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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Independent Media and the Deceivable Majority |
Current rating: 0 |
by Tod Zankert
Email: admin (nospam) inter-nation.org (unverified!)
Phone: 727-417-1407
Address: InterNation, 118 E. Tarpon Ave. , Suite 200, Tarpon Springs, FL 34689 USA |
04 Aug 2002
Modified: 08:27:56 PM |
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Independent media and the deceivable majority |
 Independent media and the deceivable majority |
I began my independent media, InterNation,
with big ambitions. Not only would this magazine function
as a portal to the best journals in the world, but it would
expand such that it would cover the news in the hot spots of
the world, live via satellite, through the
Internet.
The common theme? Using raw
commentary before slick journalism. We would move beyond
the BS- filtered mainstream media for public consumption.
InterNation would ultimately represent more than smart news,
but would help to instigate an intelligent revolution; a
tool to effect news that is untainted by larger media
interests. WHEREAS THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA IS INTEGRATED INTO
THE LARGER SYSTEM, INTERNATION WOULD EXIST AS AN IMPORTANT
TOOL FOR LIMITING THE CONCENTRATION OF POLITICAL
POWER.
I hired on help. Many more people
visited InterNation than anticipated. Emails came from
throughout the world, encouraging our cause. In the
meantime, the 'local' political realities became quite real
beyond the virtual theorizing on
InterNation.
This was instructive. I
learned that my workplace at the Taylor Arcade (as anyplace
where people gather) is a microcosm of the larger politik
among nations. My immediate political conflict began with
the owner of the restaurant, below my balcony. He had other
uses for my space
(see
href="http://www.inter-nation.org/archives/Inter-Nation-Tods
_Journal-Taylor_Arcade.htm" target="_blank">article),
but I was confident: I would pay my rent, and ignore the
unilateral power play of the Super Power, i.e. the
bully.
In terms of geopolitics, the
restaurant is the center of this building. The restaurant
enables the other merchants within its orbit, more business.
People accept whatever comes of this alliance, good or bad.
Recently, I asked the landlord why my
attempts to make peace with the people of the Taylor Arcade
hadn't been reciprocated. "You must understand," he said,
"You want to get along with everyone? Then, you've got to
become just like they are." He added that doubtless I am
responsible for what has taken place here, not the
many.
I agreed with him - this is the way
of majorities - and I added, "Simply because everyone gangs
up on someone who is different, does not necessarily mean
that the majority is right." When the majority becomes a
bunch of pathetic, bleating sheep, what
then?
The majority of the merchants continue
to enlist support from Nick, the bully in the restaurant, to
continue their campaign against me. They are attracted to
him as moths to a light bulb. The phosphorescent light is
artificial, hardly sunlight. But from their meager
perspective, artificial personalities are
secure.
But even Nick, probably himself
wary of this conflict, humored Jason, a friend of mine as he
motioned to my office on the balcony, saying, "I don't know
about him up there, that eye in the sky." I took this for a
compliment.
Later, Jason said: "It's nothing
you've done wrong in the Arcade. You are different, but in
a good way. You respect people. You know why I keep to
myself, and no longer play the game? How I do
it?"
"No, how?"
He smiled.
"Because I can afford to. Otherwise, you've always got to
bend over for those with the big egos, those who think that
all that matters is to be all-powerful, y' know, those that
have a God complex."
Hans Morgenthau, author
of Politics Among Nations, wrote that those (like
myself) who've a tendency to "personalize social problems,"
often demonize their enemies when solutions to conflicts are
far more complex. Yet, later he disparages those
megalomaniac personalities, as Napoleon, or Hitler.
Napoleon rose to power on the tides of democracy, as Hitler
- who was democratically elected into office. Bottom line,
often the majority is uninformed, or worse, looking for an
authoritarian leader whom they feel will protect their
affluence, and security.
As things stand, I
do not have the means to change the geopolitical realities
of this block, not in muscle, not in diplomacy, not even in
soft money! Just kidding. What did I look for? I believed
that even though I am a minority of one at the Taylor
Arcade, perhaps various others throughout the world, seeing
our common thread, would join me. One strand of a rope
cannot hold, but when you add more strands, it is
strengthened and can endure.
I look for
someone to invest in the Taylor Arcade and help me to
continue InterNation.
And from here, take
this cause worldwide! Are you that person?
ps What do I need to raise? Dennis Kappas,
the landlord, is asking $750.000 for this building, the
Taylor Arcade. This is what I need to raise. This way,
I'll have enough to support InterNation, and add a staff
through the leases people pay for their shops. Think about
it! Large media companies spend untold millions to put out
their mainstream garbage, so tell me, why should Independent
Media be left on the sidelines? Help me to build up a staff
and present an alternative to the filtered news we receive
in the papers. Please...support InterNation - and if not
InterNation, INDYMEDIA! |
See also:
www.inter-nation.org
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No Deception - UCIMC Needs a Building More |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
04 Aug 2002
|
Well Tod,
It sounds like you have big plans. And that's OK.
But we here at the UCIMC are just beginning a capital campaign to raise $100,000 so that we can put a down payment on the building we are located in here in Urbana. We already have a thriving media and community center that involves hundreds of people in our area.
I'd ask that, before anyone sends a dime to Tod, they consider helping us buy our building first. After all, even though we are part of the IMC network, you don't see us spamming the IMC network to raise funds for our building. |
