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The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Paul Street at Dec 16, 2004

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I know a young lady in Chicago who has a curious reaction whenever she sees a HUMMER while driving in the city: she raises her middle finger and screams "go to Hell you rich gas-guzzling imperialist pig" at the top of her lungs. She's about 5 foot 3 and has curly blond hair and gets to do this. She says some Hummer drivers laugh at her and try to get her phone number when she flips them off. I just avert my eyes from Hummers. Can't look at em. The stylish, ecocidal, Toyota-crushing and Arab-killing High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, you recall, entered the upscale US consumer market sometime after the first "Persian Gulf War" (Dessert Storm), cashing in on its reputed role in helping George Bush I celebrate the end of the Cold War by slaughtering tens of thousands of Iraqis. The young lady's husband is from France. And I know something she won't be buying him for Christmas: Hummer Eau deToilette Spray. A Hummer fragrance is on the market? But of course, just like special perfumes named after various celebrities, like Donald Trump, who was in Chicago last week to sell Donald Trump The Fragrance. "It is aspirational just like any celebrity or designer fragrance. A lot of people can't afford a Hummer or a Jaguar, but they can buy the fragrance. So it's buying into the whole luxury thing." That's how Mary Ellen Lapsansky, Executive Director of the New York-based Fragrance Foundation, explained it all recently to Chicago Tribune reporter Mark Caro for a clever article that appeared in that newspaper's officially feminine and therefore somewhat (by sexist dictates) trivial "Tempo" section today (see the full article below). And what you ask does a Hummer smell like, in the world of the perfume industry? According to the distributor of the new fragrance, which is sold in a small bottle shaped like the vehicle and topped by a compact pritzer, "the Hummer adventure begins with a fresh and exhilarating burst of freshness comprised of green foliage, cardamom, thyme and peppercorns that capture the essence of the outdoors. These lively notes are then melded with a warm, rugged, masculine, adrenaline rush of leather, patchouli, amber and sandalwood. The smooth richness of tonka bean act[s] as the 'axle' that links and balances the fresh and warm notes, creating an olfactory sensation that can only be Hummer." I happened upon this item after reading a very different article in the same Tribune, a disturbing front-page piece about the proportionately larger number of GIs who now survive combat injuries thanks to new combat medical techniques. "The flight from Baghdad to the snow-dusted forests of southwest Germany," this article begins, "takes about six hours. The planes arrive every day, bearing broken soldiers from the battlefields of Iraq. Some are walking, others, heavily sedated, are on stretchers. In the most severe cases, ghastly abdominal wounds have been left open, covered only with a clear plastic bag." Read on and you learn about one survivor who would not have made it out from previous wars. This soldier, we learn, "lost one leg above the knee, the other in a hip disarticulation, his right hand, and part of his face" (Tom Hundley, "More GIs Surviving Battlefield Injuries," Chicago Tribune, 15 December 2004, sec. 1, p.1). I wonder where Ms. Lapansky puts that on her scale of the "aspirational." Whether this "survivor" was injured while riding in a military Hummer (with or without proper armour, however relevant) I have no idea, but it all makes me wonder if the technical staff of the Fragrance Foundation should have visisted the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, the biggest American military hospital in Europe, or perhaps Walter Reed in the US, in their quest to capture the essence of the scent of the Hummer. Or perhaps they could have surveyed one of the hospitals that US forces allowed to stand in Fallujah. Might I suggest the smell of blood and rotting or burning human flesh? Here (below) is the witty "Tempo" piece, certain to be appreciated in the Middle East....I won't say anything about The Donald. Eau deRumsfeld anyone? ______________________________________ "Can't afford a Hummer? You can, at least, smell like one" By Mark Caro Tribune entertainment reporter December 15, 2004 Women's fragrances suggest billowing curtains, sea breezes, flowing lace, seductive midnight glances. Guys, meanwhile, can smell like Hummers. Yes, for the man who wants his bodily odor to denote a High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle originally designed for the Army, we have Hummer Eau de Toilette Spray -- as well as scents tied in with Jaguars, Corvettes, Ferraris and Orange County Chopper motorcycles. "It is aspirational just like any celebrity or designer fragrance," said Mary Ellen Lapsansky, executive director of the New York-based