Post-modern existential anxiety, or "When it all falls into place"

Let me state right from the start that this post will be self-indulgent and somewhat exhibitionistic, and I'm not really saying anything particularly new or original. The reason, both for the content and this "disclaimer" should become obvious as we move along. Right then, with that out of the way let's get to it. I had a bit of a revelation today.

Renewable energy - problem or potential

The earthquake outside Japan has got me thinking about genuinly clean and renewable energy sources. Regardless of your view on the risks of meltdowns in the Japanese powerplants, it should be obvious that nuclear powerplants aren't entirely safe - not to mention the dangers of uranium mining and disposal of nuclear waste. In addition to being environmentally hazardous, nuclear power - just as fossil power - is finite, localized and therefore controllable. As has been shown through numerous national and international conflicts, non-renewable energy is a constant potential source for geo-political strife and tension - but I believe it is also an obstacle we need to overcome if we are to achieve economic, social and ecological sustainability. There are also parallels with problems surrounding "intellectual property rights", the impact of mp3 technology on the music industry and WikiLeaks.

The dangers of polarization

Last year, The Spirit Level by Richard G. Wilkinson and Kate Pickett made some (although not enough) impact on the Swedish pre-election debates and campaigns. About 6 months earlier, Tim Jackson's report Prosperity Without Growth surfaced as well, regrettably without making almost any noise over here. In April of last year, the Gulf of Mexico was hit by disaster on a major scale with the BP oil spill, and for half a century there's been an on-going oil spill - dwarfing what happened in the Gulf - in the Niger Delta. Add to this a massive global financial crisis, two Iraq wars, the Afghanistan invasion, the Darfur genocide in Sudan and countless other catastrophies as well as a global climate change escalating out of control. At the same time, we are witnessing a severe social, economic and political polarization. This all ties together.

A sustainable labour market

The labour market, and also labour market policies, today aren't really working. In many (Western) countries, unemployment rates are rising, there is a worrying shift in demographics where it seems a shrinking work force are required to provide services (as well as taxed labour) to an growing number of retirees, increased automatization as well as relocation ("outsourcing") of jobs are removing work opportunities. At the same time, overtime is increasing (and recently the government has even suggested that it become easier to order overtime), the wage gap between low and high income jobs increases, and cheap oil - a prerequisite for much of the aformentioned automatization - seem to be becoming a thing of the past.

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.

The liberal challenge

There's been a (quite modest) discussion in Sweden regarding liberalism, and about who carries the liberal legacy, between representatives of the "traditional" liberal party (folkpartiet) and the socio-liberal green party (miljöpartiet). What stuck out to me was the question of whether state-owned businesses can be defended from a liberal point of view. Without actively labelling myself a "liberal" (although I guess in some ways I am) I would argue that the traditional view, that this is impossible, is flat-out wrong. Furthermore, it goes to show how the traditional view of liberalism is not just misguided, it is also highly conservative.

Free seeds or Free trade?

In their urge to please the World Trade Organisation, major multinational corporations such as Monsanto and commodify everything (and anyone?) in the name of that holiest of holy, Free Trade, the Swedish government, through the Ministry of Agriculture, now wishes to impose even stricter regulation on so called "free seeds". The explicit aim, other than simply adopting policies decided in the EU, is to promote agricultural biodiversity by making it easier to sell seeds to "hobby farmers" within the European Union. It's interesting to note that the way to make things easier for "regular people" generally means "getting more restrictions", whereas to make things easier for "corporations" generally means "removing restrictions".

SMP - Coda (2010)

A veritable "jack in the box", Jason Bazinet has worked with industrial giants like Chemlab, 16volt and Front Line Assembly as a drummer - most recently on the 2010 Midi Ghetto Tour in the US and Canada and FLA's (mostly) European 2010 tour. Even going so far as to do three drum-gigs a night for most of the Midi Ghetto Tour (16volt and Chemlab, and also filling in for Left Spine Down). In addition, he's involved to greater and lesser degrees with 64K, Monicom, The Crills as well as the elusive and enigmatic Loyal Opposition. It would be easy to forget he's also founder, only constant and currently sole member of SMP (Sounds of Mass Production) - the coldwave/industrial rock-rap crossover hybrid of a monster. Formed in the early 90's, SMP debuted with Stalemate on the (in-)famous Re-Constriction in 1995 and has since gone on to release four more full-length albums, two remix albums, one mixtape and too many collaborations and remixes to count. Needless to say, the news of a new album in the works got me all kinds of excited - especially since Bazinet announced that 2008's remix album Pissing on the Legacy would be the end of SMP.

