iRAQ : the forkscrew campaign
sometimes i am deeply saddened by the world : the lies, the hypocrisy, the violence, and above it all, an insanely corrupt beaureucracy that likes to keep the people ignorant and oppressed. i continue to live my happpy life in my secure bubble as the world around me erupts in dishonesty and power-play. money is power and power is everything. i want to change the world, but i don’t know how. i’m angry at what little initiative people take to make the difference they keep talking about, but at the same time i understand why we lack this motivation : we are either indifferent or scared. on one hand, we are numb to the decadence and we don’t care so long as we’ve got secure, cushy lives. on the other, we are afraid of being ’silenced’, shot down, of being called eccentric and being ridiculed, or worse, killed for speaking out and daring to expose the flaws of those in authority and their methods of ruling. i wish we could amass our creativity, our dreams, our aspirations all together and campaign productively for a world that’s more accommodating of differences. i wish we would be more sure of ourselves and our values, so we don’t have to be scared and threatened and therefore hateful towards other people. i wish the lies would stop : lying to our people, our children, our friends, our enemies, ourselves.
asvajit told me about forkscrew, where the above image is from. the series of posters that draw their likeness from the advertisements for the international phenomenon that is the iPOD, are eye-catching immediately because of their startling familiarity and then because of their brutal honesty. the figures in silhouette are a little morbid and a little scary, while the numbers at the bottom coupled together with the little iPOD look-alike iRAQ is striking and in its entirety is extremely powerful. it makes everyone uncomfortable, and thoughtful, to see the dancing shapes in silhouette against the colourful bakcgrounds replaced by those of men wielding guns, people in suffering. this is such an intelligent way of using the image of something our generation is intimately associated with, the iPOD, to get a political message conveyed to the masses.
here’s what they had to say :
Here lies…
There lies…
Everywhere lies.
In the face of so much miserable, screeching, smirking, self-satisfied falseness, there is nothing to do but refuse to believe.
We refuse to believe a government of half the people is a government of all the people.
We refuse to believe that dividing people in the name of religious ideals is the proper fulfillment of the divine in ourselves.
We refuse to believe that a country founded to be an experiment in diversity should become an historic monument to intolerance and isolationism.
We refuse to believe in the idea of a “war” on “terror.”
We refuse to believe in this particular convulsion/perversion of America.
We refuse to believe leaving is the only answer.
And we refuse to believe staying means keeping quiet.
Find your own way to fight back without violence, to speak your mind without letting your anger twist your truth, to keep listening to what you don’t agree with for the little voice of life that even the most foul and fearful intentions can’t silence.
Find your own way to keep pushing your truth every day a little farther into the light of the unfolding world.
This is ours.
We refuse to believe in the idea of a “war” on “terror.”
How true. Its a totally absurd notion. Merely the ploy of filthy capitalist bigots to exploit the basic human emotion of fear and the desire for action.
Its putting the cart before the horse. Perhaps if we stopped spending millions to generate wars for the sake of big business the real issues that cause terrorism could be dealt with.
Fuck you Mr. Bush
Comment by asvajit — May 25, 2006 @ 7:27 am
I hear macintosh are releasing the iRaq as a combi dual mac intel-duo dual G5 so that’s a cool four super processors in a box. That should numb us all from the real Iraq for at least another decade. Besides any fool knows that what’s on iTunes store / podcaster is far more important anything that Bush dos’ or happens here in SL…. Go figure !
Comment by Janin — May 25, 2006 @ 10:55 am
It seems like the American government has been completely missing the point for well over a hundred years.
Comment by Sophie — May 25, 2006 @ 10:33 pm
-And we refuse to believe staying means keeping quiet.-
stay, don’t abandon the cause. stay and make a difference.
asvajit : fuck mr. bush. but, you won’t be surprised to find that we don’t even need to look as far as the US of A to find deception and manipulation. it’s right here, at home. as much as i despise bush, we must try not to forget that he’s only the face of terror. behind that face, there lies a number of hitler wannabes, that given the smallest chance, would have no issues with flattening all that is true and good in the world.
sophie : well said! the point is practically dancing naked in front of their eyes and they refuse to see it. they have screwed up their priorities sickeningly, missed the opportunity to make an actual difference time and again.
Comment by electra — May 25, 2006 @ 10:40 pm
Maybe someone should do the same for Sri Lanka. Get some objective messages out there…
Comment by Hiran — May 28, 2006 @ 6:11 am
Very interesting. I think its simply innovative campaigns like this which keep me from totally losing hope because it is sickening to me when there is nothing to do but refusing to believe. Sadly the state that the US has got themselves into leaves very little to believe in. I think its excellent to blog about things that actually matter…having the facts presented like this might allow more people to understand at least. Well done..keep blogging on things which matter..makes for great reading. And allows me to hope that there are people out there who still do care…and see the truth! xx
Comment by Annelie..xox — May 30, 2006 @ 6:00 pm