Fragrance Foundation (gee is that a 501 C3 nonprofit?). "A lot of people can't afford a Hummer or a Jaguar, but they can buy the fragrance. So it's buying into the whole luxury thing." How does a Hummer smell? ...Here's how the Hummer's own materials describe it: "the Hummer adventure begins with a fresh and exhilarating burst of freshness comprised of green foliage, cardamom, thyme and peppercorns that capture the essence of the outdoors. These lively notes are then melded with a warm, rugged, masculine, adrenaline rush of leather, patchouli, amber and sandalwood. The smooth richness of tonka bean act[s] as the 'axle' that links and balances the fresh and warm notes, creating an olfactory sensation that can only be Hummer." Oh, so that's the olfactory sensation that can only be Hummer. Funny, but when I wore the fragrance home, my wife just said, "Oh! You smell like a bad Saturday night date from 1989." I dabbed some on at work as well and harassed -- I mean, solicited opinions from -- some of my female colleagues. Adjectives they used: "mossy," "flowery," "subtle." "That's Hummer?" one colleague reacted in shock when I revealed the scent's identity. "It smells like Irish Spring soap." To take the sniff test to its logical extreme, I approached Donald Trump as he was at Marshall Field's last week to promote his new Donald Trump the Fragrance. He said he'd never heard of Hummer. Fortunately, I just happened to have some spritzed on my wrist, so I held it daintily under his nose. After asking his bodyguard to let go of my arm, Trump sniffed and muttered dismissively, "It smells great."Tom Julian, trend analyst for the New York creative marketing agency Fallon Worldwide, said the idea behind these road scents is "the extension of these stylish brands entering worlds in unexpected ways. The new generation of sport utility vehicles are marketed in such a unique way that they can exist not only as a sport utility but as a brand that can live in other categories like apparel and accessories." Hence we can wear Hummer -- but not Buick. "You're buying into a certain lifestyle when you buy the Hummer fragrance," Lapsansky said. "A Buick, I don't know." OK, but guess what? There is a Chevrolet men's fragrance. Perfumania.com notes: "Chevrolet is classified as a refreshing, fruity fragrance." Va va vrrrroooooom! Chevrolet isn't exactly a hot men's product or even widely available, but most high-end fragrance shops and department stores stock Hummer, which was released this fall and almost immediately vaulted into the top-20 best-selling men's fragrances, according to NPD Beauty. Marshall Field's saleswoman Cindy Fox said women have been doing most of the Hummer, Corvette and Orange County Chopper purchasing for their boyfriends or husbands. "He drives a Hummer, or he's always wanted a Corvette," Fox explained, noting that these colognes tend to be "very masculine fragrances." I suppose that's in the nose of the beholder. Orange County Choppers Full Throttle Cologne for Men boasts the on-box slogan "Your Road . . . Your Rules," so you expect to smell the mud spraying from wheels, the exhaust fumes, the sweat seeping into your leather coat. . . . "Is that a woman's scent?" asked one female colleague. "It must be, right? It's too powdery and frou-frou." One reason these tie-in fragrances may succeed is that most guys, this one included, really don't know jack about choosing colognes, so why not get one associated with a car? And there's no reason to stop with vehicles. There's already a Swiss Army cologne (so you can smell like, uh, a whittled tent peg?) and various Adidas scents. Why hasn't my parent company thought to market Cubs cologne? (Suggested slogan: "Now you can stink and choke!") How about Budweiser Eau de Toilette? Or Black & Decker Power Tool: The Fragrance? "If the power tool is right," Julian said, "it probably could exist in this day and age." - - - Scent of The Donald Of course, not everyone wants to smell like a road-hogging, gas-guzzling monster of the freeway. Some guys would prefer to smell like Donald Trump. Thank goodness Donald Trump realized this vacuum in the marketplace and created Donald Trump the Fragrance. "Looking back I would never think that people would necessarily want to smell like me, but I guess they do," Trump said while promoting his fragrance at Marshall Field's last week. It must be noted, women outnumbered the men by about 5-1 among the throngs assembled to gawk at or to get The Donald to sign their $60 cologne boxes. "You're in awe of these people, so anything they endorse or sponsor, you want it," said Josephine Hernandez, a marketing manager in the crowd. "You want their luck to rub off on you." Joey Majumdar, who works for another fragrance company, was trying to get a prime viewing spot of the mogul. Did Majumdar want to smell like Trump? Yeah," he said. "He's very successful, so it makes a statement when you put on the fragrance. It gives you the confidence and motivation and satisfaction of life. Because you want to be like him."

