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The affluence of the rich excites the indignation of the poor

The Yes Men are culture jammers who, posing as World Trade Organization officials, presented the “WTO’s plan” for global trade to a roomful of academics. It involved recycling food products in order to reuse their nutrients, and in a simple process convert the waste back into food for third world countries. One woman said she was from a so called third world country, and she was offended. Another man said, “You’re talking about recycling sh-t.”

On the twentieth anniversary of the Bhopal Disaster, the Yes Men appeared on BBC World News, posing as representatives of Dow Chemical. After accepting full responsibility for the disaster, they promised that Dow would invest $12 billion to pay for medical care for those affected, clean up the site, and fund research to look into the hazards of other Dow products and prevent similar accidents. The real Dow Chemical rushed out a press release within hours, denying the statements.

In culture jamming, the basic idea is to shock the unconscious thought process one undergoes while receiving an institutional message, such as authority programming, logos and advertisement, and other branding messages. The Dow Chemical idea works because it forces us to confront our ideas about how institutions could or should function, and how they do. What do we expect from our institutions, and what could we? The WTO piece shows us how far authority can go. Deftly aping officialspeak, the performers slowly push the audience farther and farther, revealing increasingly outlandish perspectives on humanity, until finally, the people cry foul.

Driven by want, and prompted by envy

Hyper-exploitation

Things long past which come to us only in books

Quotes:

"Wherever there is great property there is great inequality. For one very rich man there must be at least five hundred poor, and the affluence of the few supposes the indigence of the many. The affluence of the rich excites the indignation of the poor, who are often both driven by want, and prompted by envy, to invade his possessions ... The appropriation of herds and flocks which introduced an inequality of fortune was that which first gave rise to regular government. Till there be property there can be no government, the very end of which is to secure wealth, and to defend the rich from the poor" - Adam Smith

"The origins of property rights in the United States are rooted in racial domination... The hyper-exploitation of Black labor was accomplished by treating Black people themselves as objects of property. Race and property were thus conflated by establishing a form of property contingent on race -only Blacks were subjugated as slaves and treated as property. Similarly, the conquest, removal, and extermination of Native American life and culture were ratified by conferring and acknowledging the property rights of whites in Native American land. Only white possession and occupation of land was validated and therefore privileged as a basis for property rights." - Cheryl Harris

"Since every history book is a 'conjectural reconstruction of the past' Pirenne concludes that, due to the differences among historians, 'history is a conjectural science, or in other words, a subjective science.' 'How,' asked the English historian Froude, 'can we talk of a science in things long past which come to us only in books?'" - Jerome Frank