Comments on: Getting Real (An Election Message from the Dark Mountain)

By: Dave Bradney

Dave Bradney — Sat, 01 May 2010 11:57:17 +0000

I have been struggling to get on with a book called “Against the Day” (2006) by Thomas Pynchon (I liked some of his earlier work).
But on p467 (less than halfway through!) it came alive for me.
Some of the leading characters discover that intruders from the future are surreptitiously living on Earth. One of them manifests and speaks to them (but not necessarily truthfully):
“We are here among you as seekers of refuge from our present – your future – a time of worldwide famine, exhausted fuel supplies, terminal poverty – the end of the capitalistic experiment. Once we came to understand the simple thermodynamic truth that Earth’s resources were limited, in fact soon to run out, the whole capitalist illusion fell to pieces. Those of us who spoke this truth aloud were denounced as heretics, as enemies of the prevailing economic faith. Like religious Dissenters of an earlier day, we were forced to migrate, with little choice but to set forth upon that dark fourth-dimensional Atlantic known as Time.”
As an echo of my own past as a Green Party activist, expressing thoughts that the GP now prefers to keep to itself, this got my attention! And it seemed to fit into this thread.

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 05:31:43 +0000

The endangered real. Yes, the growing sense of unreality has become the fundemental quality of politics today. Here in the US, reality is almost taboo, for once you start tugging on that thread the whole philosophy of consumerism starts to unravel.

Even Earth Day brings that wierd feeling of unreality. Scanning the online earth day video clips from abc news, I came accross the now classic “environmental” reporting about new “green products” and “simple, easy green living tips.” In one, the technology editor shows off a new “earth-friendly” cell phone, made with recycled plastic. Not mentioned was the fact that the mineral coltan, essential to cell phone circuitry, sits under the last stonghold of great apes, and the mining frenzy is wiping them out. The interviewer asked if the cell phone had a “crunchy-granola” feel. She said, “No. It’s really nice.” They sat in a television studio bathed in blue neon (blue is the official color of consumerism, as in blue chip stock, or the sky’s the limit, or growth and profit forever) and reality was nowhere to be found. Or perhaps reality is just not profitable.

Rob Lewis

By: David

David — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 20:27:19 +0000

For those of us who can’t get there, I just have to say again, film everything you can so we can watch it when you get back…:)

By: Simon

Simon — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:04:29 +0000

Rob Lewis

By: Ian

Ian — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 09:42:44 +0000

Rob Lewis

By: Steven

Steven — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 07:02:21 +0000

For those of us who can’t get there, I just have to say again, film everything you can so we can watch it when you get back…:)

By: Rob Lewis

Rob Lewis — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 21:18:54 +0000

Rob Lewis

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 12:29:37 +0000

We will be filming as much of the festival as we can, and making it available online afterwards. Watch this space!

By: dltrammel

dltrammel — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 01:55:55 +0000

For those of us who can’t get there, I just have to say again, film everything you can so we can watch it when you get back…:)

By: Tweets that mention Getting Real: An Election Message from the Dark Mountain (by - -- Topsy.com

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 18:41:33 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Dougald Hine, Damien Austin-Walker, Darren Beale, The Election Blog, topsy_top20k and others. topsy_top20k said: Getting Real: An Election Message from the Dark Mountain (by @dougald) – http://bit.ly/bIdgHC [...]