Comment On This Blog Post  See All Comments (53)

Person

Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Info, Hummerh8 at Jan 12, 2006 03:21 AM
My Hummer H8 smells like gun powder and rotting hybrid owners.... http://www.hummerh8.com

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Person

Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Gammon101, Bwong at Dec 23, 2004 21:22 PM
Whenever the economy is slowing down, the government have to come up with schemes to "stimulate growth". This is not the moral failing of individual citizens or the dark conspiracy of the "elite". It is just the way our kind of economy works and everyone has a stake in it(as long as you need a paycheque). I believe in order to make any headway, rational people( sorry, I hate words like "progressives" or "leftists", too cliche')must find a way to build some kind of alternative economical arrangements, more compatible with "progressive" values. Otherwise everything else is just talk.

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Person

Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Gammon101, Bwong at Dec 23, 2004 21:20 PM
If everyone conserves and cut down on frivolous consumptions you will have a recession so steep that the 30's would look like paradise and unemployment rate will shoot through the roof. "Shop nothing day" sounds good. But if it were shop nothing day everyday you and I will be out of a job, out in the street in no time. To put it bluntly, shopping is a patriotic duty.

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Person

Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Gammon101, Bwong at Dec 23, 2004 21:18 PM
What is the point of all these? I think we have to recognize the way people behave is not just a question of "value". It has a structural reason (this sounds very Marxist). You can "propagandize", preach, scream all you want but the "left" will continue be marginalized without addressing the deep structural issues. A case in point is the sermons against "greed" and "waste". It is all fine and dandy. But the fact is that our economy is fueled by consumption and waste.The economy(in the way it is set up now) either grows or dies, it cannot stay still.

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Person

Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Gammon101, Bwong at Dec 23, 2004 21:15 PM
They butress political/current affairs programming with a lot of soft stuffs like soap opera, American pop music and movies. To gauge the success of the effort,some large polls were conducted. The outcome was quite interesting. Over a certain peroid, the popularly of these American stations has risen enormously, but at the same time "anti-Americanism" among viewers has also increased sharply.Apparantly the "stupid masses" are not as stupid as the propagandists thought. They turned to the American stations for entertainment like music and the movie, and watch Aljazera for the news and politics.

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Person

Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Gammon101, Bwong at Dec 23, 2004 21:13 PM
To illustrate my point. Here is a very interesting example of how a high powered, systematic and well organized propaganda effort falling flat on its face. Parallel the actual war in Iraq, the U.S is waging an aggressive propaganda war in the ME to "win hearts and minds". Through its corporate fronts, the Pentagon set up Arabic TV stations to promote pro American views.

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Person

Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Gammon101, Bwong at Dec 23, 2004 21:12 PM
Now of course human society is much more complicated that a flock of equilitarian geese. Inequality of power and social control are very real. But I think we can nevertheless learn something from the geese. Most people react to their inmediate enviroment. The rules are also relatively simple(economical security, fulfilment, etc). It is my opinion that any "propaganda" system, no matter how sophisticated, have to appeal to these base lines.

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Person

Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Gammon101, Bwong at Dec 23, 2004 21:11 PM
The puzzle was resolved finally. There is no leader. Computer simulation reveals that each bird responds only to its surrounding enviroment based on very simple rules.But an enormously complex pattern emerges when each individual adjusts itself to its immediate enviroment rather hapharzardly according to these simple rules. This phenonmenon(simplicity and chaos in the micro => complexity and order in the macro) is well known to physicists in the 19th centry, but biologists are aware of it only very recently.

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Person

Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Gammon101, Bwong at Dec 23, 2004 21:10 PM
Researchers who study migration patterns of geese have been puzzled by the ability of a large flock to adjust its flying pattern almost instantaneously in an exceptionally orderly fashion(birds don't bump into each other and fall off the sky, for example).The assumption has been that the leader(s) of the flock sends out subtle instructions to the flock to rearrange itself. But efforts to identify the leader have been in vain. Moreover, it is not uncommon for a flock to suddenly change its arrangement in mid flight when encounters a sudden change in air current, for example. There is no known mechanism of transmitting the marching order to a large flock that can account for the rapid response.

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Person

Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Gammon101, Bwong at Dec 23, 2004 21:09 PM
It also gives too little credit to the people. The assumption is that they are idoits whose perceptions can be mold and shaped in any way you like. Out of this assumption comes the (wrongheaded, IMO) proposal of counter propaganda. I think society is an organic whole. While some people certainly have enormously more power than the rest the system would be unstable without widespread cooperation from the general public,-us.

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Person

Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Gammon101, Bwong at Dec 23, 2004 21:08 PM
I believe the problem is more than just individual life style and manipulation of the "elite". Certainly "indoctrination" is real, but often through comeplex socialization, conscious manipulations are more focused and narrower in scope, like selling the Iraq So there is manipulation,but if you push this picture too far, you end up with a caricature. I have always been suspicious of the thesis that some, evil,omnipotent "elite" plays the ignorant masses like puppets It is implausible because it requires an impossible degree of coordination on the part of the "elite" and the complex control mechanism of the society.

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Occupy_iowa_city_rally

Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Street, Paul at Dec 21, 2004 18:53 PM
Unfolding Apocalypse, with all due respect for the fact that your alias points to real dangers well underway, enough with the fear. Hope and fear, twin poles of capitalist western culture's inability to live in the full glory and ugliness of the pregnant present moment (yes, I am partially influenced by some Buddhist strands as well as by left anarchist and Marxist thought), can keep you endlessly disempowered. We need to think, act, and feel in the present and put the paralyzing crystal ball (be it heavanly/utopian or Hellish/dystopian) aside to some extent.

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Person

Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Apocalypse, Unfolding at Dec 20, 2004 01:39 AM
Indeed, I am scared humans have allowed their technologies and their organizational structures to evolve beyond their own control. And in that scenario, is anyone or can anyone push us in the opposing direction? Isn't there massive evidence this has been building throughout history? And aren't we currently in its deepest clutches?

