MURDERING CHARLIE SHEEN

Hey, didn't you used to be Charlie Sheen?

I'm only writing about Charlie Sheen because I'm dedicated to gunning down the "Idiot Culture" as long as I can draw breath.

As usual, whenever an A-lister melts down -- or a Kardashian breaks wind -- the media go into a feeding frenzy. A ratings-jacking autopsy in the shiny robes of righteous indignation.

Here's how I see it:

1/ Charlie Sheen was one of the finest actors of his generation. "Platoon," "Wall Street," thank you linesmen, thank you ball boys;

2/ Sheen's personal life is such a space shuttle disaster, that any public analysis thereof makes about as much sense as measuring a doberman to see if it will fit through the cat door;

3/ The media love this s**t.

It's the Idiot Culture.

I don't know what Charlie's problem is. Drugs, booze, mental disorder... Probably all of the above. What is obvious is that he needs help. And yet he's become a bigger hit than ever. That's what sells, baby. Disaster. So stay tuned, if that's your thing, because you're probably going to watch this guy completely self destruct, and it will be sponsored by a brand of hair gel or lip gloss.

Charlie is just the bitter flavor of the month. The names and faces change. When we get bored with one -- and yes, we'll get bored with Charlie -- there's always something new and worthless to latch onto. The point is, we over-worship the wrong things and people. And we love to watch pathetic real-life soap operas play out.

It's in us by nature. Call it schadenfreude. Sociopathy. Willful neglect. Whatever it is, it's better left alone. Yet our Idiot Culture is geared up and ready to feed it. Gorge it with the blood and guts of any luckless bastard or self-serving airhead it can get its hands on.

Unless we turn off those shows and stop buying those tabloid magazines. Unless we insist that any sick person, whether it's Charlie Sheen or a homeless person living in a cardboard box, gets help. Because we're human beings, not just consumers that advertisers can nab at will by acting like sideshow hucksters urging us to step inside the tent and see the bearded lady.

We have played a part in developing a society that cares more about artificial, televised sincerity, than caring about real people and important issues in real and important ways.

In return, our media have helped to house us in the Idiot Culture. And Charlie Sheen is the idiot of the hour. There's something truly tragic about that. All of it.

I know it's an awesome car wreck. And so will the next one be.

But don't look.

Best wishes,
Adrian

IF YOU FOUND THIS POST INTERESTING you might like to take a look at THE IDIOT CULTURE.

WIKILEAKS, IRAQ AND THE PRICE OF TRUTH

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange: prepared to wear a target to reveal the terrible truth.

The bile is piling up again.

The Pentagon/government has had enough of Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange and they're firing every weapon in their propaganda arsenal.

I'd like to make just a few points on Wikileaks massive disgorging of approximately 400,000 government documents yesterday.


THE FALLOUT

As you probably know, the documents showed that civilian casualties in the Iraq invasion have been under-quoted by our government, that Abu Ghraib was an ongoing torture house, that the Iraqis who'd teamed up with us killed their own citizens while we looked the other way, etc etc etbloodycetra.

Firstly, it's worth noting the differences in how the media around the world reported this. I stress HOW as much as WHAT.

Overseas, the focus was generally on the war crimes and U.S. lies, and the stories reflected disgust. Here, in the mainstream mass media, nearly everything I read was padded much softer. And there was more focus on -- and TV head shaking over (Diane Sawyer, what a little actress!) -- Wikileaks and Assange.


THE RESPONSE

And so the smear and spin began here. Assange may be charged with rape in Sweden, the media told us. There's infighting and resignations at Wikileaks, the media reported. This latest exposing of documents puts out troops at risk, our officials were quoted as saying in nearly every initial article.

Okay, to answer those statements:

1/ If Assange is a rapist, lock him up. But that has nothing to do with the documents. He didn't forge them. They are real.

2/ Who cares?

3/ Aren't we intelligent enough to be told HOW this will endanger the troops (even without going into grand detail)? I truly suspect this argument is just a ruse. Clearly there is a lot of information that we, as citizens, SHOULD know and aren't told. If we WERE told, the population would see that the troops really do need to be made safe by bringing them home. But the government/corporations don't want that: It would be bad for business.


WHICH IS THE REAL CRIME?

Now, should Wikileaks be stealing government documents. Well, by the law of the land, no. But should our government be breaking international laws? Should it be keeping secrets about illegal activities? (Nixon got booted for a lot less than this!) In short, should it be doing all the things that the documents reveal?

