Tuesday
Jun022009
Life Inc. Dispatch 02: Insulation Equation
Tuesday, June 2, 2009 at 1:23AM | in Books, Events, Life Inc, Press, Video/TV/Movies
Life Inc. Dispatch 02:
Insulation Equation
Insulation Equation
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The LIFE INC. Dispatch = Brief weekly videos encapsulating key concepts and ready strategies from Douglas Rushkoff's LIFE INC. for de-corporatizing our lives, abandoning the speculative economy, and rebuilding both commerce and community from the bottom up.
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Reader Comments (5)
I'd like to agree with you on this, but I'm worried that the public schools have become one of the best tools for corporate control, especially now that they tend to have exclusive sponsorship deals with firms like Aramark and one or the other soft drink corporations.
It's not like the private schools are any better. The charter schools are probably worse and the parochial schools wind up having to make the same deals to stay afloat.
I'd really like an answer to this, because it's clear that homeschooling is just another level of insulation, though I'm not sure if there is a way out of this particular paradox.
Yeah, the corporations first came in with vending machines. They have penetrated further but i can't recall how. Perhaps it is like they have penetrated the universities with money sponsoring research.
Both of these and i dare say any corporate infiltration can be filtered out and matched with community involvement. In my town the general store provides snacks and lunches for the students. Small businesses and banks sponsor some programs. And the winter festival and rummage sale (among other events) raise a good deal of money for the school. The school is filled with parent volunteers and helpers as well.
In my small and rural California town, we could do California citizens a service by showing how this stuff and things Douglas is suggesting can be done and not just for the benefit of the schools, but the whole community.
Some people are going to feel a little anxiety akin to the sensation of "Letting Go" if you can imagine a visceral reaction to floating about in unincorporated space. But quite a few people who already have been "Let Go" might give this a whirl and realise the involvement Douglas is speaking of is really a "Taking Hold."
It really is amazing how the whole corporate structure has gotten into our heads. I assume i am not plugged into the Matrix, but imagine the education you could get if you really were plugged into a benevolent and enlightened matrix? Free "food," "family values" and an all you can buy education to prepare you for an all you can produce career.
-mason
If we vested more of our time in the public schools, would they need corporate sponsors to begin with?
Yes. Yes. Yes. I like the way you're thinking. The culture of America has changed so that we live private, safe lives, where we're "better off" by interacting with people who share our same movie and music tastes because naturally those are the determinants of good social relations obviously. Or as my friend lex luthor would say.... WRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNGGGGGGG!
Unfortunately public schools that have a vested interest in making unified student bodies are still divided among sterotype lines. I'm talking from personal experience here. I blame a commercial media that has money to gain by dividing us by racial and financial demographics to advertise products and tv shows.
I know American's pride themselves on self determinationship but, I really think too much navel gazing can be deadly. Try looking at what is successful in other counties and build a plan bringing the best ideas together.