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Person

Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Apocalypse, Unfolding at Dec 20, 2004 01:38 AM
Frequently, these people (restaurant, dry cleaner, franchise, etc owners) embody neocon ideals more vehemently than any of the power broking elite. And their influence on their family and friends is staggering; they exude an aura of "sacrifice everything for success then pretend like you are high-minded and idealistic while you strut and ostentatiously consume and display all your trinkets." And it infects and spreads. Maybe this whole cultural shift is out of elite control. I mean, even evangelicals are hiearchary and status oriented, and most of them probably respect and revere these business owners. But that isn't even the problem, in my eyes. The problem is that the elites WILL CONTINUE to foster this ultra-competitive, free-market mentality to the point where humans no longer direct history, and our corporations seperate from society and rule over it. My fear is that the corporate rule system - the goals that underlie the very idea of a corporation - will grow so powerful as to submerge "the passion for freedom" existing in perhaps each of its corporate employees.

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Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Apocalypse, Unfolding at Dec 20, 2004 01:36 AM
Indeed, I also fear the establishment has such a tight grip on the public mindset - on morals, values, and proper goals - that "the next move is in the hands of the Empire." But what about the viewpoint that the Empire doesn't even control (or not enough to avert everyone's disaster) our unfolding history? Sometimes I think that the rules and the ideas behind our corporate institutions have "run away" from their masters. I sometimes suspect that even if these masters attempted to avert their neolib and neocon plans, they could meet with fierce resistance from those they have indoctrinated - for instance, the class of wealthy but not ultra-wealthy small business owners that greedily exploit cheap labor and patiently fix their eyes on greater status and more material gain. Most of these successful small-business owner types spout hardcore free-market ideology with little understanding of the big-picture impact of their ideas. Yet they are so self-assured, so arrogantly certain because they believe their financial and social success reflects their innate talents or their mental superiority.

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Person

Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Child, Wandering at Dec 19, 2004 14:57 PM
Paul, I agree that culture, schools and "public space" are the basic things to achieve, in order to change this dangerous spiral; and, of course that propaganda (in any of its "faces") is not the right way. Said this, I´ve doubts if this could be obtained (in the present situation)without some kind of "giving up". I mean, west societies are egocentric and arrogant in their perception of the "rest" of the world and this behaviour is encouraged by the "rulers". The savage neoliberalism shadows everything and its doctrine is the standard behaviour of many people (the inertia is a very difficult issue to deal with); so I´m not sure that in the present situation "west people" want to achieve a better society, because they don´t want to lose what they have (and I´m afraid that this will be necessary in some way ). This is a very old disscussion and probably with no end but, at least, culture and public space should be a "must-have" even if we have to live with the neoliberalism and this is something that we don´t have now, so it could be a start.

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Person

Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Apocalypse, Unfolding at Dec 19, 2004 06:18 AM
Sigma-6, I do admit utopia is a word quite remote from daily use, and arguably quite subjective also. I guess I should qualify and say my utopia would include: a politically/socially/economically/scientifically aware global population, carrying out democratic decision-making concerning society's structure, economic production and consumption, and perhaps directions for technological advance. Everything else should be privately decided. I guess that's pretty different from saying "utopia." I better keep that polemical device to myself in the future.

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Occupy_iowa_city_rally

Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Street, Paul at Dec 19, 2004 06:18 AM
..I've seen the truth of that warning again and again and the lessons are that it's not about asking people to give up their stake but to invest their security in a new and better society and for that you need a compelling vision and people need some confidence that it can be attained. I'm personally against propaganda (manipulation of attitudes by selective, mind-closing communication...inherently authoritarian) per se. I think the point is we need to politically and institutionally enable truth-telling/democratic schooling, media, culture, conversation and public space and on the media there's seeds of an agenda in the concluding chapter of Bob McChesney's book Rich Media, Poor Democracy (1999). I can't just write off evangelicals...some are hard core, lockstep, and protofascist for life but I've met others who are pretty confused and more fluid and complex if that makes any sense.

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Occupy_iowa_city_rally

Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Street, Paul at Dec 19, 2004 06:10 AM
Then there is this cautionary note about applying third world lessons to "advanced industrial [ie state-corporate-capitalist] society:" "In an advanced industrial society it is, obviously, far from true that the mass of population have nothing to lose but their chains, and there is no point in pretending otherwise. On the contrary, they have a considerable stake in preserving the existing socal order....[and] for a person to commit himself to a movement for radical change, with all the uncertainty and hazard that this entails, he must have a strong reason to believe that there is some likelihood of success in bringing about a new social order." Without such reason, indeed, he may be more likely to undertake "a defensive conservative reaction" (C.O.Otero, Chomsky on Democracy and Education [New York: RoutledgeFalmer, 2003], pp. 153-154).

