We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, October 10, 2013

CBS’s ‘Mom’: Whitewashing And Mocking The Poor

Click here to access article by Jeffrey Cavanaugh from MintPress News

The author provides a dissection of a TV comedy program as a form of social control and indoctrination so we that continue to accept declining living standards, homelessness, poor health care, dysfunctional families, destitute retirement, etc. Thus, it is clear that our ruling class TV directors are not only interested in entertaining us, but also use their programs to shape our consciousness about what is happening to our lives. 
That “Mom” is in fact a sitcom that expects us to amusingly mainline the normative message of the show – that pathological, intergenerational dysfunction among the underclass is normal and amusing.... The show suggests that we should make a quip and carry on....