Happy New Year everybody!

Well the new year started out with all kinds of bumps (everybody sick, big fight with Bunny, my computer broke down, our electricity got turned off, no hot water - brrrr!!!) - I can only hope that the rest of the year goes smoother. Not likely though, as this is a Tiger Year (Chinese animals calendar), and as you know, a Tiger is nothing but a huge, tempermental cat with very sharp claws and big teeth. So I’m pretty sure this is going to be a wild year. Anyway, after lots of talking and soul-searching, Bunny and I decided that we need to make this year a time for new directions for us. Last year was very difficult for us and in some ways even kinda depressing, but I’d much rather be excited and hopeful, so that’s what I’m going to be. Anyway, I’ll write about some of our decisions and intentions a bit later, right now I want to fill you in on our upcoming schedule for the next few weeks:

SHERBROOKE: Jan 4 - Jan 27: Video screenings of various Pinky Show episodes at Foreman Art Gallery, Bishop’s University.

Monday, Jan 11: Bunny & I set off for Toronto.

TORONTO: Thursday, Jan 14 @ 8pm: Opening of our Class Treason Stories exhibition at Toronto Free Gallery. Also the winter issue of Fuse magazine (featuring Pinky Show cover story!) launches at the same event!

TORONTO: Saturday, Jan 16 @ 4pm: Artist talk at Toronto Free Gallery. We’re going to bring t-shirts and fine art prints just in case the TFG folks let us do a little fundraising on the side…

Monday, Jan 18: We leave Toronto to go to Montreal, then Sherbrooke.

SHERBROOKE: Tuesday, Jan 19 @ 7pm: Public presentation with the Pinky Show, “Structure / Power / Agency”. Boquébière  (50, Wellington Nord Street, Sherbrooke)

Wednesday, Jan 20: Bunny & I leave Sherbrooke > Montreal > Toronto.

Thursday, Jan 21: Bunny & I leave Canada to return home… unless we have to go to Belgrade. We probably won’t know if that’s going to happen or not until the last moment…

Okay, it’s almost 3am and I have to get up early tomorrow morning so I’m going to bed now. So… goodnight!

ooo (hugs),
pinky

I made words & pictures. Go here.

Hi. Bunny & I got back from Canada on Thursday night. It was a amazing trip for us. But of course it was also impossible to fully concentrate on our own programmatic stuff because the entire trip coincided with the devastating earthquake in Haiti. We arrived in Toronto on Tuesday, January 12, the same day of the earthquake. When not setting up our exhibition or having meetings or giving talks we were reading the Canadian newspapers about the extent of the damage and also what kind of difficulties are being encountered in trying to retrieve the dead and care for survivors.

Perhaps you have heard that a lot of countries have been criticizing the U.S. for making it more difficult to help the suffering people. And a lot of U.S. Americans have reacted with anger and bewilderment at this charge. If President Obama has pledged 100 million dollars to help Haiti, why is the U.S. now being blamed for something as ‘un-political’, ‘unavoidable’, and ‘natural’ as an earthquake? Well, as usual, the answer is much more complicated than what the U.S. mainstream media has been showing.

Below I put together a few excerpts from various sources that you can read in less than 10 minutes. They are linked to short essays that all together will take less than an hour to read. But they contain essential information and questions that will help people (especially U.S. Americans that probably never heard this stuff before) to rethink our connection to the people of Haiti, a connection that has existed since before the United States even became the United States. Most of this won’t ever appear in the mainstream media. Please read them.

From No hope for Haiti without justice (Mark LeVine, Al Jazeera)

The roots of this collapse are as deep as they are unknown - or unappreciated - by the majority of Americans - although it is widely discussed across the globe.

Haiti, then Saint Dominigue, was among the first islands “discovered” by Columbus, and became France’s - and likely Europe’s - most profitable colony. Its more than 800,000 slaves produced upwards of half the sugar and coffee consumed in Europe. The discourse of freedom and equality underlying the American and French revolutions had a profound impact on the island’s African slave population, who led the first successful slave revolution in the Western hemisphere, creating the first free black republic in the wake of their successful independence struggle against Napoleon’s army. Far from embracing the new republic - the second independent country in the Americas - the administration of President Thomas Jefferson, under pressure from southern slave-holding politicians, refused to recognise Haiti.

Just as Communist Cuba was deemed to constitute a grave threat to capitalist America a century and a half later, a revolutionary republic of free Africans set a very bad precedent for its huge neighbour to the Northeast, where slavery was still a major component of the economy. Rather than finding an ally in the still young US, Haiti was shackled with a crushing debt by France as the price of independence.