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Occupy_iowa_city_rally

Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Street, Paul at Dec 19, 2004 05:08 AM
Hesed, on your sort of Buhddist or even Christian idea about getting people to pay the price for progressive social change (letting go of their material attachments and comforts), here is a relatively little known passage from Chomsky in 1969, when there was a fair bit of talk about "workers' control" and other radical democratic stuff like that: "but in the long run, a movement of the left has no chance for success, and deserves none, unless it develops an understanding of contemporary society and a vision of the future social order that is persuasive to a large majority of the population...A genuine radical culture can be treated only through the spiritual transformation of great masses of people, the essential feature for any social revolution that is to extend the possibilities for human creativity and freedom."..ctd.

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Person

Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Apocalypse, Unfolding at Dec 19, 2004 02:59 AM
Insert Clever Name, I must agree with Baby. Would the ends not justify the means in this incident: ten innocent babies are about to be murdered by a man with a knife, will you shoot him if you can? Now if your answer is negative, perhaps I share different morals and values and therefore our views are unintelligble. But if you answer "yes," would you deny that our situation is perhaps far more compelling and demanding? I mean, is the world getting better slowly and we're just helping it along extra? Or is our world quickly degrading ... the mindless citizenry grows more apolitical and more consumer-focused each day as the power structures grow more entrenched and self-sustaining - more able to commit war crimes for profit? And is a utopia really unimaginable? I may be full of shit, but I think a utopia is atleast logically possible. And I think that should be the ultimate end for any activist ... albeit we have so many obstacles in our path that even glimpsing "the possibility of utopia" is unlikely. Would a utopia justify the means?

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Person

Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Organum, Baby at Dec 19, 2004 02:22 AM
dear insert clever name here. Do not think of it as propaganda. In USA it is called comercials and everybody uses them. (Its unaxeptable to stoop to their level). Come on man. It unaxeptable to get your hands dirty ?!? Its unaxeptable to win a better world ? ??? You are allredy a metaphysician. PS "scent of the hummer" summarizes the romanticism neccesary for attack-war in a democracy. DIAMOND !

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Person

Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Clever, Insert at Dec 18, 2004 22:31 PM
Unfolding Apocolypse, I have to say I'm not very hot on the idea of counter-propaganda. I don't believe the ends justify the means. I don't want to trick (or subconciously persuade) anyone into believing the 'right' thing. I would rather encourage people to think criticaly and come to their own conclusions (however unrealistic that may or may not be). To me it is unacceptable to stoop to the level of the PR firms and the Karl Roves of this world.

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Person

Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By K., John at Dec 18, 2004 20:27 PM
. http://www.ewg.org/reports/skindeep/browse_products.php Very interesting, even Tom's has untested ingredients, but of course not bad as most. info on fragrances http://www.ewg.org/reports/skindeep/report/allergies.php the EU's Scientific Committee on Cosmetic Products and Non-food Products estimated that as many as one of every 50 people is sensitized to fragrances [which is 2%] Exposures add up http://www.ewg.org/reports/skindeep/report/exposure_survey.php - John

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Person

Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Hesed00, Hesed at Dec 18, 2004 08:11 AM
That idea seems very reasonable, from one reasonble person to another. I can assume from your language that you aren't an Evangelical yourself. That's a problem. Not for me, but for them. You can present your idea any way you want. But if you aren't one of them, then it will only take another evengelical to say, "That person isn't one of us, how can we trust any idea they may have". Seriously, Unfolding Apocalypse, they just don't distrust our ideas, they distrust US for not being one of them. Here's their logic: "This person doesn't have the sense or the heart to save their own immortal soul from eternal hellfire, why the hell should I trust them with my childrens education or national defense...etc." What are you going to do about that? You can't convince those people that these things aren't important. It can't be done. Anyway, it's not my intention to sound so defeatist but I think you would be wasting your breath. As far as evangelicals go, I take more of a "fuck 'em" stance.

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Person

Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Apocalypse, Unfolding at Dec 18, 2004 03:05 AM
What if we designed documents that tied ideas like "avoiding temptation" with an educational campaign designed to uncover how almost all consumer spending is nothing else but "giving in to temptation." Couldn't we overwhelm them with unbelievable, but true, facts about the evil and corruption of our government and corporations? Couldn't we even paint the whole establishment as the "hand of the devil" or something? No clue how it would work out, but I know some Christians whose minds would be "totally blown to bits" if they understood how this system works. If we can slant that presentation towards their existing beliefs, wouldn't it have some effects? Besides, I bet these Christians would feel guilty or partly-to-blame or whatever if we crafted our presentation of information correctly.

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Person

Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Apocalypse, Unfolding at Dec 18, 2004 03:03 AM
Hesed, it is true these Christians use belief in their religion as an all-redeeming crutch. And damnit, many of them are so anti-science, anti-enlightenment, anti-thought that it's bewildering speaking to them. But are you arguing that we cannot use consciousness-focusing tactics similar to those that the Church uses in enslaving their minds? What if we collected quotes from Jesus, especially ones about giving away all your belongings, working for the poor and oppressed, seeking salvation through good works, etc. And, we weaved in some facts and analysis about our world today, designed to fit these same themes embodied in Jesus' quotes.

