Monday, May 26, 2003
Here's a story I found amusing. Imagine police officers getting paid to serve Egg Mc-Muffins. Well you don't have to because in Florida that is exactly what they're doing. Now if this were an undercover operation to catch an individual criminal it would seem reasonable enough. However, this was just a ruse to let cops search each and every customer's car as they went through the drive-through. Perhaps a constitutional law scholar can explain to me why this doesn't violate the fourth amendment, cause I'm stumped. Police might argue that they have the right to look through car windows, that there is no expectation of privacy next to an open window. If that were the case would it be legal for the government to install cameras outside the windows of every home in America? Now I'm worried about the window washers at my apartment building, are they cops too?
Monday, May 19, 2003
So I am finishing up grad school and I needed to take an elective. CMU has been rather disappointing with their offerings. Not for lack of variety but for the fact that ones I signed up for were cancelled the week before classes start. The canceling of the two electives that interested me the most this spring left me frustrated, scrambling to find another. Finally, this ridiculous description of an art class in the course guide caught my eye.
Techno-Mythologia
This course will examine the unpopular view that the Internet and Information Technologies are the advancing armies of global capitalism in a war to promulgate an American-dominated corporate monoculture. On the whole, this course will consider how mythologies accompanying emergent technologies are manifest in the larger social realm and how the implementation and acceptance of these technologies affect issues of struggle and power. We will engage concerns of internet dataveillance, surveillance and panoptic vision within the emerging Global Information Infrastructure, analyze the links between technologies of war and globalization, and explore the corporate myth of the so-called "Digital Divide." All of these perspectives will be viewed through the lens of art making. We will pair theory with the practice of art, examining creative ways of confronting these questions through artwork and communicating them to a larger audience.>>>>This course is being offered jointly by Carnegie Mellon's Center for the Arts in Society and the School of Art. The instructor, John Jota Leanos, is a San Francisco digital artist visiting Carnegie Mellon University for the 2002-2003 academic year.
Figuring I would be entertained and that I had no other real options fitting with my busy schedule, I decide to take the class. As it turns out debating politics with college students was less than thrilling. It was disturbing to watch the professor influencing the young students who don’t have the knowledge or perspective to refute his arguments. If you want to get an idea of what the class was like read this, and imagine a man wearing monks robes in a candle lit room asking his class to pray at the alter of Billy Gates.
Wednesday, May 14, 2003
Those who know me well know my passion for propaganda. It started as a design thing. I admired the boldness and simplicity of the American propaganda from the Second World War, as well as the complexity and innovativeness of Russian constructivism. So I decorated my apartment with prints from Canal Jeans, and then bought some museum-hung canvas from Barnes and Noble. Eventually I discovered the Prelinger Archives, a website where you can download some great films. Most of the good propaganda on the site is from either WWII or the cold war. It is an ode to paranoia, and must see for anybody interested in really understanding what it would have been like to be living during those times.
Today I thought I would link to some of my favorites clips. First, a conservative rant against 60’s activism called Brink of disaster. After that check out this movie about Japan, but be warned it is overtly racist. If you like war bonds perhaps I can interest you in vengeance bonds. Lastly, if you thought the conditions in our internment camps for the Japs in WWII were bad you need to be reeducated by this military produced video.
Time to make some popcorn!
Tuesday, May 13, 2003
This has been pissing me off for a while! Our economy is becoming more and more like Russia’s. Crony capitalism, where laws only apply to those whose hands can’t reach politicians’ pockets. We saw it during the Enron scandal, and the California energy crisis. There are so many aspects of this problem, and I will probably write more about it, but today I want to talk about disruptive technologies and Schumpeter’s idea of creative destruction.
Creative destruction is supposed to be an integral part of capitalism. Yet businesses have realized that they can use the law to shield themselves from its wrath. So when new technology arrives that threatens current business models the bribes start flowing and the laws start changing. Perhaps the best example of this is car dealers and other middlemen trying to insure that manufactures can’t sell directly to consumers online. Playing hardball with your competition is one thing, but changing the rules should be out of bounds.
Monday, May 12, 2003
I was listening to NPR on the drive home from whole foods today. They were a bunch of stories about the on going chaos inside Iraq. US forces are spread thin and cannot stop the looting or provide Iraqis with any sense of security. One month after Baghdad fell the situation still hasn’t stabilized.
If the US can’t bring some sense of order to Iraq soon, we risk losing much of the political capital that we gained after the regime collapsed. This isn’t Afghanistan, which was already in ruins before we ever set foot on their soil. If it takes 20 years for Afghanistan to become a stable and functioning nation, few will be disappointed. However, Iraq was a country with functioning bureaucratic institutions and if we can’t rebuild them quickly, it will look really bad. If in the next six months we can’t raise Iraqi quality of life, higher than it was under Saddam we will seem like a cruel and self-interested nation. Who will stand by us then?
In the meanwhile we need more troops on the ground to effectively police Iraq. One way to do that would be to ask France and Germany for help. What you say? France? Germany? Why would we ask them for help? Well the fighting is over, and we should start mending our relationships with our former allies. Chirac and Schroeder could sell it to their people as cleaning up our mess. Bush can sell it as friends returning to our side. Finally, the people of Iraq would be better off, and since we are basically Iraq’s custodians, that should be our top priority.