From democracy to dictatorship

After a century of alternating democratic and dictatorial rule, Haiti was invaded and occupied by US marines from 1915 to 1934, during which time the US overturned laws that restricted foreign ownership, allowing American corporations to gain a permanent foothold in the country’s agriculturally dominated economy. The first two decades of post-occupation politics saw as many coups, until stability of a sort was attained with the election of Francois Duvalier, known as “Papa Doc”, in 1957. But his rule quickly deteriorated into a brutal dictatorship, equaled in its corruption and violence only by that of his son, Jean-Claude (”Baby Doc”), who ruled from 1971 until 1986. Despite the intense brutality and corruption of the regime, the US supported Duvalier as a counterweight to neighbouring communist Cuba and because of his friendliness to US corporate interests… [edit]

Whitewashing history

Haiti’s complex and, from an American point of view, largely unpleasant and unedifying history must be acknowledged if there is to be any hope that the country’s internationally financed reconstruction will not merely lay the groundwork for more poverty and disasters. Sadly, Obama, who famously admitted in his 2009 Cairo speech that the US had in fact overthrown the elected government in Iran, has so far said nothing about the even more extensive US history of meddling in Haiti. Instead, writing in Newsweek, the president declared that “at long last, after decades of conflict and instability, Haiti was showing hopeful signs of political and economic progress”. Needless to say, if there was any substantive progress, the state would not have utterly disappeared in the rubble of the temblor. Seemingly oblivious to the role of the US and UN in producing Haiti’s current woes, Obama declared that: “The United States will be there with the Haitian government and the United Nations every step of the way.” If the past is any guide, this does not augur well for the country’s future. Indeed, Gerald Zarr, the former USAID Haiti director, was more honest in explaining that “Haiti’s going to have to change” - which is code for being even more acquiescent to the kinds of reforms that helped produce the disastrous consequences of the earthquake in the first place… [edit]

From Haiti: An Unwelcome Katrina Redux (Cynthia McKinney, Global Research)

Haitians are not the only ones who know their importance to the struggle against hatred, imperialism, and European domination. This pesky, persistent, stubbornly non-Western, proudly African people of this piece of land that we call Haiti know their history and they know that they militarily defeated the ruling world empire of the day, Napoleon’s France, and the global elite at that time who supported him.  They know that they defeated the armies of England and Spain.

Haitians know that they used their status as a free state to help liberate Latin Americans from Spain, by funding and fighting alongside Simon Bolivar; their example inspired their still-enslaved African brothers and sisters on the American mainland; and before Haitians were even free, they fought against the British inside the U.S. during its war of independence and won a decisive battle in Savannah, Georgia, where I have visited the statue commemorating that victory.

Haitians know that France imposed reparations on them for being free, and Haiti paid them in full, but that President Aristide called for France to give that money back ($21 billion in 2003 dollars).

Haitians know that their “brother,” then-Secretary of State Colin Powell lied to the world upon the kidnapping and second ouster of their President.  (Sadly, it wouldn’t be the last time that Secretary of State Colin Powell would lie to the world.)  Haitians know, all-too-well, that high-ranking blacks in the United States are capable of helping them and of betraying them.

Haitians know, too, that the United States has installed its political proxies and even its own soldiers onto Haitian soil when the U.S. felt it was necessary.  All in an effort to control the indomitable Haitian spirit that directs much-needed light to the rest of the oppressed world… [edit]

So, on this remembrance of the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I note that it was the U.S. government’s own illegal Operation Lantern Spike that snuffed out the promise and light of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Every plane of humanitarian assistance that is turned away by the U.S. military (so far from CARICOM, the Caribbean Community, Médecins Sans Frontieres, Brazil, France, Italy, and even the U.S. Red Cross)–as was done in the wake of Hurricane Katrina–and the expected arrival on this very day of up to 10,000 U.S. troops, are lasting reminders of the existential threat that now looms over the valiant, proud people and the Republic of Haiti.

From Seven Questions About Haiti (Toby O’Ryan, Revolution: Voice of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA):

Question One: If you are so concerned about the catastrophe in Haiti, and feel so sympathetic to the terrible plight of the Haitian people, then why has President Obama promised a mere $100 million in aid, which is barely 1/10 of 1% of what this country spends on its military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq each year? Why has it taken so long for the most powerful country on earth, a mere few hundred miles from Haiti, to deliver the badly needed teams and technology which can remove people from rubble, the fresh water which people so desperately need, the food and medicine and medical personnel so urgently required? And why does the U.S. Coast Guard still insist on turning back any Haitian attempting to seek refuge in the U.S.?

I realize a blog is not the best place to have a serious conversation about the relationship between colonization, neoliberalism, and earthquakes. But the news coverage we’ve been reading and watching since coming back from Canada has been absolutely mindblowing in its lack of critical perspective or historical consciousness. If this blog entry has been useful in raising a few questions in your own mind about how maybe we can really help the people of Haiti beyond more guns, more containment, and more outside control exerted over of their political and economic futures, please send the links to these articles around to your friends. Thank you.

pinky

Bunny and I were looking for old books at a bookstore today when the bookstore lady told us that Howard Zinn had just died. Although I know he was getting kind of old my heart stopped for a moment as I realized what I’d just heard.

A few years ago I was fortunate enough to have dinner with Professor Zinn in Boston. He was funny, gentle, warm, humble. Near the end of the evening I told him I was thinking of making a tv show with cats that would talk about ethics and do structural analyses of imperialism and stuff like that. I’m sure it sounded like a stupid idea but instead of making a weird face he just thought about it for a moment and then gave me some encouragement. Maybe he was just being polite but it didn’t matter to me, Howard Zinn is one of my heroes and there he was encouraging me to go do it! Wow! A little later Bunny and I started making The Pinky Show. It’s certainly not epic like A People’s History of the United States, but it’s what we can do.

