Updated Reading Schedule

Leaders Sec. 002:
12/01
Nature at the Mall: Linsday Balfour

12/08
Collapse: Chap. 16 "The World as a Polder: What does it all mean to us today?" (p. 486-525): Dani Battaglia
How Sustainable Agriculture can Address...: Shali Das & Megan Sawyer

Leaders Sec. 003:
12/01
Nature at the Mall: Anastassia Fulmer

12/08
Collapse: Chap. 16 "The World as a Polder: What does it all mean to us today?" (p. 486-525): Letao Zhang
How Sustainable Agriculture can Address...: Alexis Newton & Jim Christian

Action & Hope: A Durable Future

I'll admit that the data and material we have seen can be a bit of a downer. What we humans have we done to the planet, intentionally and unintentionally, has inevitably caused some major ecosystem disruption and irreversible change.

Is this all bad though? Can we "fix" it? Create a cleaner and more eco-friendly world?

What about The Green Revolution?

We are at the dawn of what some are calling the largest revolution on the planet. There are more people waging for change than ever. We don't have to live in a dirty dystopian future! What gives you hope about our future here on planet earth? What have you learned, seen, experienced, that has made you take action is some way, however small... however big...?
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Image from Fritz Lang's 1927 silent, 'Metropolis'

Bill McKibben, Activist, researcher, and author of the National Bestseller 'Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future' and creator of 350.org, refers to himself as "a professional bummer outer", though his bestseller is anything but. A must read.

What is dystopia?

Top 50 Dystopian Movies of All Time

Technology & Time

What do allow in your life, in terms of technology? Is it a technology free for all? Do you limit your computer, cell phone, or "media" time, and why?

Has taking this course encouraged you to reconsidered the amount of technology and media in our every day lives? From the ipod, to the cell phone, televisions, facebook, emails, indeed, sometimes it just feels like too much.

What can we do to be sure to include/integrate technology, but not let it over run our lives or take too much of our time?

What about being sure to include more organic experiences in nature? Is this component essential to you in any way? What do you think about the notion that we have created a world that makes us feel excluded/separate from nature, when indeed, we are nature?

CULTURE JAM! "Autumn"

Malaise (n.) 1. an indefinite feeling of debility or lack of health often indicative of or accompanying the onset of illness. 2. a vague sense of mental or moral ill-being

"Obviously we are becoming a group of people who are very distracted and constantly need some form of entertainment, how can we change back into a society that is more independent and less reliant on consumption to entertain us?" -Emily Maier

"There is "the idea of consumerism and the media making us more detached and less considerate towards nature. Technology has detached us from nature." -Laura Gillmore

Commentary and Questions by Emily Maier
Reading Overview
There are many factors that go into our mental pollution. These pollutants affect our bodies and actions because they begin to control us. Lasn covers the main parts of our world that affect our mind pollution: noise, jolts, shock, hype, unreality, erosion of empathy, information overload, infotoxins, and a loss of infodiversity. These things all affect our actions and our minds in different ways, but overall it is making our society “shaped by the electronic mass media environment.

Core Points/Arguments
•Our society is highly influenced by advertisements because they are everywhere
•These advertisements are not always true and they cause us to have an information overload
•We have to be able to sift through the information to know what is true and what is not
•We are very disconnected from nature and if we try to completely immerse ourselves in nature, most people would no function properly
•People are developing mental problems because we are almost entirely media based and not based on feeling and instinct
•People are forced to constantly be on guard and never able to relax, our idea of relaxing is to sit in front of the computer or the television where we receive more information

Notes
•This chapter helps identify the problems that cause us to consume and be completely reliant on electronic mass media
•We know how consumption leads to many of the pollution problems that effect our environment
•Being more focused on the electronic mass media, we are less in tune with our environment and less likely to notice or do something about the problems that we are creating

?
There is a cycle because the sponsors have control over what the media can or cannot publish, then that forces news to be about mundane events that should not be a big deal, and then that inspires people to be upset about the small things because they will be validated. How can we overturn this cycle?

Discussion Template: ADBUSTERS

Hey class, sorry I had to canceled today. Here are some notes from your colleague, Natalie Freilich, which we would have gone over together today. Feel free to comment or add your own response, for sake of participation.

"Major Companies are trying to keep their multi-billion dollar industry afloat and prospering by subconsciously brain washing us into this media/advertisement/consumption culture cycle that we cannot get out of. It is time to stop and take a step back to see how we are being manipulated." -Natalie Freilich

Key Tensions/Questions Generated by the Reading
•The range of Adbusters’ readers vary from high schoolers to people in their middle ages. Who do you think will take the most action to change their lives? The cynical youth or the tired adults?
•What can we each do to diminish major corporations and brandings hold over our lives?
•Is branding and monopoly the same thing? If one is removed will it diminish the other or will one continue to flourish on its own?
•The youth controls what is “cool.” How did we psychologically make branding the most important things in our lives?
•Do you seek the truth behind what your professors say? Or simply write down your notes to pass the class? Do seek further information?
•Have you made some change lately? Step out of the box and take a look at your life – do you want the American Dream or your own?

Definitions/New Terminology
•Mental Detox: The act of stepping away as much as possible from technology and proceeding to live your life for a period of time without it. To stop living virtually and begin to experience life in real time and the real world around you.
•Neocon: A liberal who has turned conservative. Usually from an intellectual community. Modern liberalism has not turned out the way they wanted so they switch to neoconservatism. Some have dropped out of the government and gone into colleges and the media futher influencing others.
•Heterodox: not conforming with accepted or orthodox standards or beliefs.
•Branding: the promotion of a particular product or company by means of advertising and distinctive design.

Notes
•Major corporations have led to major consumption, which in turn has led to increased destructiveness of our environment. As we learned at the beginning of the year, more people know of the Mercedes Benz car logo than what poison ivy looks like.
•Wanting to become a graphic designer with advertisement, that would perhaps entail me working for one of these large corporations. AdBusters has made me aware since last year of the negative effects of large scale branding. If possible, I would like to work on a smaller scale with smaller and local companies, improving their design and logos.
•Declutter, declutter, declutter. Declutter information, stuff, and propaganda.
•Anyone can do this, it is not limited to the youth or the old.

Adbusters Articles, take a look (links below):

Neocon Indoctrinataion
A Textbook Insurgency
McCrriage of Justice

Adbusters & Kalle Lasn's 'Culture Jam'

"Dreams, be definition, are supposed to be unique and imaginative. Yet the bulk of the population is dreaming the same dream. Its a dream of wealth, power, fame, plenty of sex and exciting recreational opportunities." -Kalle Lasn

“Face the absurdity of the human condition, not to master the chaos, but to create within it.” —Simone De Beauvoir