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Person

Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Hesed00, Hesed at Dec 18, 2004 02:50 AM
My days of appealing to the Christian right are all over. There are none so blind as those who do not want to see. Where matters of faith and belief are concerned, there is no fact or arguement that will make them not believe the things they do. I'm content to just opposing them and keeping their power marginalized.

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Person

Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Hesed00, Hesed at Dec 18, 2004 02:43 AM
Unfolding Apocalypse, I don't think you can chalk-up the failures of the progressive movement to just the miscommunication of ideas. I may get reemed for saying it but there is indeed a "value gap" as well as spiritual differences between people who identify themselves as progressive and those who we recognize as "evengelical". At the center of the problem is the belief among evangelicals that NOTHING in life matters more than believing in Jesus as a means to their eternal life. This life, the planet Earth...it's just the "green room" on their way to the big show. So why should they care if they pollute the planet, wage wars or let people starve? Sure, Jesus said not to do those things but even what Jesus SAID takes a back seat to the mere "believing". So no matter how you may try to present your ideas as the right and moral thing to do, if they're too difficult to understand or to actualize, they just tune out because it doesn't matter to Christians what they do, it only matters that they believe. The supreme selfishness of "well, at least I'm saved" will always prevail.

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Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Apocalypse, Unfolding at Dec 18, 2004 01:49 AM
Indeed, Sigma-6, I am familiar with your historical example, and it does appear a relevant comparison. What I suspect to be a major weakness in the idea above - creating a updateable and evolving database on strategies and tactics for "spreading the word" - is the likelihood of CIA/NSA/FBI infiltration and subsequent suppression. Its happened before and it will happen again. That considered, can we brainstorm ideas that might overcome that difficulty, or any other difficulties that might arise?

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Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Apocalypse, Unfolding at Dec 17, 2004 23:31 PM
Wouldn't it be powerful to develop rhetoric and choose focal ideas that are perfectly matched for liberating a specific demographic, for instance evangelical Christians, from their economic and political misconceptions? Doesn't the establishment, the media and the entertainment industry work the same way but push in the exact opposite direction? Guys/Gals, I'm really interested in this idea. It'd be like our own marketing/research program. And it could offer very specific, very refined and sophisticated advice to activists worldwide trying to change public opinion. Imagine if this project grew in scope and scale. Imagine the vast interchange and evolution in ideas and their implementation. Imagine the direct involvement with and the feeling of unity with something greater. Or is this already under way?

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Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Apocalypse, Unfolding at Dec 17, 2004 23:30 PM
So what's all this ranting leading to? I propose we spend some serious time and energy crafting propraganda - developing information packages tailored specifically for different demographic sectors. We could emphasise the moral issues with the religious. We could highlight the economic exploitation with the working class. We could focus on race issues with minorities. etc etc And ideally, we could continue to adjust and improve the marketing techniques we use to sell our ideas. As new infomation surfaces, new goals emerge or new insights are gained from practice, we would make the pertinent changes in what information we present, how it is organized, and what sequences to deliver them in.

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Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Apocalypse, Unfolding at Dec 17, 2004 23:28 PM
Indeed Hesed, we are losing the battle for the collective psyche. And indeed Paul, this manifests itself in one of the most anti-enlightenment movements of history: the evangelicals. And when you put it all together, it does become sheer ridiculousness, a la Wandering Child. What I wonder is this: can we build our own propaganda machine? If the fight is for public consciousness - for the very hearts and minds of the Western citizenry - isn't the creation of our own propaganda machine a neccessary step in escalating this information war? Ok Ok ... we've got Znet and liberal blogs and countless other alternative media broadcasters. But who do they reach? Definitely very very few evangelicals, or any Christians for that matter. The underclass, the people working 12 hour days? No way. Teenage pregnant moms? Probably one or two in a million.

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Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Child, Wandering at Dec 17, 2004 21:59 PM
Hesed and Paul, I agree. This "Hummer fragrance" thing is one of the most ridiculous things I´ve ever seen (Who wants to smell like a car or whatsoever?. Well, maybe Arnold or Donald but no one else, I hope ) but I´m sure that it´s a sucessful product. People in general act like Marketing-Zombies: the product does not matter , the point is to buy it because, hey, if some people buy it and it´s on the media, it must be good ( or at least "I" will not be different from "them"). This is related to Paul´s comment about some TV shows and how people can get alienated by the so-called habits. I can say that this problem is not exclusively related to the US society; here in Europe the things work, more or less, in the same way (I hope the "Hummer Fragrance" thing does not cross the Atlantic). I´m not very optimistic on this issue.

