The Growth Dogma

Just read an article in Swedish magazine Effekt about the connection between what's happening in the Middle East and the currently dominating "growth dogma". In short, the writer suggests that world leaders are hesitant to support the people of the Middle East in their uprising, because this might lead to a severe rise in oil prices - and that rising oil prises, while being a potential problem for households, is a major problem for an economy based on eternal economic growth. Our current economy essentially runs on access to cheap oil. One question posed in the article is why the issue of growth (or rather, the critique of our current "growth dogma") is so taboo. I have some thoughts.

PRODUKT - Revolt . Conquer . Consume (2010)

"Revolt . Conquer . Consume" is the debut album of Sean "Satyr" Tracy's PRODUKT - a New York based machine rock/electro-goth hybrid. While it might be a debut, don't mistake Sean for a rookie or PRODUKT for an entirely new band - prior to starting up PRODUKT in 2004 Sean put in time as guitarist for, among others, Florida based industrial rock act Grim Fairies (with Curse Mackey of Evil Mothers fame on vocals) as well as doing remix work for the likes of Society Burning (see review here), Cyanotic and How To Destroy Angels. So what of "Revolt . Conquer . Consume"?

Making sense of Maher?

Against better judgment, I watched a clip of Bill Maher bashing Islam and Muslim men. It is a truly hateful and bigoted tirade he spews, but somewhere deep in the mess Maher actually does have a point - at least if you cut him a lot of slack.

The Champions of Democracy?

For the past couple of weeks, all around the world we've been able to follow the struggles of people in Northern Africa and the Middle East - from Tunisia to Egypt, from Libya to Bahrain - as they rise up against dictators, protesting unjust and undemocratic regimes. While it is still too early to tell what will come from these revolts, it obvious that the protestors are being met with truly excessive force. Today, there's been reports of fighter jets being deployed in Libya and the past week has seen heavy causalities in both Libya and Bahrain. Where is the unanimous and strong condemnations of the actions of these dictators? Why are the staunch, self-proclaimed (and self-righteous) Champions of Democracy suddenly so quiet and reluctant to make comments?

Changing the game?

I'm getting really fed up with all of these "free market liberals" and proponents of infinite economic growth. No one likes waking up to the fact that the way we current live is fundamentally flawed, but the fact that it sucks is not a valid argument against changing our way of life.