I have often wondered how people find their paths. For example, as a young man studying to become a historian, I’m sure Howard Zinn wasn’t the only person with access to a secret stash of radical history books at the NYU library. Actually, I’d be willing to bet that he studied from mostly the same texts that his classmates were also studying. But somehow he managed to cultivate a perspective of history that was fairly downside-up compared to those of his peers. How did that happen? I want to know because I’d like to see maybe a million or ten million Howard Zinns coming up in this next generation.

I’m going to miss Professor Zinn. But I’m also grateful that he made so many extraordinary books for us to read and study.

ooo x,
pinky

I haven’t done Bunny mailbag for a while. Might as well do it while Pinky tries to fix the floor (we have termintes). First one:

Hello Pinky Show, I have been watching for some time the back and forth fighting about The Pinky Show on Wikipedia. Are you even aware that you have an entry at Wikipedia? If so, do you think that the characterization of your show is accurate? Also, why don’t you correct the false statements made about your show? I think the characterization misses the mark. And I think it’s very damaging to let inaccurate information stand. Because people consider Wikipedia to be a reliable source of information. Anyway, I  thought you should know what is happening there. Jean

My reply to Jean:

Hello Jean. Wikipedia is great if you want to know how many legs an ant has or need Creative Commons photos of donkeys. The everybody-chime-in premise behind Wikipedia works okay for stuff like this, but it’s not going to produce a fair or accurate representation of counter-hegemonic concepts, histories, or entities. I mean seriously, have you seen how stupid some of these people are?

I’ve also noticed that entries generally tend to get stupider when the topic under discussion is more overtly ‘popular’ (i.e., popular as in accessible or understandable to everyone). For example, I’d expect the Wikipedia entry on dictatorship of the proletariat to be somewhat less stupid than The Pinky Show’s entry. Why? Because idiots generally don’t read Lenin or Marx (why should they?), but everyone feels like they can understand (and then comment on) talking cats. On YouTube no less.

I’ve had lots of conversations about democracy and knowledge and power with Pinky; as far as I’m concerned Wikipedia is just another interesting case study. Considering the kind of work we do, it’s predictable that we’d have a really stupid Wikipedia entry. And we do. - Bunny

Next e-mail, this one from Matthew.

Hi. I’m curious about the connection to Hawai’i. I’ve spent a little time there on the Big Island because my aunt and uncle live there. We’re haoles and they don’t really consider themselves as colonists or participating in that (at least, no more than I do myself living on the mainland) but they aren’t blind to the dynamics, either. I drove through the big military base one night on the way home from Mauna Kea and it was freaky. How did your program get involved there? Were there connections that existed before the show? Best, Matthew

My reply to Matthew:

Hi Matthew. Our connection to Hawaii is that Pinky was born there. Also, since we are committed to developing an understanding of imperialism and U.S. hegemony, Hawaii is an important place for us to study (for obvious reasons). Regarding your letter though, I would like to point out that from a political perspective, it is totally irrelevant if you, aunty, uncle, me, Pinky, or anybody else thinks we are not participating in an imperialist project. The fact is that the continued occupation of Hawaii - as well as the ongoing violence perpetrated against Native Hawaiians - absolutely depends on the silence and inaction of everyone who’s not getting attacked. As Howard Zinn used to be fond of saying, “You can’t be neutral on a moving train.” If, like you say, your aunt and uncle really aren’t blind to the dynamics, then it’s probably fair to ask them something like “What have you done to restore Hawaiian independence lately?” or “What are you doing to help dismantle U.S. imperialism?” If they say ‘nothing’, well, then U.S. Empire says “Thank you for not participating.”

By the way, Mauna Kea is a sacred mountain to Native Hawaiians. The fact that anybody can go driving around on it any time they like, and that the U.S. military gives itself permission to practice war with Strykers and bombs and depleted uranium on its slopes, and that the State of Hawaii allows scientists from around the world to pollute and build giant telescopes on its summit even though it’s illegally seized Hawaiian Kingdom crown lands - these are all examples of U.S. dominance over all things Hawaiian. Very similar examples exist throughout the continental U.S. as well, so if any of this seems wrong to you the good news is we have lots of fighting we can do to keep us busy.

By the way again, none of this is meant as a personal attack on you or your aunt or uncle. I’d be saying the same thing even if you were Sandy from SpongeBob SquarePants, who is totally awesome. - Bunny

And finally, an e-mail from Eric & Nibblet:

Hi Pinky!  Your recent video from your bed was very thought provoking.  One thing that wasn’t addressed is negative class treason:  i.e. people in exploited classes who act in support of the systems that exploit them, rather than in their own interests.  I suppose this is due to the fact that this just represents part of the status-quo.  The system relies on the willingness of the designated ‘under classes’ to pursue paths created for them by the system, rather than working to change the system for the better.

