Direct Participation
* Given what has already been said in this blog about trends in advertising over the past few years, given the 'madoff mentality' of the West's casino economy (gain, but no pain, for a tiny minority, a max of tax tomorrow for the poor majority), given the fundamental flaws of mankind (main flaw : corruption by money), but equally, Man's ineffable creativity, what can be done by the educated citizen to turn this Titanic-economy around ?
* Ahead and surrounding us, the icebergs of over-consumption. The opening of the ozone-layer. More pronounced global warming, as the middle-classes of India and China demand a slice of the pie we Westies have been happily munching for decades.
* Don't get me wrong, let us not abandon ourselves to facile feelings of guilt about the way things were in the past and are evolving at the moment. What we must do in the 'developed' countries is to lead - by example - the rising tide of Asian, South American and sub-continental consumers towards a better future, even if it means, and it will, a diminishing standard of living for the masses of the West. Compared to the fate of the Mumbai miserable, it should be possible...
* Leading by example and renouncing (some of ? most of ?) our former spendthrift ways may seem idealistic to some. However, we in the West, perhaps more than other nations, do possess the technological savoir-faire to make the breakthroughs necessary for the planet in the fields of clean power (see the Portuguese use of wave energy), communications, work practices, health, medication, the environment etc...
* If we decide, in the 'developed' world (this includes Russia), to merely wait and see, which seems to be the case, to allow our industrial society to continue to force-feed consumption through ubiquitous advertising practices in a hyper-commercialised environment, creating huge quantities of waste and a growing urban lumpen-proletariat, we will go down on our Titanic in a surprisingly short time. Violently...
* Not only this, but since 9/11, our societies are becoming more invasive of privacy, more technology-dominated, more secretive and less democratic (LCD ad signs, DNA samples, nanotechnology, embryo research, video surveillance, Internet snooping and hacking…)
* Technology, like advertising and banking, MUST be closely overseen by competent government/ independent bodies to prevent such dangerous deviations from the democratic norm as are being revealed these days
* More transparency, more democracy are the watchwords for today. To imagine our society rushing headlong towards a future of private-security, 'gated-community' inequalities and societal violence far worse than today, is unimaginable to those who have some leverage/ time in this society – i.e. the young, the educated, the politically-aware, concerned parents and retired people. These groups must stand up and demand changes of their local and national representatives in all fields (read Naomi Klein on this)
* In 'Fences and Windows' (Flamingo, G.B., 2002), the Canadian journalist notes some of the areas where citizens must act to protect the public interest against speculative, commercial interests :
- “...keeping advertisements out of schools (...), profit-making interests out of health-care, or news outlets from acting purely as promotional vehicles for their owners' other holdings (...) separating genetically-modified crops from crops which have not yet been altered” (Preface p.XIX-XX)
* As Klein says, citizens must reclaim the space taken over by private commercial interests, “ students kicking ads out of their classrooms, or swapping music on-line, or setting up independent media centers with free software (...) (or creating) farming co-operatives.” And : “...there are some things that don't want to be owned. Music, water, seeds, electricity, ideas...” (p.XXVI-VII). Direct participation is her keyword.
* To conclude, we need to become more involved in our democracy, through or within :
- the education system (as students, teachers or parents)
- local politics (housing, environment, advertising, waste management...)
- political parties (proposing positive ideas)
- Internet citizen involvement (blogging, targeted campaigns)
- media involvement (forums, letters to the editor)
- pressure groups, associations, unions, volunteer work
- street protests, to prove the citizen holds the power (Marx was wrong)
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