propaganda mostly.

-confusion:focusing the subject of propaganda just on the actual situation while neglecting the wider picture.

And so ,when it comes to the 'dark art' the 'double think' that Orwell mentioned, play very interesting and for me fascinating role."The power to held two contradictory truths.simultaniously,in one's mind and to believe both" certainly sound impossible ,but in fact it is something that 2.2 billion people follow.How wonderful! 

"They who eat my flesh and drink my blood have the life eternal".No,no,no.This is not what a victim of cannibalism said ,neither my personal fascination of gothic culture(although i am not sure how gothic this is).It is actually John and what he said in the Bible(John 6;54).This is actually what J.Miles said in his book God.A biography.

So together with such a sayings the propaganda that the Christian religion used is actually the Orwells' double thinking or truth.We have seen also many religious pictures of saints and their violent deaths and all of this is actually presented as enternal life.So to say it more basically the double truths here is in:eat my flesh,drink my blood but these violent ,painful actions will bring a good one:an eternal life.So do You imagine how this can be used in political propaganda or i am the only one with 'dirty' mind here?

This time ,i will intentionally avoid SSSR propaganda which was based on message of fear and message of reassurance which even nowadays,the fucking  Russian dictator who does not like girls who sing punk in churches ,is using by providng a confort to the Russian masses by saying:yes it is very scary world.But i will do everything to save you.So by avoiding SSSR i will go nothing more and nothing less but to China and relate this to my stay in Lithuania as EVS(European Voluntary Servise) volunteer.

What China added to propaganda as such is as first a contra -argument to Orwell's:Totalitarians are all powerful but they can not get inside you.As i said previously,i really like his trust in the human as thinking being.

But so sorry Orwell,you are wrong.That is exactly what China brought to the propaganda:to go inside of the human or to say it with nowadays popular language :brain -washing.

I was watching one debate on the internet regarding this issue and i really like what one of the panelists said:If in Europe's propaganda there is crime and then the punishment follows,in Chinese propaganda there is a punishment and the masses should find the crime(the justification for the punishment ) in themselfs.To be honest,when i heard this is started freaking out and i run to my friend asking him if i have changed since i was in Lithuania.His answer was:quite a lot.Why i say this..Most probably will be more clear to You when i continue.

I will keep on by quoting Mao:the concious practice of self-criticism is still one mark that distinguish our party from all the other parties(...) dust will accumulate if the room is not cleaned regularly.Our faces will get dirty if not washed(..)All of you know this without reserve.

So in fact how the propaganda in China worked is what Milan Kundela would say:the system gets you to blame yourself.

In fact Chinese propaganda promoted self-reflection which leads to self criticism,then to sessions of confession and it ends with the final product of propaganda 'what did i do wrong ?' or 'what should i change in myself to fit in the system'.

So practically that is the way how the revolutioners were made in China.The system is not wrong,but it faces a problems(punishment).And You,You must see in Yourself where is the promblem(the crime) and only when you change Yourself as the system want ,the system will be ok.You must be wrong,You must be the problem.Not the system.The system suffers because of the crimes in You.So practically the main message here is:You could correct all the wrongness in the world ,if You correct yourself.This sounds very noble,but also very lickely to be manipulated with.

And so,this was the reason why i run to my friend ,all freaked out and excited.In fact,i have been exposed to such a propaganda(i mean propaganda from the simmilar type but with different aims,of course.LUCKILY!) while i was EVS volunteer in Lithuania.EVS is actually called a true learning servise and the official definition by the European Commission for EVS is:The European Voluntary Service (EVS) provides young Europeans with the unique chance to express their personal commitment through unpaid and full-time voluntary activities in a foreign country within or outside the EU. In this way, it seeks to develop solidarity, mutual understanding and tolerance among young people, thus contributing to reinforcing social cohesion in the European Union and to promoting young people's active citizenship.

So ,I was having a mentoring meetings and also group meetings which i could not refuse to attend since i accepted in my contract to have them and druing them we needed to self-reflect  and self-criticise our actions,personal character traits and to improve some things that we find difficult to fit in the current enviroment.But now let's think logically:I was in a project that is approved by the same body that has made the objectives of the same  programme, the same programme  that supported this project  and the question :do i find it difficult to fit in that enviroment  is not so necessary since the answer is for sure :  ! Yes!Because i am in enviroment in which all the rules are set by one body. I remember many times during my EVS i started wandering if there is something wrong with me.Of course to all of that there is another explanation by some EVS experts which explains that there are different EVS stages:at the beggining there is the euphorical period,then it might come depression period,then facing with the reality and reconciliation and adaptation.Different  from most of the EVS volunteers i never had depression and guess why?In fact I had mentor who was not really interested in mentoring and not so professional so in all the 10 months of my EVS i had only two mentoring meeting.But ,i had group mentoring meetings ,which were very intensive and exausting.I remember i was at a training when i heard about the EVS stages or EVS line and i asked if this whole line of different emotions would have happened to me ,if i just randomly migrated to some other country and lived there.The trainer was not sure what to answer but then i continued that before i came to Lithuania for EVS ,i was having an internship in the same Lithuanian city for 3 months and except for euphoria and of course cultural shockes and all the socially natural things that might happen,i never started thinking if there is something wrong with me and how i should fit in the enviroment.The answer of the trainer was:most probably because nobody has mentored you,asked you to self-reflect,to self-ctiricise yourself.And exactly,during those 3 months i was not part of any EU programme  and the only people who criticised me were the people that i was interacting with(just like it happens in life when you interact with people)So no EU body  that tries to promote EU values and European citizenship which is defined as

making young people aware that they are European citizens is a priority of the Youth in Action Programme. The 

objective is to encourage young people to reflect on European topics and to involve them in the discussion on the 

construction and the future of the European Union. On this basis, projects should have a strong "European 

dimension" and stimulate reflection on the emerging European society and its values.

And i remember one of the classes of Political Economy when our professor started explaining how EU created all those programmes to unify Europe in order to become competitive to America(which is a way more unfied continent due to many factors:same language,same educational system and so on).
So now i have something in common with the people from China who lived during Mao.
.Anyway,my point here is not to express my personal opinion on this  but just to present an example of propaganda.So EU has quite wise propaganda system.

   And all of this might sound ungrateful ,because thanks to this programme i had some experiences that i never had(which actually are totally not related to my EVS work)but then,I am quite sure that i  will not let my critical thinking  to be bought by simply being good to me.

Talks against the Sun and hopefully something more

So this is my first post  and as i said in the title of this post i will talk against the Sun(it is a latin saying which means dont aruge about obvious things) since in fact i believe that especially those things that we see as obvious are the things can desribe a lot about the current society but yet i will try to go a bit deeper and try to find something less obvious ,as well. My biggest passion untill now is POLITICAL propaganda so i guess most of my post are going to be somehow related to it .

So thats all for now .