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Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Hesed00, Hesed at Dec 17, 2004 21:04 PM
Paul, you're observations on the apathy among would-be progressives is interesting. How many disappointed democrats in the wake of the election got in their cars and went shopping? How many of them watched people like me at the WTO protest on their Chinese big-screen TV and cheered "right on". Oh, sure, they want change, so long as it doesn't interfere with their comfortable little shit-pile of stuff. They want to see an end to the oil wars, but they don't want to pay five dollars for a gallon of gas. People need to understand that this thing we're involved in, progressive change, is going to come at a price. The problem is, no one wants it badly enough to pay it. I spent a few months back-packing across West Africa...talk about perception re-alignment. I wish more people could see how much happiniess can be had, even without two cars, Ralph Lauren ties and Calvin Klein underwear. We teach people that you're a nobody unless you're rich or famous and wonder why people are willing to shit all over the world to become those things. You're right, this sickness is deeply engrained into our collective psyche.

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Occupy_iowa_city_rally

Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Street, Paul at Dec 17, 2004 04:33 AM
which communities and peoples debated, analyzed, and participated in political life.  We have witnessed in recent decades an unprecedented decline in popular engagement, the process by which ordinary and non-affluent people assert their interests and responsibility for their common destiny. The result: privatization (consumerization and commodification) of American life, with its concomitant sense that social action and responsibility are futile propositions, stillborn by their very nature.  The triumph of Capital over Hope.  There is a broad, deep, skeptical, even cynical sense here that nothing much can be done about existing social problems -- 'The Wheel in the Sky Keeps on Turning' -- and that the only reasonable solutions to societal difficulties are to be found in the private realm, matters of purely personal correction.  The world has grown too complex -- too ossified -- to be subject to meaningful collective agency.  The resulting public vacuum is filled by a new imperial fascism, a right-handed plutocratic state that steps in to pretend to provide the public service the social democracy would provide in a civilized place." I deserve special credit for working a Journey song into an academic publication. And Sigma-6 deserves credit for setting that fellow (who was linking Chomsky to the Khmer Rouge..that's an original smear...on the NC blog) straight on the Persian Gulf "War" and noting the incredible war crime that was the Highway of Death. I used to have Dessert Storm veterans in US History classes I used to be able to afford to teach. They recalled that "war" as "a turkey shoot."

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Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Street, Paul at Dec 17, 2004 04:30 AM
Point taken on knowing the real situation Sigma-6. Many radicals are relatively despair-immune but many others are less so and I think's the despair factor is as big a deal as apathy (I suppose they are strongly inrterrelated) in the general populace. Here's a formulation from the prologue to my book Empire and Inequality (apologies for quoting myself): "The main obstacle to a really broad-based progressive movement of peace, democracy, and social justice in the U.S., I increasingly suspect, is not mass loyalty to the dominant institutions and their rulers.  It is instead traceable to the neo-liberal, corporate-imposed erosion of the social democratic public spaces that once served as the forums in ...ctd

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Occupy_iowa_city_rally

Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Street, Paul at Dec 17, 2004 04:14 AM
About a third of the US populace, including a third of Iowa (it's not just the South I'm afraid) holds to Evangelical beliefs. See Thomas Frank's book What's the Matter with Kansas? for some interesting reflections on how some lower and working-class white people are being pushed into this dangerous madness in sometimes shockingly class conscious ways. There's this new US tv show called "Lives of Luxury..." One straight half hour of the depiction of gross material excess on the part of the rich and famous. Everytime I look at it, especially a couple of weeks ago (in an episode that depicted two rich gay men who spent many thousands of dollars on a poodle), I can almost sense hundreds of people becoming Evangelicals

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Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Street, Paul at Dec 17, 2004 04:13 AM
and..then, to continue my response to Unfolding Apocalypse (probably interrupted by now), there's this problem of resentment abhoring a vaccum. In the absence of strong progressive and left institutions, where do many people take their heartfelt horror at the sickening excesses of capital, including shock at the revolting Hummers (both real and bottled) and other parts of the anti-culture of mass commodification? Many take it the one institution that continues to thrive even as the unions sink to less than 10 percent of the private sector workforce: the churches. Well, the churches, including of course the terrifying realm of Evangelical pseudo Christianity, with its lovely faith in the Book of Revelation, the Second Coming, Armageddon...you know, the end of the world as a good thing and with a special role assigned to our good buddies in Israel.

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Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Street, Paul at Dec 17, 2004 03:49 AM
What's particuarly missing and weak here, and its not just or mainly because the left itself is bad ("bad left, down left") are social-democratic and more left institutions ---- political parties, unions, community-based organizational newtorks, etc. --- to activate and catalyze progressive sentiments in a relevant fashion. That weakness is dangerous indeed, but its also less total than people think. Just when you think its over, there's another remarkable outburst or other sign of activist potential. But the trick is to build entities, institutions, that stick, and keep people in and involved after the big March 2003 demos and so forth. ZNet plays some of this role, for what that's worth...it's an important achievement I think...the sort of thing that is necessary but in itself of course insufficient to bring about the revolutionary change that is required to stop the unfolding apocalypse. I know this is a standard sort of leftanarch sermon. Too little too late? Perhaps, as your alias suggests. But giving up in despair takes a say 5 in 10 chance of success and turns it into a 0 in 10.