No!

So, once again I say, not all rules are good rules. Not all laws are good laws. Wikileaks broke a law to reveal a much bigger evil.

We as a people in a purported democracy have a right to know A LOT MORE than our government tells us. And being treated like children who just aren't sophisticated enough to deal with it all is getting old. And it is elitism at its worst!

Our government needs to operate more openly. That doesn't include divulging tactics in legitimate, DEFENSIVE wars. But just about everything else.

Our media need to be taken back by the people. The fat cats who've stolen the airwaves and gobbled up the papers shape the perception we get of the world. THIS IS ONE OF THE TRUE PROBLEMS OF LIVING IN THE U.S. It's like living in a box with one selective hole punched in it that we can look out of.

We all must insist that the United Nations be restructured so that the U.S. doesn't have so much clout, and that THE U.N. be the judge of initiating military actions around the world and NOT America!

I also believe that if the U.S. engages in military invasions which are not supported by the U.N., then it is incumbent upon our military personnel to say "We won't go," en masse, and for the civilian population to support them completely.


CONCLUSION

Remember...

The people who run this country -- and much of the world -- the economic and political elites (and these two spheres overlap, of course), in tandem with our media and the PR industry, have a vested interest in keeping things as they are. They are not about to change a system that benefits them, and they are not about to talk the truth about it.

Bottom line: Our government's culpability justifies what Wikileaks has done.

It is the shame of our political and economic system that we have to steal the truth to get it.

Take care,
Adrian Zupp

IF YOU FOUND THIS BLOG POST INTERESTING you might like to take a look at THE MASS MURDERERS OF WASHINGTON D.C. and THE FIRST AMENDMENT BELONGS TO YOU

THINGS TO DO TODAY -- SUGGESTION #7

Engage in just one minor act of (email) protest.

(Click on any of the links below. It will all be done in 30-60 seconds!)


BP Oil Spill:

http://bpmakesmesick.com/


Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START):

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/436/029/495


Media Lies Relating to Climate Change:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/873/247/096


The Food You Eat --

1/ Stop Antibiotic Abuse on Factory Farms
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/205/866/247

2/ Safer Food
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/546/548/820

THE FIRST AMENDMENT BELONGS TO YOU

I write this blog for everyone.

It doesn't matter where you live, what you do, or what your political persuasion. I don't care if you hate what I say: That is your right. My goal is to provoke thought and debate while highlighting problems and offering practical actions in response to those problems.

Most of the subjects I address are patently universal. Certainly they are all global in their impact.

But, necessarily, I most often address specifics that obtain to the United States of America. This stands to reason since -- for now at least -- the U.S. is the most powerful, influential and interfering nation on Earth. (In this usage, "nation" refers to the U.S. government and U.S. corporations and all institutions, instruments and individuals at their disposal in achieving selfish aims.)

So I believe it is very important at this point in my blogging to devote an entry to the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America.

It reads:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

My main concern here, at this time, is the subject of free speech. In America, according to the First Amendment -- which is part of a supposedly sacred document that even the white men who run the planet swear by -- YOU have the right to have your say.

Provided you do not abuse this right -- for example, through slander -- you are protected by the law of the land. Of course, it does take courage to speak up in the face of power and power will often bark back: often with its own slanders and often in courts of law. But whatever may be thrown your way, the First Amendment is still your last best hope of bringing truth to the surface, and power to heel, in America.

And as you can see above, the First Amendment also tells you you have the right to fight the powerful, the corrupt, those seemingly above our reach: "the right of the people...to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

If you are a U.S. citizen it is vital that you are aware of your First Amendment rights and exercise them at every opportunity. Because you can bet that every greedy and pernicious corporation, every dishonest public official, every ego-tripping TV talk show nut job, every journalist and media outlet that gives us less than the whole truth and nothing but the truth, every PR agency that will create Big Lies for a price, every warmonger who profits from misery, every U.S. citizen who would put him or herself ahead of the good of the many, WILL exercise that right to the detriment of the greater populace.

And even if you do not live in the United States, whether you know it or not, you rely on the First Amendment as well. Do all you can to ensure that your fellow citizens of the world who reside in the U.S. do not allow their protection under this critical piece of legislation to go to waste.

This is a big subject and there are many technicalities we could look at. Perhaps another time. My goal here was to explain one important way in which you have more power than you may realize.

Use it!