I have tried over the years various times to earn a college degree.  For various reasons, I was unable to.  Now I find myself in a position where I am virtually unemployable.  (Or so it seems, having tried to find employment for periods of up to several years with no luck.)  Living in the North East, where many of the institutions of ‘higher learning’ are based, this area is particularly ‘degree happy’, as I call it.  No degree, no career, for the most part.

I don’t know if you can offer any advice as to how someone in my position can seek to improve society, but, after seeing your last video, I just felt the need to let you know that I do feel the need to do something.

Reply:

Hello Eric, hello Nibblet, Pinky is trying to repair the floor right now so I am answering. But she is right over there and I am talking out loud as I type things so maybe she will jump in if I say something totally outrageous. Alright, Pinky is saying hi right now. Anyway, yes, what you describe as negative class treason I would just call subjugation. Like you say, it is the status quo and we must find ways to upend unfair systems whenever possible.

Which brings us to the second part of your e-mail. I empathize with your situation. I don’t have advice, but I have met hundreds and hundreds of people who are being marginalized and disregarded by the dominant work-system. And I’ve noticed that this work-system is really good at making un-legitimized people (and there are many different kinds of un-legitimized people!) appear INFERIOR and feel ISOLATED.

The first part - the cultivation of the appearance of inferiority - is designed to simultaneously inflate the value of those who have passed through the legitimation system, while attempting to destroy the dignity of those who have not, for whatever reason, completed their rites of initiation and credentialing. The value of this to the status quo is obvious.

The second part - isolation - is maybe more important because it shields the status quo from competition. If small- or medium-sized clumps of people who are being marginalized by the work-system were to start getting together and forming egalitarian institutions of work, play, and other kinds of cultural production… oh-oh, this would be bad for those who own and control the so-called legitimate work-systems and their corresponding processes of legitimation.

So what can be done? Well, to me, I don’t think it’s ever too late to embrace upside-down-ness as a positive trait, and a good way to live. There’ll always be conventional jobs and schooling out there, but there’s also millions of upside-down people out there working their way through life according to upside-down rules, and in many cases improving the planet a good deal as they do it. It can be hard to find them but that’s just because there’s so much effort put into making people believe they don’t exist. Just one example - have you looked into intentional communities? A lot of people might think, “Oh no! Hippies! I don’t want to be a hippie!” but actually there are all kinds of intentional communities.

Pinky is over here saying “monster institution”. Yup, that’s another possibility. If you’re not into the already-established institutions, why not band together with some other losers and start your own? (That’s what Pinky and I did!) Sure it can take a while to get up and running, but lots of things take a long time to get started, and at least with monster institutions when you’re doing it it’s yours.

We’ll continue to write more about monster institutions and upside-down-ness in general. The need to “do something” will always be connected to analyses of hegemony and testing different ways to dismantle unjust social orders. So we’ll keep on going, I hope you will too. Please take care. Bunny.

End of Bunny mailbag.

Bunny and I are super excited that a new documentary about the Freedom Riders (Freedom Riders, 113 min, Stanley Nelson, 2009) just debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. They’ve been written about a lot but I hope this film will bring the story to a wider audience. It’s important to learn how ordinary people have challenged injustice at different moments in history, to understand what worked and what didn’t work and why - otherwise The Wheel has to be reinvented over and over again.

Democracy Now! did a segment on the new film: here.

In our most recent video we used the phrase class treason a lot. Thinking about the Freedom Riders, I think it is important to consider how history might have been different if only black people were Freedom Riders. Or only white people. Why did it have to be black and white people? And also male and female - why was that important? It brings me back to the question of whether or not we can expect change if the oppressed are left to fight for freedom all by themselves.

Take care,
pinky

[ Bunny: I love the 2nd half - the interview with the two old guys. I don't think young people in America are really given the chance to learn from these kinds of people. They aren't raised to think about commitment, sacrifice, solidarity, strategy or anything else relating to politics and power. As far as I can tell young people in the U.S. are schooled to believe that making society better is the responsibility of politicians. ]

[ Bunny again: Another must-see: The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers. I'm expecting this one to be awesome too. ]

recently i made a drawing of a skull. i’m not sure exactly why i drew it - it was just a picture that i’ve been seeing in my head for the past few years.

to me, it’s mostly a reminder to myself that i have a lot of things that i need to do and i better stay focused because you never know when you’re going to drop dead. that’s all. i sent it to my friend and she said something like “are you okay? there are so many dark thoughts in your head lately!” (this was news to me). she quoted nietzsche, “and if you gaze for long into the abyss, the abyss gazes into you”.

i think i understand the meaning and usefulness of these kinds of statements. but i think maybe i also have a different relationship to the underside of things than what she is suggesting.

a lot of pinky show viewers send us e-mails, asking us why in our videos we usually don’t offer some kind of resolution, provide a solution, or leave them with some feeling of hope. instead, they see our work as just a big pile of negative hopelessness. sometimes i feel like responding “well maybe that’s your job, to figure out what you should do next. and emotionally, go feel any way you want, what does it have to do with me how you feel after you watch one of our videos?” i guess that probably sounds not-very-nice, but i just think it’s too weird how people who claim to want a better world are often so unwilling to linger in discomfort of any kind. they just want hope! as bunny would say, “good luck with that”.

