Dan M. quoted the Star Trib article thusly:
"most people don't have time to bone up on the complexities that government must address. They go with what they hear, and they hear those with the biggest advertising budget." http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/5377462.html
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The irony of this statement is beyond compare. What is the Star and Trib other than a huge organ of "public relations" for various factions with "deep pockets."
The Star-Trib exists to sell cars, mostly, but also real estate and consumer electronics and such. The mainstream media is an extension of the car dealership, the real estate office, and the shopping mall into the mental landscape of the people. "News" is always de-contextualized and re-shaped to keep people in the mood to browse (or keep watching or listening) with an eye to the ads -- to contemplate buying more stuff we do not need, and that will not meet our real needs, which are of necessity not addressed by the mainstream media or by those who need to seduce us into buying more stuff we do not need to keep those quarterly sales numbers up.
I highly recommend a monthly dose of "Adbusters" ( A Journal of the Mental Environment") as a cleansing agent for all of us who are exposed to the mainstream media. It is not the only medicine needed, but is easily picked up for a moment of quiet revolution almost anywhere.
The article quoted is a clear example of the way in which the Star & Trib -- and other media outlets -- absolutely parrot the desires of people with "deep pockets" under the thin veil of "analysis." Our political discourse is distorted and impoverished by such journalistic tripe.
I am reminded daily of the Minneapolis 7th and 8th grade students I spoke with recently. We continue to burden them with unspeakable debt, with an ecosystem in collapse, with a geopolitical system edging closer toward terrible asymmetrical warfare which includes extensive use of increasingly terrible weapons on all sides. we continue to burden them by doing the same things over and over again even though we are making their future more frightening.
The media and political establishment are waging a concerted campaign to steer public opinion toward building another professional sports stadium in Minneapolis.
I predict this:
1. It does not matter who is elected to public office. The stadium will be built.
2. Actual public opinion does not matter. The stadium will be built.
3. Taxpayers will pay most or all of the cost of the stadium, plus the huge financing costs. Any deal done today to placate those who oppose this will be whittled away over time.
4. Political deals on this matter will serve only as tools to shoehorn the project into place. These deals -- or tools -- will be discarded and replaced here and there with adjustments which will transfer more wealth from the poor and middle class to the billionaire and millionaire owners and players of the professional sports entertainment industry.
This is an example of "corporatism" or "fascism" operating at the local level under the guise of democracy.
We need to spend on sustainable urban infrastructure, and yet we are being "turned" to spend on subsidy for a model of culture and infrastructure that is self-destructive.
Listen to Congressman Roscoe Bartlett's interview on Global Media. Pick up "Powerdown" by Heinberg or "toxic Sludge Is Good for You" by Stauber and Rampton. Even Diamond's "Collapse: How Civilizations Choose to Fail or Succeed" can serve as an antidote to media PR. As a culture, we are choosing to fail by operating under assumptions that are not valid. we are destroying the resource base and habitat we rely on, but the minority who benefit from the current system are too comfortable to make meaningful changes. This resistance to change must be transformed to openness to change. Let's build sustainable transportation infrastructure rather than a new stadium. Let's play baseball in the parks.
-- pedaling for peace and ecojustice/Lynnhurst for now -- Gary Hoover
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