https://adbusters.org

Adbusters Media Foundation | Journal of the Mental EnvironmentAdbusters is a global collective of poets, punks and philosophers implementing radical design and media strategies to shake up complacent consumerist culture. We're aiming at the stale systems suffocating society: the power-hungry forces that leave people and the environment in disarray; the toxic capitalism that creeps into our bodies and imaginations. Join us for the take down.Adbusters Media Foundation | Journal of the Mental Environment Manifesto Book Culture Shopmanifesto BookSubscribeaboutspoof adsdownloads Culture SHop Download Hey all you wild hearts out there, Let's set the tone for the next four years. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, raise your middle finger in a global gesture of defiance. Do it because he calls climate change a hoax. Because he continues to spread the big lie. Because he mismanaged the Covid crisis. Because he gifted the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem to Israel. Because you don't want his finger on the nuclear button. Or do it just because he's a low-life pussy grabber unfit to lead a nation. Let your fury flow … and irrigate dreams of a better tomorrow. I passed a guy the other day, maybe 16, 17 years old. And as he got a little ways down the street I heard him holler at the top of his lungs: “I hate my fucking life and everyone in it!” (I guess that included the defeated-looking woman I took to be his mom, who was walking 20feet behind him.) I felt sorry for this kid, and I hope he gets help. But I also found myself giving him a little private salute. At least he’s facing it. Bellowing his sad truth to the heavens must have felt like a bit of liberation. Who hasn’t felt a hint of that existential frustration? Maybe you even feel it now. Like: Really? This is the life I have settled for? Starbucks, Safeway, smokeshop, home. Bang, bang, bang, marching to the drumbeat of capitalism. In the car you catch the news that the UN has declared a “red-alert emergency” for humanity. The seas are going to rise for two thousand years and there’s not a damn thing we can do about it. And now you feel the stakes suddenly spike. You feel the cost of repeating another day of your life like this pre-programmed puppet . . .sleepwalking through this bad dream that isn’t even your own. READ MORE What Happens When AI Completely Decodes and Synthesizes Reality? As we realize A.I. can do what we do, better — and for free — we’ll experience a kind of false dawn of euphoria. It steps up, and we happily step back. Students stop writing essays. Job seekers stop writing resumes. Designers use MidJourney to create book covers. All life’s gruntwork is over, and the finished product isn’t suffering at all. Hallelujah! But here’s the deal we can’t quite grasp: Bit by bit we humans lose our skills ... our agency ... our creative spark ... This is how a slave’s dependence on a master evolves: slowly and then quickly. At a certain point you realize you are no longer making your own decisions, but you don’t particularly care, because in a strange way it’s easier this way. Just west of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan stands the Crooked Grove, a stand of aspen trees that, for reasons scientists don't fully understand, all grow gnarled and deformed. The trees start out straight but then bend, eventually curling so far out of the sunlight that they begin to die. At which point new shoots spring out from the trunk and start growing in a different direction. The new generation wants to live, despite its parents' crooked ways. —Harry Flood Zen and Punk:A Path to Authentic Revolution While punk emerged as a reaction to the hippie movement of the 1960s, it has faced its own challenges in maintaining its revolutionary spirit. The commercialization of punk rock and the descent into mere escapism through drugs and loud music have buried the movement's original principles. However, Zen philosophy offers a powerful framework for revitalizing punk's core values. The Convergence of Zen and Punk Ethics At first glance, Zen's emphasis on silence and punk's loud rebellion might seem contradictory. Yet both share fundamental values: authenticity, rejection of materialism, and the importance of direct action over empty talk. As Zen teaches, "The more you talk about it, the less you understand" - a principle that aligns perfectly with punk's emphasis on action over rhetoric. Beyond Nihilism: Zen as a Tool for Punk Revival While many punks have fallen into cynical nihilism, Zen offers a way to maintain rebellion while finding deeper meaning. Instead of numbing oneself with substances and noise, Zen's practices of mindfulness and meditation provide tools for facing society's problems with clarity and purpose. Near the end of Dostoevsky's novel The Idiot, the hero finds himself standing in the gallows, about to be hanged. In one minute it'll all be over. It suddenly occurs to him what an enormous amount of time that is. A full minute. He takes ten seconds to think about his family, then allows his mind to roam over the play of light on the church steeple in the distance, the granular subtleties of his entire life. His impending demise – or so he thought – had smashed his last moment on earth like an atom. You could say that's all of us now. We're standing on the gallows having an existential moment together. And performing in our heads what the writer Mitchell Jackson called "survival math" – a term he hatched after being held up at gunpoint and realizing his odds of living would swing wildly depending on what he said and did in the next thirty seconds. Call it a hinge moment. Send us your middle finger here L You know this world, where the sunlight is electric and the currency is fame, and all the taxis heading there are single- occupancy, and your driver had better gun it cuz the stale-yellow light’s about to turn. ‍ You know this world if you’re a Gen Z kid – or at least, a certain kind of Gen Z kid, one who has bought the ticket and is enjoying the dream, from the comfort of your gaming chair, as the dopamine hits come fast, and someone on a scooter is bringing you dinner, and the future is a joke. ‍ But there is a different group of millennials, one who also know this world and have decided they want no part of it. ‍ For them the tipping point may have been the day their last real-life friend left town, a step ahead of their mom’s furious, addled ex. Or the day a deepfake porn video of a classmate popped up in their feed, and they knew it was only a matter of time before it was their face atop all that meat. Or the day they had a panic attack applying for a part-time job over the phone. Or the day they realized they could no longer keep their thoughts on the rails. Couldn’t keep their mood from yo-yo-ing. Couldn’t sleep but couldn’t stay awake. And most of all, just couldn’t keep obediently navigating the gates, going through the motions, of late-stage consumer capitalism. ‍ So they simply said, Fuck it. We’re out. ‍ Read the rest HERE V R The easy thing to do right now is pick a side. To let darkness get me all stirred up, convince me I know who’s right, put up my dukes and deny the humanity of the wrongdoer. But isn’t this line of thinking what leads to all bloodshed? I’ve done too much wrong myself to be playing this game. How can I make these kind of judgments without weighing my own actions on the same scales? I am trying to live a different way. One where, even if I find it difficult, I don’t just love my neighbors, I love my enemies, too. Love is the ultimate revolutionary act — a beautiful paradox. Though it always protects, it does not dishonor others. Though it keeps no record of wrong, it also doesn’t delight in evil. Though it delights in truth, it is also slow to anger. Love is not the feeling TV, movies, or romance novels are selling. That’s just passion, and passion doesn’t last. Read More must have intelligence for the dangerous year aheadText LinkText Link hitting newsstands worldwide Now(Shipping Included) OK Yes! Close X Book + Mag Combo World Revolution Manifesto + 6 issues of adbusters for $55(Shipping Included) Check it out here Close X Adbusters is one of a handful of magazines in the world that receives zero funding from advertising, corporate sponsorship or foundation grants. We are entirely reader-supported. When you subscribe to Adbusters, you are joining a network of artists and activists committed to speaking truth to power without reservation. Join the Third Force Subscribe to the magGet the next issue for $5Join the Third Forcea Friend of the foundationBecome a lifetimerDonate to our cause Culture ShopAbout UsSpoof adsPsychomediaKalle's MindbombsDownloads © 2024 Adbusters Media Foundation - Privacy Policy1740329786https://adbusters.org

Edit your site?

What are you doing?