what is it about so many social change people, that when you speak of loss and maybe even the absence of hope in some situations, they quickly try to steer you back towards hope? as if we shouldn’t dare be without hope for even a moment; it is too dark and we will be eaten alive! really? are we sure this is a good way to look at things?

to me, it’s important to remember that lots of people are engaged in personal or political struggles that they know they are going to lose. what is the role of hope then? can someone continue on, knowing full well that their side has been persevering, fighting, resisting but also mostly losing for the past 500 or 4000 years? are these people masochists? are their souls just heavy and dark? does strength or justice always come with rays of sunshine?

which i guess raises another question: is the pinky show for hopeless losers?

i say: “hmmm!!!” i realize hope is powerful and sustaining, but it is also only half of something. in many circumstances loss (and its many manifestations) just is what it is. personally i can’t think of any good reason to avoid them. i just want to focus on fulfilling my obligations and if loss is a big part of that, okay. actually, i feel like loss is a very good teacher.

please take care,
pinky

Too many ridiculous things have been happening around here lately. We recently lost our work-space to termites and 50-year old asbestos. Then Pinky’s computer died again (this is the second time already - it’s getting pretty old) and right after I finally got that fixed, a tree blew down and took our internet cable with it. So we didn’t have internet until today. Or telephones either, because we actually use the internet to place telephone calls. We’ve been going to the library to use the internet and also “borrowing” (*ahem*) wi-fi to make Skype telephone calls. Add to all this the loss of our t.v., cell phone, water heater, and nearly all of our project funding, the past six months has felt more like a low-intensity war waged against The Pinky Show by electricity, electronic devices and… the universe.

In between trying to deal with all this ridiculousness, we’ve been keeping busy. Whenever possible we work on Pinky Show stuff and the rest of the time Pinky and I’ve been looking for jobs. Ah, job hunting - is there anything more amusing in life? So if you see a large fluffy grey/white cat flipping your hamburger soon, I guess that means I’ve successfully integrated myself into “the workforce”.

But it’s not all bad news, we have some good news too. First one is that we’ve started work on a Pinky Show comic strip. This came about when the folks at Fuse magazine asked us recently if we’d like to put a Pinky Show cartoon in their magazine on a regular basis. Well, we like Fuse magazine a lot so of course we said yes. We’ve been talking about making a Pinky Show cartoon for a long time, but without an actual place to put it we just kept putting it off while we worked on other things. Good timing, I say - comic strips are a nice format because they don’t require a lot of fussy electronic equipment to make. This may be a good medium for us to work in while we try to figure out how to fund the production of more Pinky Show videos.

Second good news: …I forgot. If I remember I’ll post it later.

Finally, here is a song that you may enjoy. Kim wrote it. (You know Kim right? Tiny, black, long fur?) It’s a traditional cat-form song, which means that you can use any melody you like when you sing it. In fact, if you and your friends sing it simultaneously, feel free to sing different melodies at the same time, which sounds terrific. Enjoy.

[ click picture for larger version ]

I’ll write again soon. Bunny.

Hilarious.

www.sketchybunnies.com

Link from Izida. Posted by Bunny.

Here’s a design I made for a pin-on button. We were thinking of possibly making some buttons as give-aways for the interviewing project we’re doing with Center for the Future of Museums at the AAM Annual Meeting & Museum Expo next month in Los Angeles. Unfortunately in the end there was no money in the budget for their production, but rather than just send the design into my computer’s virtual rubbish can I’m posting it here if anybody wants to use it to make their own Pinky Show button (you may have to expand the edges - I never made a button before so I don’t know). There is a small print shop near here that has a button-making machine; I suspect most print shops (Kinko’s and places like that?) will probably make one for you for a couple of dollars.

Take care,
pinky

[ Note from Bunny: That looks fun - I wish I had that machine. Apparently they're called "pin-back buttons".  ]

I don’t need to preface this e-mail by saying much - it’s just a good letter and I wanted our readers to be able to read it too. Very important to think about.

To: The Pinky Show
From: Eric and Nibblet the Wonder Kitty
Subject: Ancient Athens, Sparta, Rome, and the United States

message: Hello Pinky, Bunny, and the gang!  I’ve been thinking allot about history and current events.  We study the Ancient cultures of Athens, Sparta, and the Roman Empire and feel superior to them because so much of their populations were slaves or impoverished laborers who worked to support the small upper classes of their cultures.  We also study the antebellum South and feel proud that we have eliminated chattel slavery here in the United States.

