But still very funny.
Tag Archives: Culture Jamming
REPRODUCTION ET AL
By Glen Maganzini [Written for College Writing]
In our modern age, or at least since the twentieth century, art has been defined on broad terms. Interpretations of what art really is supposed to be are, for sure, more than what is necessary for a subject that seems to have endless bounds. Putting limits on what one perceives as “art” is as comparably and fundamentally fraudulent as putting limits to free speech. To even remark on art, be it performance, drawing, or anything really, is to endeavor to repress whatever the original author intends to convey even if the critic speaks of the work in an affirmative manner. A simple introductory example would be noise music.
Continue reading REPRODUCTION ET AL
A QUESTION…
I was sitting back pondering about culture and globalization and business. You know how some anti-globalization advocates argue that individual nation states should not go with the flow of current modernist, commercial, and economic trends? That these nation states have sovereignty over “global” trends? At what point should we stop respecting culture? In a sense Western business is culture-jamming others countries with our consumerist nonsense. How do we (or should we) balance international business and economic affairs while respecting culture or disrespecting culture? For example, should McDonald’s have gone into France even if the French don’t want our shit? Should we be open economically and culturally to our global brothers and sisters or should we cut ourselves off and just deal locally? There’s no denying that businesses are playing on a “global” field as the textbooks and pundits call it. Is that always a bad thing? Somebody (you know who you are) once told me that we should trade guitars for apples and live in a moneyless society. True story. Ask yourself these questions. It’s interesting.
8 Ways To Culture Jam The Economy!
If you really want to culture jam the economy, here are some methods:
1. Buy stocks without a broker. (Only ownership changes.)
2. Give somebody a gift of cash or receive a gift of cash. (Only ownership changes.)
3. Sell used goods. (Prices can’t be counted twice.)
4. Marry a maid. (The maid doesn’t get paid for household tasks!)
5. Pay under-the-table. (No need to do any financial reporting.)
6. Buy a whore.
7. Gamble amongst yourselves.
8. Buy drugs!
You are on your own. KLYAM doesn’t necessarily endorse any of the above.
Recommended Reading
Incendiary Material:
1)The Catcher in the Rye By: J.D. Salinger
2)Our Band Could Be Your Life BY: Michael Azzerad
3)A People’s History of the United States By: Howard Zinn
4)Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas By: Hunter S. Thompson
5)Bill Hicks: Agent of Evolution By: Kevin Booth With Michale Bertin
How To Take Advantage Of…
Carnival Cruise Fountain Fun Cards
Step One: Purchase a Fun Card, which allows you to keep buying soft drinks/juice every day on board for a price of $5.50 per day, on the first day of your cruise.
Warning: In order to prevent you from exploiting the system, the card states that only one drink may be ordered at a time. That makes sense. BUT the system can easily be exploited….
Step Two: Buy drink #1 at bar #1. Buy drink #2 at bar #2. Buy drink #3 from a waitress/waiter walking around the pool area. Have somebody else in your group/family buy drink #1 at bar #1, drink #2 at bar #2, and drink #3 from a waitress/waiter. Repeat this process with as many different people as possible.
Quick Note: In case you are worried about being caught…you won’t be! As long as you clearly show that you have a Fun Card, the bartender will not check the back for a name.
Dell Sucks…A Problem With PM Corps.
This isn’t really a thorough, ground breaking analysis but…profit maximizing corporations suck. There is no excuse and here’s why: Dell, maybe you own a computer made by these guys, utilizes a strategy called 3-7. It’s pretty simple, three out of ten computers are efficiently produced and are expected to be immune from any major problems. The other seven computers will be prone to problems and will require some kind of repair work. This business model works out wonderfully for Dell because people who encounter a computer that requires repair will send it back for service (back to India where the repair will be incredibly cheap) OR buy another computer (Dell hopes it’s one of their “3” models that costs only $500) all together, figuring it’s too much of a hassle to wait for a repair. Dell doesn’t mind repairing computers or assisting people in their difficulties. Their cheaply manufactured products will make them a shit load of money in sales and cost them only slightly in expenses and production. This kind of profiting off of bad things happening is not uncommon. It’s been around for years — the automotive industry has been a consistent example over the years of purposely making shoddily and unsafe parts and accessories. That’s because the cost of repair (paying damages to victims of an “accident” OFTEN subsidized by the government through TAXPAYER monies) is minutely important relative to profit, which will always be there. It can and has been argued that many industries make money off of bad things happening. And honestly I don’t feel like I am in the business to propose a lasting solution to this terrible problem. Social business is a start, perhaps most feasible in an industrial age like ours.
Jam…
…the Iraq War and the Military – Jam mainstream “embedded” accounts of the “war on terror” and the military appartus by reading Blackwater by Jeremy Scahill. Scahill does an excellent job exposing the hypocrisy of Blackwater and its status as a “security” provider, even though it acts as a mercenary, tragedy profiteering, non-law abiding entity.
…Globalization and Branding – Jam these ideas that are detrimental to countries and peoples near and far by reading No Logo by Naomi Klein. Klein takes a nice stab at lifestyles that multinational companies strive to create through branding. Klein argues that branding and extensive marketing has replaced focus on individual products, cutting worker wages and labor conditions since product manufacturing is constantly being moved overseas at a very low cost to multinationals.
…Corporate America – Jam the wealthy (and their large corporations) who enrich themselves at the average taxpayers expense by reading Free Lunch by David Cay Johnston. Johnston makes a great point that our economic system is mere corporate socialism, quite far from Adam Smith’s free-market theory. Corporations can easily acquire the backing of the government (and the coziness surrounding this), making taxpayers fund “private” projects that they may have absolutely no idea about.
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 