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Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Street, Paul at Dec 17, 2004 03:48 AM
Unfolding Apocalypse, you get this year's award (hands down) for the best alias/e-mail name to comment on this blog (my second favorite is "Wandering Child" and for a while we had an "insert clever name here," which was very clever). We will transcend capitalism-imperialism in a democratic and social fashion or we will descend further into the dystopic post-democratic barbarism and cultural Chernobyl that has been unfolding if you like before our very eyes for some time now. I think "homeland" populace may be more progressive than you fear. Polling data on various specific issues shows Americans to be surprisingly social-democratic, non-imperialist-militarist, altruistic egalitarian and suspicious of concentrated wealth and corporations...

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Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Organum, Baby at Dec 17, 2004 01:25 AM
Dad smell like hummer and Mums sweater is by the barbie-disney pink stuff. Boots sell sgarettes and you ( as well as europe , thanks a lot ), is bombarded with glutonous propaganda. Amerikan intellectuals should smell the tide and flee to the position of "Kings Jester". Your forrest-position of robin hood is usable as tool for consumerist-worldkillers in their fight against babyboom-worldkillers

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Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Mjdiak, Mjd at Dec 17, 2004 01:18 AM
"I remember waht it was like before I gave up on trying to live according to the prevailing norms and mores of society." sigma-6 ...as do I. It's still a fight within, everyday. The young are suckerpunched while they grow-up with advertising, getting "hooked" for many years to come. It becomes an addiction that many find hard to brake - if they realize they should quit at all. This realization is eased by the works of those who produce and frequent this site and others like it. And the struggle can continue to happen as long as places like this exist.

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Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Bok, Yakov at Dec 17, 2004 00:10 AM
I find it curious that Gulf War 1 was criticized. This was launched so Saddam could feed his ego and gain the Hegmonic position over Egypt and Saudi Arabia in his quest to unite Arab in the name of pan-Arabism. He failed of course in his earlier attempt against the dreaded Shias in the infamous Iran/Iraq war. So here you have a case of Imperialism in action, yet, it is defendend by proxy? What gives?

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Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Child, Wandering at Dec 16, 2004 23:25 PM
joeblogs56, Today I have read in the media that David Blunkett was one of the most radical members of the labour party when he was young, is this true?. What is happening with the labour party?; I thought Blair and Straw were the only conservatives but it seems that many members of the party are surfing the wave. Regarding the media, here the notice was not the Law Lords decision but the Blunkett affair(?) (maybe he didn´t use the Hummer fragrance).

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Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Apocalypse, Unfolding at Dec 16, 2004 22:01 PM
Maybe I am pessimistic, but guys ... hasn't the mindset of the average US citizen shifted deeply into the shallow, surface-oriented, apolitical and bigoted territory due to the media/entertainment industry information barrage? Can we even see the other side of the tunnel anymore - an enlightened and an actively political population in power? Because I want to understand someone else's view on this. Personally, it seems like we're losing the information war, the battle for control of the public consciousness. And it seems like the recruits, the resources and the power to exercise them are monopolized by the enemy ... How and when will we fight the machine? the end seems near?

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Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Apocalypse, Unfolding at Dec 16, 2004 22:00 PM
Nice comments so far. But shouldn't we wonder if this is another sign that the Corporate/Media/Govt sector has so fully brainwashed the public, that most are now unconsciously craving a more luxurious self-image and are feeding that hunger by consuming empty, useless products elevated into their conciousness only by marketing? I mean, doesn't anyone else see countless signs of exactly this every time they venture into the shopping mall? I know friends that have $20,000 USD debts to credit cards, all from buying designer clothes and electronics they rarely use. And the worst part is their very identities are intricately intertwined with these products.

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Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Mjdiak, Mjd at Dec 16, 2004 19:41 PM
I have a feeling Arnold will be the spokesperson.

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Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Child, Wandering at Dec 16, 2004 19:00 PM
That´s not the original fragrance, I´m afraid.

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Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Rauh, Christian at Dec 16, 2004 17:55 PM
Maybe they'll start sending some Hummer fragrance to Iraq since there is shortage of the real thing.

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Occupy_iowa_city_rally

Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Street, Paul at Dec 16, 2004 17:46 PM
I think not. Personally I'm looking for Eau deBradley Fighting Vehicle.

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By Mjdiak, Mjd at Dec 16, 2004 17:30 PM
Do you think they have that in 90' Astro Van with 271 thousand miles?

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Re: The Manly Scent of The Hummer

By Child, Wandering at Dec 16, 2004 12:04 PM
After reading this I just can only say that the US troops in Iraq are "lucky": they can drive a Hummer and smell like it for free thanks to The Pentagon and Donald (Rumsfeld); after all it seems that Donald cares about the troops.

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