Yet it strikes me to ask what price does the rest of the world pay so that we here in the United States, and the other ‘developed’ countries, might enjoy the lifestyle that we have come to see as our birth right?  How much of the world’s arable land and water resources are devoted to growing crops for export to the U.S. and other ‘developed’ countries, rather than being used to grow food for the people living in the countries this land is in?  How much of the world’s population toil in factories, fields, and slave labor colonies for almost nothing so that we can buy our shirts and toys cheaply in big box stores rather than paying the prices that would result from these people being paid what we consider a living wage?  How much hunger, disease, tyranny, and suffering are required to maintain our lifestyles?  In the end, are we really ethically superior to the ancient Athenians, Spartans, and Romans?  They, at least, were willing to be open and honest about their exploitation of other peoples and nations for their own comfort and convenience.

I realize that these are very dangerous questions to be asking.  Yet, someone needs to ask them.  Have you Ever thought about this?  Have a great Spring and I look forward to your future endeavors!

Sincerely,
Eric and Nibblet the Wonder Kitty

We just received a very provocative e-mail from someone who’s obviously thought a lot about some of the issues we talked about in our Re: Power, Structure, Agency episode. However I disagree with many of her points and since she’s posted at various places around the internet I thought this would be a good opportunity to respond in order to clarify where we are coming from. My responses are interspersed in dark blue:

To: The Pinky Show
From: diana
Subject: ‘Class Treason’ show lacking hugely!

[I] wrote the following on youtube, and on Facebook:

“I have some issues with this instalment: the attention aimed at women (who reinforce but are not the power-brokers in the system) and the focus on personal change (too-minimally challenged), and the trashing of theory. But most of all, the absence of class consciousness — “all classes of people just looking out for …their own interests”??? WTF? Pinky — of all beings — just presumed a level playing field? OK, at just short of 18 minutes, it gets better. But I still hate the invisibilizing of working-class people.”

Bunny: 1) Everybody, including women, who help maintain harmful social structures should be critiqued. 2) This episode is not so much about ‘personal change’ (a very ambiguous term) but rather the question of individual agency and its relationship to exploitative social/institutional structures. 3) We trash theory? Where did we do that? We use theory all the time. No further comment. 4) You quote out of context in order to make your own point, then accuse us of saying something we never said as a counter-example? Not cool. In the section of the video you reference, we were pointing out how society is not only broken up into political-economic binaries (bourgeoisie/proletariat, ruling class/working class, etc.) but also many other social, ideological, and other class-forms. We in no way imagine that society is a level playing field. Please re-watch the video more carefully. 5) Regarding our supposed rendering of working class people as “invisible” - and this is the most important point - Why do you think we’ve chosen not to speak to or about working-class people in a video about stucture/power/agency? Is it possible that our decision to focus on privileged people was a strategic one? Do you really think working class people need to be lectured on the logic of class treason?

In all fairness, the people who comment well on classism are … either dead or not born yet?  but since we’re all in bad company, it’d be useful to challenge the worst of our offerings.  And I suppose if you-all weren’t so exceptionally good under other circumstances, I wouldn’t be SOOO disappointed.  But I am.

Bunny: Actually there are lots of people who are very much alive that do talk about class struggle all the time. They’re not often on t.v., especially here in the U.S., but they’re out there. Please do not render them invisible.

Soccer moms?  These moms’ SUVs?  Yes!  Because *women* are murdering the planet with their heavy industrialization, these goddesses of capitalism!  (No, we were a one-car family until I had to carpool to the alternative elementary school, a decent option for a working-class family — and even soccer was carpooled-to.  But even so, those other moms?  They didn’t singlehandedly trash the world.  And my contribution meant nothing — it’s *industry* that does 97% of the polluting, and all the moms in the world doing zero-waste processing still don’t account for the 97%.)

Bunny: Yes, soccer moms are not solely responsible for destroying the planet - so what? Does that mean that we should not point out that an enormous number of ordinary people - including supposedly non-threatening soccer moms who may or may not resemble you in some way - actively contribute to the destruction of this planet on a daily basis? Like it or not, American soccer moms are a fair example of the kind of family-minded ‘good citizens’ that politely assist this planet toward Epic Planetary FAIL as they dutifully go about their daily activities. For you to imply that “Industry” (Who or What is this monolithic “Industry”? Does anybody work in it? Does anyone consume its products or services?) is The Real Culprit responsible for 97% of the destruction - as if it doesn’t require a ravenous appetite by ordinary, not-fabulously-rich, relatively affluent First Worlders to consume and demand more of that production - your argument makes little sense to me. They are intertwined via the broader logic of capitalism, and you and me and probably everybody we know are firmly planted within it. And by the way, I do applaud you with my little cat-hands for carpooling and supporting alternative forms of education.

College means something very different for working-class people with activist backgrounds.  It’s still problematic, but it’s about the only way to get recognized by those who otherwise won’t listen.  I’m an activist.  I write fairly awesome political theory, from which I work diligently.  I have one fan, maybe two, in Seattle.  I now have the attention of the head of the Gender & Women’s Studies department of the local college in this small midwestern town — the college where I work as a clerk in the convenience store, so that my daughter has lowered tuition and can earn a degree that gives her credibility when she goes out to make social-justice change.  I know how far I can get.  Um, did I mention cashiering?  I can’t guarantee she’ll have better access, but it gives her a shot at it!