Take care,
Adrian Zupp

IF YOU FOUND THIS BLOG POST INTERESTING you might also like to take a look at FDR's SECOND BILL OF RIGHTS and A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR THE FABULOUS BILL HICKS.

THE IDIOT CULTURE

Back in the ’90s, while I was still living in Australia, I read an article by Carl Bernstein (pictured) entitled “The Idiot Culture.”

Bernstein, you might recall, was one half of the Woodward and Bernstein journalism team that broke the whole Watergate thing in The Washington Post in the 1970s – the political event that is perpetually trotted out as a luminous paragon of the American checks and balances system.

Bernstein’s article made a big impression on me – despite the fact that it didn’t go nearly far enough in its analysis or criticism. (Bernstein, now 66, still talks on the subject at various venues.)

The thrust of the piece, as the title suggests, was that the Western World is hooked on garbage entertainment. Throwaway icons and shallow creativity. TV shows that woo the voyeur in us. Paparazzi snapshots of “stars” who just don’t matter. Mind-numbing pseudo news that weighs us down rather than lifting us up.

The whole “idiot culture” thing could be a thesis or a book, not merely an article. Actually it has been: Take for example Neil Postman’s deeply analytical book “Amusing Ourselves To Death.” Postman and his ilk – including lauded socio-political commentator Professor Noam Chomsky – posit, correctly, that public discourse – the things we talk about and think about – have moved from the somewhat meaningful to the painfully absurd in the past half century or so.

The net result is that we have become junk-info addicts who are almost completely distracted from the important issues that affect us, those we love, and our fellow human beings around the globe. More to the point, to a large degree we are no longer even aware of what is important. We have been fed sugar-coated rat poison and dragged out beyond the margins of true culture to whither and die, spiritually and mentally.

The simple point is this: If we don’t focus our thoughts and energies on learning about the real and profound problems our planet is facing, and on taking actions to remedy them, then we’re closing the door on hope. Like anything worthwhile in life or history, saving the world (literally) will only be achieved through true understanding followed by concerted effort.

There are some vital things we need to do if we are to survive. We need to change the way the world is governed; we need to see that poverty is put to the sword; we need to end the suicidal environmental degradation of our planet; we need to assign anything with the word “nuclear” attached to it to the archives. And much more.

That’s a lot of thinking and a lot of work. We really need to dig for the truth and see that that truth is served. And we are not going to find truth on reality shows or in tabloid magazines; in the pitiful tirades of TV’s political talk show ego turds or the endless mire of nonsense that clutters much of the Internet. And no, we can’t even turn to traditional news sources or the likes of Carl Bernstein. We have to go to more pure information sources. More courageous ones. And we must find similarly concerned citizens. But first we must want to apply ourselves and not seek addiction-escapism by sinking into the couch and praying to the tube.

While Bernstein was right to rail against our toxic non-culture almost two decades ago, he has certainly been a beneficiary of it. His work on Watergate and subsequent lecturing on “serious journalism” have given him (and Woodward) a kind of demigod status. In a sense, they have accrued credibility in large part because of the contrast between themselves and the lower reaches of the idiot culture. But that contrast creates a false credibility: They are merely at the "high end" of that culture.

The fact is, they – and The Washington Post – are still part of the timid/privatized media industry and are hardly daring in what they do. Nixon was just a twisted creep who made for a good story. He was relatively easy to axe. But where are these pillars of pious journalism when it comes to things such as COINTELPRO, Gitmo, U.S. imperialism, the exploitation of Third World economies, the rape of the world ecosystem, the real and present danger posed by nuclear weapons and energy, the severe lack of democracy in America, or profoundly dissecting their own industry? It’s easy to make a bit of noise about Jerry Springer and Paris Hilton. Taking on Rupert Murdoch or transnational corporations in any serious way is another matter. And that takes a courage far greater.

Do we live in an idiot culture? Turn on your TV and flip through 20 or 30 channels and you tell me. Are we idiots? No, we are not. But the people with their hands on the levers want us to act like idiots. Passive consumers of their faux information and unnecessary products. So far, we've been pretty much playing into their hands.

But we can stop any time we decide we're ready to.

***********

Thanks for reading and check back soon. In the meantime, check out www.democracynow.org for some brave and honest journalism. Yes, you can handle the truth.

Adrian Zupp

IF THIS BLOG POST WAS OF INTEREST TO YOU you might also like to read REMEMBERING SIMPLER TIMES or KIM KARDASHIAN NUDE VS. GAY SUICIDES -- WHAT PEOPLE ARE TALKING ABOUT.