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TWENTYSOMETHING by Ishi Dinim
I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavour to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.
-Abraham Lincoln, born Feb. 12, 1809- assassinated Good Friday, April 14, 1865
There is reality TV and TV is a reality. Kind of blurry, hard to keep it real I need more channels. Where’s the channel that tells stories that really matter? I want something that will last with me, not just another gasoline explosion, celebrity talk show, or mindless sitcom. Who is telling our story? The one about real life: people in love, politics, actual sex, unspoken narratives, suffering, the neighbour, the reality TV show on class and global economics.
So here’s how the game is rigged. I’m supposed to go out and work like a dog to produce wealth so that I can afford the underwear with the fancy name on the elastic. The lady in the sweatshop that makes them can’t afford organic bananas so she buys cheaper ones, the ones that get sprayed with 10 kinds of poison from a place where the people get treated worse than her. The way I see it we’re all kind of like bananas caught in the squeeze of a big rubber band called global free market capitalism, it is very mushy.
Right now you might be wondering what’s his point? We can do something to change it. We can change the channel right now. We can all be part of the hippest local show imaginable, it’s called “the do something good for yourself and your community by voting show.” It’s a reality show involving you, where you go to a voting booth and vote yes on the referendum on electoral reform (single transferable vote), then the whole democratic process is transformed and you can sleep again knowing you tried to make life a little bit better. There might also be a spin-off show called “ go to city hall or contact an elected official who might help fight for the heart of the city, where you live, and not let developers score by messing up a sweet thing, when it would be better suited, say, maybe somewhere like Arbutus?” It’s based on a true story, although some parts of it seem like a bad rerun.
Banana Republic Megacorp Broadcasting Systems should be boycotted until they either start selling us what we need or shrivel up and disappear. If we can resist the programming, change the channels of democracy, and keep doing our little bit every day this giant out of control train called progress might slow down in time to reach sustainable velocity. Good luck. We might win the game yet.
Links out of the chain
Actually go here and read these, for real!:
http://citizensassembly.bc.ca/resources/flash/bc-stv-full.swf
http://doravright.ca/
http://www.bc-stv.ca/
http://www.stvforbc.com/dynamic/
http://www.citizensassembly.bc.ca/public/extra/bc-stv_faq_main.xml
Quotes
If we do not maintain Justice, Justice will not maintain us.
-Francis Bacon
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy: that is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.
-John Kenneth Galbraith
Ishi graduated from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 2001, with a BFA major in photography. He makes films, collects cacti, and ponders many things. Currently he is trying to figure out what to do with the rest his life.
contactishi@yahoo.ca waiting to hear echoes back…
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