Bunny: Until there is some kind of radical transformation in the structure of society, it’s likely that universities and other kinds of hegemonic institutions will be seen by most people as the only legitimate game in town. With this in mind, we do not go around telling oppressed people that they should not go to school. Instead, we are focused on telling privileged people of conscience to find creative ways of devaluing the social, political, and economic currency of hegemonic institutions. The one example given at the end of the video was the school teacher - he leaves his current position within an establishment institution in order to form a different (i.e., more ethical) kind of institution. It isn’t easy and there are many complications AND it is not an instant societal fix. But we think it is a reasonable first step that ordinary people can actually do. Please try to consider the political utility of what this could produce if in every town and city several hundreds or thousands of people would actually do something like this.

What really frustrates me is the presumption that you’re only talking to the elite.  Facebook, especially, is full of working-class activists who are either retired from their w-c jobs or are winding down into greater activism.  The one person who’s commented on FB so far (and to whom I gave your link) is a retired gentleman several years older even than me, and decidedly working-class as well.  Please don’t render us invisible!  We exist!  And please don’t paint us as ineffective, either.  There are lots of us, and though the media writes us off, we don’t expect it from ‘our side.’  Please.

Bunny: I don’t think we’re rendering working class people invisible by creating a video aimed at privileged functionaries of the state. Class treason is a political strategy to change society. It’s logic is rooted in an analysis of structure and power. It wouldn’t make sense to make a video urging working class people to commit class treason. Oppressed people of all different kinds are already on the move - have been for quite some time - and don’t need us to speak for them.

And finally, just to be clear, we are not using this video to argue that the goal of transforming society should be to redistribute wealth in the U.S. so that the U.S. working class can have all the goodies they want or deserve. The question of the relative privilege enjoyed by most working class people in the U.S. - compared to what working people in so-called Third World countries experience - is an important reality that must be directly addressed by any vision of a more just future. What would be the point redistributing wealth here in the U.S., if in the end, it still required millions or billions of expendable people worldwide to exist under the weight of our desires?

Thank you.

Thank you for taking the time to write us. I hope you will consider my responses.

Posted by Bunny.

May 12 Update, posted by Bunny: We receive a lot of criticism via e-mail. Most of it is ridiculous and not worth responding to, sometimes it is more thoughtful (like the e-mail above). I responded to diana’s comments because I think it’s very important to examine how something can be thoughtful and wrong at the same time - especially when spoken by someone on ‘our side’. We received a reply today and so I am adding it below - if we’re misogynist and classist then hopefully it is all more fully explained. Or this may be an example of how difficult it is to recognize or understand other arguments once we’ve claimed the positions from which we speak. Either way, the struggle continues. - B.

May 12 e-mail response from diana: “Everybody … should be critiqued.” Yeah, well, sure, if you’re writing a book. But if you’re not, then singling out certain people, and making others invisible, these are terribly political acts — for which you can expect to face the consequences. And targeting soccer moms, or any other group of women, is downright coerced, because the cultural feeling against women who’ve relatively made it is too easy to tap into. It’s misogyny that makes it so easy. Target CEOs and senior execs? Well, no, rich white men don’t get the same kind of indignation that wealthy/ish white women do. And “individual agency” — seriously? You’ve simply renamed ‘personal change.’ And you haven’t added much, because any genuine foray into personal change will still examine it, if briefly, in relation to the structures of the culture around it. The reason my claim that you trash theory is even made, above, is because you have previously regularly used and promoted theory that was breathtaking in its clarity; I recommended Pinky to people *because* of the excellent theory. The fact you ‘use it all the time’ is a straw argument. And your ‘where did we say that’ right next to ‘the section of the video you reference’ is an odd pairing, showing that I really have told you ‘where.’ But most of all, to say *clearly,* if in essence, that ‘all classes of people are just looking out for their own interests’ truly flattens the perspective and renders invisible a great deal of dissimilarity in privilege and power. You can’t choose not to speak about a group, and then leave it at that. That is exactly what renders a group invisible.

You know, I really don’t want to do any more of this. You’ve been a great resource for gently explaining theory at a depth few others, short of authors of thousand-page books, have managed. You hit upon two of my areas of disprivilege, and I called you on it. Let’s don’t spend time arguing. Take a look at your own stuff, and either you’ll see it over time, or you won’t. I found this episode terribly, oddly misogynistic and classist, and way below your normal standard. I keep the bar pretty high for you guys because your show is normally so very good. Everyone — every single one of the people I initially posted to — knows that I have recommended your show repeatedly. And now are they gonna see your defensive response with some pretty weird claims back at me (”quote out of context …”), and my challenges? Doesn’t help clarity; doesn’t help dialogue to have to engage in defensiveness. You can keep the last word (or not, your call). What I don’t want is to drift toward a more-horizontal hostility. We eat each other up on the left, do the dirty work for The Powers, in getting locked into such engagements.

