Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Goatlab Radio September 2009

New show up!!! Rock it out!!

Tracklisting:

1. Milanese vs Run DMC - Cold Adidas (Bun-E) [rar download link]
2. T-Toe - Big Girls (Ideation)
3. Gusset - Databent UrbEx (Weft)
4. Michael J Rocks - Stop Breaking My ARP (Ninja Columbo ZoMbfree)
5. Pidgin - Crash (Dub)
6. Monster Zoku Onsomb! - Children of the Atom [Mirra & Fay remix] (Death$ucker)
7. Sneaky - Open House (Big Chill)
8. Propa Tingz ft Dakini - Babylons Scared (Freaks of Nature)
9. Gasman - Cliq (Centrefuge)
10. Sine Hacker - Consequence (Weft)
11. Sunken Foal - A Beard of Mercury Switches (Relay)
12. Kamerat Tord - The Billow Maidens (Death$ucker)
13. Seekae - Crooks (Ideation)
14. Endah - Your Soul is Mine (Ninja Columbo ZoMbfree)

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Framing Concepts - How to Force Your Ideas on Others

Politics is a dirty business and you can see this in action in the facinating discussion about how politicians use the idea of 'framing concepts' to shape what we think - so for example, the War on Terror - is a war on a state of mind and so by definition all the normal concepts of a war are shifted so the people waging that war can amass power over us against a nebulous foe and with uncertain outcomes.



I have noted these before; Derrick Jensen talks about this in his work; about how big concepts are slipped past us in the framing of questions, so he says a news anchor says "How can we get the US economy to grow?" in that are framed a number of assumptions - that you want the economy to grow, that you want there to event be and economy and that you want there to even be a US at all.

You also hear it where the media refers to Israeli Settlers' whereas the word for somebody moving into another persons land is actually 'Colonisers' and so changes the framing of the debate.

The Nature of Evil: It's In Us!!

A must-listen talk by the social psychologist Phillip Zimbardo on the nature of evil...



In a nutshell, evil is less within us and more within the structures we live within - normal people who are not sadists, in the wrong circumstances, in a matter of days can become the sadists we see in Abu Graib. It is mindless obedience to hierarchy that kills more people than disobedience to laws. The people at the top of a hierarchy create the system that breeds evil in people who would not otherwise do so. The irony is that Bu$h and Bliar in their war on evil, created a system of evil in the process. (A point John Gray warns us of!)

But there is also message that none of us know what we will do if faced with the same situation - we all have this capacity for evil. Our protection is to ensure that we do not allow the hierarchy systems and/or personality cults that encourage it.

On the plus side heroism is the same - we all have the capacity to do good in such situations...

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Get A Brain, Morans!

Here's a link to brighten your day...(though sadly a Facebook link so you've got to login to see it). It is photos of right-wing protest signs with hilarious spellings, like:



I do lots of spelling errors and grammar errors, so I sympathise, but if you're going to tell people they are morons via big sign: spellcheck.



Venezueia? Where the hell is that? Come on people!

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Glenn Beck is an Idiot

Recently James Murdoch did a big speech to basically say that the BBC are evil and only his dad (Rupert) making shit-loads of cash can save us. It was a crock of shit and was there only to push News International's business agenda. I was going to write something on it, but Charlie Brooker did it much better;

Yes [Murdoch] refers to the BBC as "state-sponsored media", because that makes it sound bad (although not quite as bad as "Satan-sponsored media", admittedly). He evoked the goverment's control of the media in Orwell's 1984, and claimed that only commercial news organisations were truly capable of producing "independent news coverage that challenges the consensus".
...
Another great example of independent consensus-challenging news coverage is America's Fox News network, home of bellicose human snail Bill O'Reilly and blubbering blubberball Glenn Beck. Beck - who has the sort of rubbery, chucklesome face that should ideally be either a) cast as the goonish sidekick in a bad frat house sex comedy or b) painted on a toilet bowl so you could shit directly on to it - has become famous for crying live on air, indulging in paranoid conspiracy theorising, and labelling Obama a "racist" with "a deep-seated hatred for white people or white culture".


So who is this Glenn Beck? He's a total nut-job who it is best to see in action - here he is failing to spell 'Oligarch' (he calls it 'Oligarh') even though it is the centre-piece of this nutty presentation and also saying he is tired of people being sheep then demands people go where he tells them to go. (I know I spell stuff wrong and do typos all the time, but I'm an amateur and don't get paid to do this!!!). Enjoy.

Monday, September 07, 2009

Bookfair & Top Gig!!!

This weekend sees the excellent Anarchist Bookfair! One not to miss with lots going on to feed your brain!

See more on it here.

Also that evening the amazing Gary Glail is playing!!



Not to be missed!!!!