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The perfect background for my monitors at the office
Via Flickr:
Sometimes you find the perfect combination to something without even trying. Today I united The King with Betty White while she holds a light saber. So epic…
Marc The Crab Episode 8 Video
And we are back again with the sexy high girls you love (playing with toys)! Trust me, it is not as bad as it sounds. In this particular rendition of the Marc The Crab series our star Megan has some unforgettable experiences at her new school when she jumps in a mysterious bathtub.
The World vs. Wall Street
Who would have thought, eh? That a few months ago, Canadian group AdBusters was able to start a successful call to protest Wall Street, that many originally thought it was destined to fail. However, when September 17th hit (the date AdBuster had assigned as the official protest day), people reacted. They actually came out and did something! After this original demonstration, the message spread like wildfire and more people continued to join until the movement became global. As of today, the protests have lasted 23 days and they are still going strong.
There’s an air of change. The world is starting to feel… different. It seems as if average people are finally starting to talk in a less scared manner. Folks waving signs that say “I’m part of the 99%” sends a clear message against the world’s class order; a message I haven’t seen expressed in the United States before. Up until now, protests weren’t really targeted towards the system… but more towards individual players or situations within the system. To know that, finally, the once perceived as “perfect” structure is starting to be perceived as unfair… fills me with hope. This shift of minds cannot be stopped. Once people “get it”… there’s just no way of going back to think as they thought before. This shift will certainly increase the levels of fear within the 1%, which will make them either loosen up or become more controlling.
Something great that the Internet has done is to bring organizations such as Avaaz.org forward who have revolutionized the way technology is used to express dissent. What they do is that they employ “live counters” to show instantaneous global support towards good causes. As people sign petitions, or view manifestations, they are aware that they aren’t alone. Their vote will end up being part of that ever growing number right in front of their eyes. So alive and so meaningful. I’m embedding one of their live transmissions from New York, in which people get to see the virtual support towards the Occupy Wall Street movement live.
There’s been quite a few groups involved in encouraging this charge against corporate corruption, and it would be unfair to try to credit a group more than another. However, in its essence, this movement is leaderless. This might inspire criticism in some, but others find it to be the very essence of a successful 21st Century resistance. The idea is thought to be more important than the person, because an idea cannot be killed. Also, people are easily corrupted, and their own personal hangups constantly take away the credibility of their movement. By keeping the movement faceless, anyone can be a part of it. There’s no excuse to not believe in it based on the color of the leader’s skin, or their gender. This technique reminds us a lot of what we see with Mexico’s Subcomandante Marcos and his faceless leadership. Naomi Klein describes Marcos:
“Marcos, the quintessential anti-leader, insists that his black mask is a mirror, so that ‘Marcos is gay in San Francisco, black in South Africa, an Asian in Europe, a Chicano in San Ysidro, an anarchist in Spain, a Palestinian in Israel, a Mayan Indian in the streets of San Cristobal, a Jew in Germany, a Gypsy in Poland, a Mohawk in Quebec, a pacifist in Bosnia, a single woman on the Metro at 10 p.m., a peasant without land, a gang member in the slums, an unemployed worker, an unhappy student and, of course, a Zapatista in the mountains’. In other words, he is simply us: we are the leader we’ve been looking for.”
Another faceless hero the movement is inspired by is V from the work of fiction V For Vendetta. This hero also felt that change belongs to everyone, and that ideas should be more about the “what” rather than the “who.” The “who,” in a society of cynics, can easily be divided, while the “what” is too strong to be attacked. The group Anonymous, a firm supporter of Occupy, constantly uses Guy Fawkes’ masks from V For Vendetta to express this decentralized approach. I find fascinating how the concept of Anonymous has been able to touch people in such a positive way, regardless of its anarchic associations.
Only thing missing is some Fight Club references and the protests would be complete from my dorky perspective.
Personally, I’m quite enthusiastic about where things are going. Not necessarily because I think something dramatic will happen in the next few years, but because people are finally starting to think differently. A different type of thought means a different type of world. Once people stop blindly celebrating billionaires and defending a minority who is sending our world into an unfair feudal-esque era of poverty (in which the world is inhabited by peasants), we’ll be able to advance again as a society. Stop vicariously living through the rich, and just start plain ol’ living. This could very well be the birth of a culture in which we judge ideas independently, without getting caught in a cynic condescending mentality towards “the other.” Something I appreciate about contemporary European nationalism is this concept of pride for your country in a way that you desire to see EVERYONE do well. We should feel it is our responsibility to touch others in a positive way, even people who think or look different than us. We should find humiliating when people die in our country without proper medical care or when we see people losing their homes because it is better business for banks to throw people in the streets. It is not that much about overthrowing the system, but about actually caring and thinking that, whoever has power should also be responsible for improving the world we live in, and should be held accountable.
Finally, I thought of closing this with a quote I read a woman exclaimed during Tuesday night’s General Assembly meeting in New York: “Occupy your own heart,†she said, “not with fear but with love.†This might sound a bit silly to the cynic who lives in us, but it is only with this love that we can truly be united as one, divided by zero. And it is with this love that we can stop rolling our eyes and rejecting good ideas because we focus too much in who is expressing them, because we think we are better than everyone else. Well, got news for you, pal… something you’ve been suspecting since your teenage years as a pimple-ridden dork with low self-steem. You are not special. You are as ridiculous as the clown sitting next to you. And if you want to start being taken seriously by the people who are above you, you better start taking seriously and respecting your peers and the people you think are below you. You will never be truly free until you learn this lesson. “The other,” my friend, is simply an extension of yourself.
#OccupyWallStreet
The Beast Gets Shot With A 1000mg Tranquilizer
Summer is done with. Flowers have withered. The beast sleeps restless. The body undone with a cycle that’s eternal. Dead now, resurrect later with a hungrier bite, a larger paw, a filthier appetite. The other, the object, rejoices in a temporary victory. Enjoy it while it lasts, for I am the Day that follows the Night.