Mortiis - Perfectly Defect (2010)

With his roots as bass player in the black metal band Emperor, Mortiis has come a long way over the years. From the first instrumental ambient/darkwave solo albums (as well as side projects Vond and Fata Morgana), to the synth pop/electro-industrial styling of 2001's The Smell of Rain (which saw Mortiis picking up the mic for the first time) and the harsher industrial rock of 2004's The Grudge (by which time "Mortiis" had turned into a full-blown band, rather than being the solo outfit of Håvard Ellefsen). It's now been three years since the release of Some Kind of Heroin, the remix version of The Grudge. During those years Mortiis (as a band) have been touring, working on new material and Mortiis (the frontman, Håvard) has shed the last parts of the mask he'd been wearing since way back in the day. In part as a gift to the fans, and (I suppose) in part as a teaser for the next full CD (The Great Deceiver, slated for an early 2011 release) Mortiis has released Perfectly Defect online.

Better for whom?

It is a commonly held misconception that we need to pursue further advances within the field of genetically modified crops and livestock in order to come to terms with the problem of feeding an ever growing human population. Beside the obvious - we have no idea what the effects of these genetically modified organisms are on the local and global ecosystems - this argument fails to acknowledge the real problem, which is one of distribution of resources and, consequently, power.

Optimize rather than maximize

By now it should be obvious to most that our current way of life is deeply and fundamentally flawed and unsustainable. We desperately need to change our policies and guiding principles if we as a species are to have a future on this planet. I believe a big part of the problem lies in the way we view the world and our place in it - rather than considering it a collection of discrete objects to be claimed in the name of private ownership, we ought to consider the world as the interconnected web of life that it is.

Society Burning - Internal Combustion (2010)

What better way to get started than with a review of Society Burning's Internal Combustion? The first new album of theirs in 13 years - not counting the 2009 releases of State.of.Decay, originally set for release in 1994, or the remastered and expanded Entropy.Lingua.Reloaded - sees the welcome return of Boom, Dave and Twitch. Formed as The Watchmen back in 1991 (hey Dave, still waiting for those Watchmen tapes man), settling for Society Burning a year or so later, these guys put out some of the defining coldwave/synth rock music of the 90's alongside other legendary acts such as Hate Dept., Chemlab and 16volt. Always with a heavy cyberpunk vibe both musically and lyrically. Their latest album picks up where 1997's Tactiq left of, bringing their music into the 21st century without losing anything of what made them so great in the first place.

Re:load and re:aim

It's been well over a month since the Swedish general elections (and also since my last post here), and corporate greed continues unabated with the "victory" of the right-wing alliance over the red-green coalition. The elections also saw a racist nationalist party enter parliament. We're set for four more years of dismantling of what remains of our solidarity and social welfare, four more years of policy aimed towards making the rich richer, at the expense of those most in need of help and support.

Skattesänkarlinjen

Göran Hådén har skrivit ett bra - och hoppingivande - inlägg om hur de rödgröna i Norge lyckades vända ett underläge på fem procentenheter nyligen, samt påpekar också att 1,2 miljoner väljare kan tänka sig att byta block. I en av kommentarerna till inlägget, skriver "Daniel" att Alliansens skattesänkningar leder till "riktiga" jobb, till skillnad från de "fejk-jobb" som skulle genereras av satsningar på den offentliga välfärden. Vidare menar han att Miljöpartiet enbart för en nationell miljöpolitik, och att det är helt meningslöst eftersom miljöproblemen är globala. Jag skrev en svarskommentar som jag tänkte återge här (uppdaterat med delar från ett följdsvar):

Alla dessa opinionsundersökningar

Roade mig lite med att kika på den senaste opinionsundersökningen från Synovate. Det ser naturligtvis inte jättekul ut för de av oss som inte vill ha fyra år till av ökade klyftor, nedskärningar i välfärdssystemen, huvudlös avreglering, obefintlig miljöpolitik och total avsaknad av globala rättviseperspektiv. Men frågan är om det egentligen är så nattsvart som borgerlig media vill få det till.

De isolerade sakfrågornas gissel

Det har inte skrivit så mycket här på sistone, något som beror på flera orsaker. Dels har jag haft mindre tid över på grund av att jag återupptagit mina studier, men en kanske ännu större anledning är att jag börjat tröttna lite på debatten i valrörelsen. Det här valet tycks till stor del handla om mer eller mindre isolerade sakfrågor, med en närmast total avsaknad av större övergripande ideologiska perspektiv.