Friday, April 01, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Recycling As A Crisis of Meaning
I just came across the work of Max Liboiron, a PhD candidate at NYU, who wrote an academic paper called "Recycling As a Crisis of Meaning" in which she argues that the word "recycling" and the graphic 'recycle-reuse-reduce' symbol of the concept for recycling have become separated from any real meaning or relationship to an ecologically impactful action that considers waste management as the serious environmental crisis that it is. She argues that by continuing to propogate the "recycle as an individual's environmental consciousness" we are actually helping to undermine any real civic relationship to the real environmental crises around us.
It seems that the whole discussion about Nuclear Energy relates so specifically to this -- at what cost do we use products (energy sources) -- and how do we take responsibility for the WASTE it generates as a whole society. The individual cannot be the answer. It is the collective, the government, the society, the crowd who must change our very relationship to our understanding of labor, consumption and sustainability.
I loved how she uses deconstruction and linguistic theory to critique the whole marketed relationship to "recycling" as environmental activism. I guess my main feeling, after reading the paper is.... what are the alternatives -- and how do we start to mount a campaign to shift into a different mode of understanding about waste management -- and one that calls Industry to account for the 98% of waste they contribute to the waste stream.
On another note, Liboiron footnotes this article -- from 2002 --- good to read about these actions on the small scale of school lunches and food:
Thinking Outside the Box - article by Daniel Imhoff, reprinted from Whole Earth, Winter 2002
"The stuff of our lives — perishable and processed, luxurious and essential, mass-marketed and handcrafted, manufactured and farmed — arrives safely and conveniently, thanks to a complex web of wraps, packs, and pallets..."
read the full article here:
http://www.ecoliteracy.org/essays/neither-paper-nor-plastic-eating-outside-box
It's not new information, but good to be reminded!
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Citibank's version of "Locovore..."
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| Not sure what Citibank thinks Locovore means... but I'm pretty sure it doesn't involve banking at a gi-normous multinational bank or eating cupcakes.... |
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Obamao
Makes a nice pair w/ Shepard Fairey 'Hope' poster from 2008, no?
Gleaned from Geoff Chadsey's facebook page: "apparently in China, vendors are selling images of Obama as Chairman Mao, called Obamao. The Chinese government are trying to shut these down, worried that this hybridized cult of personality will become a new icon for a new democracy movement."
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Friday, December 17, 2010
Saturday, November 13, 2010
InfiniteBody: Topiary's "Landscape"
InfiniteBody: Topiary's "Landscape": "I wasn't sure where the evening was headed when C. Ryder Cooley sat high atop a platform, strumming a ukulele and singing, in a twee folkie'..."
Friday, July 16, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Ahab Parallax
amazing to think about
whale hunting as the 19th century's unsustainable energy lust
all that New England wealth
amassed from killing cetaceans
for their black gold
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Our Fix-It Faith and the Oil Spill
Our Fix-It Faith and the Oil Spill
Alex Brandon/Associated Press
OCEAN MARVEL A deep seas drill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2006.
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Published: May 28, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
Friday, October 23, 2009
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
46 more days to go
1)
working folks stand up for themselves
the US in the icaran free fall
criminals scatter into the media
frost nixon makes it to the screen
the long cold winter, a prank phone call on democracy
presidency stolen, presidency returned
thieves alight, old economies topple down
london bridges falling like the value of the pound sterling
barber shops for car industry concessions
labor gets a hair cut and the banks go rolling down the hill
the carbon footprints
all that remains of our old chemical economy
2)
republic windows and doors sit in
on the rachel maddow show, it’s monday, 12-7-08
and bank of america is refusing to give the company a loan!!!
workers negotiate with the bank that owns their factory,
gave its employees 3 days notice
before they shut its doors
and so the workers sit in
demanding their vacations and some severance pay
who controls whose assets?
workers hold their old furniture, the office supplies,
the windows of the republic, yes, its doors
as yet unbought and uninstalled
while bank of america gets our bailout billions
massive protests planned for chicago
obama expresses his support
and when the president says he’ll get behind that
it's time for us to fight
as long as its going to take,
the rights of 17 years
the united electric
in work we stand.
Meanwhile,
9/11 suspects plead guilty
the day obama wins.
What does this mean for martyrdom and the death penalty?
Does the state become their salvation
or ours?
Are we not supposed to be infuriated?
2)
sho-time weeds
wacky women fucking up in the suburbs
stepford scissorhands
jumpcuts in generations
children fucking cocaine
the degeneration of californication
the shift from absurdism to teenager soap opera
poppy edge
poppy edge
lost angeles
left coast, left handed
lesbian luscious vicious
sho time
sho enuf
uncle tom cabins
a restaurant six feet under
cafe funeral palour games
straight men being good to women
while completely objectifying them and at the same time worshipping them
as mommies
Are we not supposed to be infuriated by this?
3)
Admiral Shinseki stepped down when he was ignored by Rumsfeld
someone always has to be right about troop surges.
Obama’s new thumb in the eye appointment as the head of VA,
Privateer blackwater mauraders charged with manslaughter,
How many more insults to Rumsfeld can we muster?
(It’s not like Mayor Ray Nagan as the head of FEMA.)
The Japanese-American Vietnam war vet with decorations
he lost a foot in battle,
true heroism is always a lost limb or something lost....
Kennedy's war replaced another Asian racism
hip hop for the corporate set,
he’s so low profile, can he lead such a big obstacle?
The massive challenge of the VA
like the big 3 auto makers
behind the times, not receptive to the needs of their customers,
failed to innovative, failed to experiment with new technologies
the VA needs its massive bailout too
and what should we do about the private security contractors
guys with guns this deeply involved in our operations
will they get to visit the VA too?
what will end the rumsfeld era?
the stop gap measures
our addictions to hired guns
bad for the military, bad for civilians, bad for troops on the ground
the competitive 6 figure money dynamic
and the way that money sits among
a community of vets with their hospitals crumbing
and now the taliban are a semi permanent presence in 72% of afganistan
tell me again, why are we telling people 1/2 way across the globe
who should make their rules?
oh israel, oh zion
our addiction to that holy sand
the quality of the everlasting sun
the most blessed of all land
we all remember
we all dream
we want our right of return
and that salt of the dead sea
4)
there is always the poignancy of Ron Howard
having voted for Nixon in 72
and after the whole watergate thing
we realize that the person we thought would be the safe choice
turned out to be really wrong for the country
and how crushed we are to have been so wrong
so wronged
5)
Economy in a tailspin
the president pardons turkeys
his passive aggressive disappearance act
foisting the new guys into control
their trial by fire
flames licking our heels
the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire
they don’t need no water
let the motherfuckers burn
Friday, November 07, 2008
the t-shirt
And I realized that for the first time in my 41 years of life, I could and WOULD actually wear a picture of a US President and feel genuine and proud.
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