i just absorbed noam chomsky's "manufacturing consent" a few weeks ago. it's been rolling around in my head ever since.

i keep thinking about a radiohead show i saw a few summers back. The show was great, but one song in particular defined the evening for me. As the opening riff of "no surprises" started, one man standing close to me immediately burst into tears. most of the fans in the pit were singing (or screaming) along with mr. yorke. then we came to the line "bring down the government, they don't, they don't speak for us." i was shocked.

everyone sang it.

everyone meant it.

now i had heard that song probably hundreds of times and had sung along with it, but that was the first time i sang it and actually meant it. it felt like massive group therapy. i think we were angry and frustrated and maybe we suddenly realized it.

chomsky makes the distinction between the people of a country and their government. for example, people don't make war, but their governments do. this made me think a lot about how i identify myself. i'm an american. i'm white. i drive a civic.

i realized that i relate with people in other countries as much as your standard capitalist american, maybe even more. in spite of the labels people wear, we're all humans with the same basic needs and hopes. so why do we bother with all this nationalistic bullshit?

so there you have it. i'm joining the revolution.

or not.

i heard they don't pay very well.

yahoo helped china jail journalist

google vs. evil

microsoft censors chinese blogs

critics squeeze cisco over china

just because companies are working within the confines of a political system doesn't make it any more right (see- slavery). is capitalism with a conscience even possible?

i've been vaguely keeping track of what's going on in louisiana. sigh.

i feel like i've skipped all the emotions i should be having and gone straight to being angry.

angry about how minorities are represented in the press.

angry that we have troops in iraq and not where we need them.

angry that we don't assign value to the poor.

angry about global warming.

i just keep wondering- if this had happened in an affluent white suburb- would we be having these issues? of course not- hurricanes happen all the time.

sigh. just angry.