This looks wonderful…sounds it, as well.

Clearly an exhibition worth attending…

We are no longer appealed to as thinking citizens. We are simply flawed units to be prompted into spending more and costing the state less. The propaganda lies not only in the political-corporate manipulation of the public but also – most insidiously – in the way this is cloaked in the language of ideology-free empiricism and the semblance of autonomy: the idea that people are being nudged “to make better decisions for themselves”.

Let’s take the second revolution – in social media. To read the trade literature of the PR and online advertising industries is to be hit by a tidal wave of guff about authenticity, engagement and two-way conversations. In the “era of participatory public relations”, the story goes, “the people have defeated the corporation“. The objective now is to “make your customers a partner in the selling process”. This is pseudo-egalitarian code for the voluntary circulation of Facebook ads. The notion that propaganda is always a state-run, top-down affair provides a cloak for our complicity. Social media’s veneer of openness and people-power exemplifies western propaganda’s habit of masquerading as its opposite.

Although several thousand miles away, I will not be the least in hoping this social experiment is a resounding success…and that the Feds keep well out of it.

Oops!

Reblogged from The Secular Jurist:

Reblogged from Friend Nature:

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FACT: A woman in the military is more likely to be raped by a fellow service member than killed in enemy combat.

A new report from the Pentagon itself shows that sexual assaults in the military increased by more than 30% last year.2 Worse? Less than 5% of military sexual assaults are ever prosecuted.

These women put their lives on the line for our country.

Read more… 320 more words