Take a look at the stuff I’ve called you on … over time (and no, you haven’t, it’s in your defensive words). Or don’t. But the revolution, or life post-collapse, or whatever it is we’re all looking toward, will be much richer (in real wealth — Earth health) if misogyny and classism are also understood, and not furthered, and not accepted-in-passing. Thanks, diana

The Declaration below was adopted by the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, recently concluded in Cochabamba, Bolivia. The Bolivian government has submitted it to the United Nations (UNFCCC) for consideration. Please circulate this widely - this is an important document and needs to be read, contemplated and discussed by as many people as possible. Posted by Bunny.

< begin document >

Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth

Preamble

We, the peoples and nations of Earth:

considering that we are all part of Mother Earth, an indivisible, living community of interrelated and interdependent beings with a common destiny;

gratefully acknowledging that Mother Earth is the source of life, nourishment and learning and provides everything we need to live well;

recognizing that the capitalist system and all forms of depredation, exploitation, abuse and contamination have caused great destruction, degradation and disruption of Mother Earth, putting life as we know it today at risk through phenomena such as climate change;

convinced that in an interdependent living community it is not possible to recognize the rights of only human beings without causing an imbalance within Mother Earth;

affirming that to guarantee human rights it is necessary to recognize and defend the rights of Mother Earth and all beings in her and that there are existing cultures, practices and laws that do so;

conscious of the urgency of taking decisive, collective action to transform structures and systems that cause climate change and other threats to Mother Earth;

proclaim this Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth, and call on the General Assembly of the United Nation to adopt it, as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations of the world, and to the end that every individual and institution takes responsibility for promoting through teaching, education, and consciousness raising, respect for the rights recognized in this Declaration and ensure through prompt and progressive measures and mechanisms, national and international, their universal and effective recognition and observance among all peoples and States in the world.

Article 1. Mother Earth

(1) Mother Earth is a living being.

(2) Mother Earth is a unique, indivisible, self-regulating community of interrelated beings that sustains, contains and reproduces all beings.

(3) Each being is defined by its relationships as an integral part of Mother Earth.

(4) The inherent rights of Mother Earth are inalienable in that they arise from the same source as existence.

(5) Mother Earth and all beings are entitled to all the inherent rights recognized in this Declaration without distinction of any kind, such as may be made between organic and inorganic beings, species, origin, use to human beings, or any other status.

(6) Just as human beings have human rights, all other beings also have rights which are specific to their species or kind and appropriate for their role and function within the communities within which they exist.

(7) The rights of each being are limited by the rights of other beings and any conflict between their rights must be resolved in a way that maintains the integrity, balance and health of Mother Earth.

Article 2. Inherent Rights of Mother Earth

(1) Mother Earth and all beings of which she is composed have the following inherent rights:

(a) the right to life and to exist;

(b) the right to be respected;

(c) the right to regenerate its bio-capacity and to continue its vital cycles and processes free from human disruptions;

(d) the right to maintain its identity and integrity as a distinct, self-regulating and interrelated being;

(e) the right to water as a source of life;

(f) the right to clean air;

(g) the right to integral health;

(h) the right to be free from contamination, pollution and toxic or radioactive waste;

(i) the right to not have its genetic structure modified or disrupted in a manner that threatens it integrity or vital and healthy functioning;

(j) the right to full and prompt restoration the violation of the rights recognized in this Declaration caused by human activities;

(2) Each being has the right to a place and to play its role in Mother Earth for her harmonious functioning.

(3) Every being has the right to wellbeing and to live free from torture or cruel treatment by human beings.

Article 3. Obligations of human beings to Mother Earth

(1) Every human being is responsible for respecting and living in harmony with Mother Earth.

(2) Human beings, all States, and all public and private institutions must:

(a) act in accordance with the rights and obligations recognized in this Declaration;

(b) recognize and promote the full implementation and enforcement of the rights and obligations recognized in this Declaration;

(c) promote and participate in learning, analysis, interpretation and communication about how to live in harmony with Mother Earth in accordance with this Declaration;

(d) ensure that the pursuit of human wellbeing contributes to the wellbeing of Mother Earth, now and in the future;

(e) establish and apply effective norms and laws for the defence, protection and conservation of the rights of Mother Earth;

(f) respect, protect, conserve and where necessary, restore the integrity, of the vital ecological cycles, processes and balances of Mother Earth;

(g) guarantee that the damages caused by human violations of the inherent rights recognized in this Declaration are rectified and that those responsible are held accountable for restoring the integrity and health of Mother Earth;

(h) empower human beings and institutions to defend the rights of Mother Earth and of all beings;

(i) establish precautionary and restrictive measures to prevent human activities from causing species extinction, the destruction of ecosystems or the disruption of ecological cycles;

(j) guarantee peace and eliminate nuclear, chemical and biological weapons;

(k) promote and support practices of respect for Mother Earth and all beings, in accordance with their own cultures, traditions and customs;

(l) promote economic systems that are in harmony with Mother Earth and in accordance with the rights recognized in this Declaration.

Article 4. Definitions

(1) The term “being” includes ecosystems, natural communities, species and all other natural entities which exist as part of Mother Earth.

(2) Nothing in this Declaration restricts the recognition of other inherent rights of all beings or specified beings.

< end document >

For more information: http://pwccc.wordpress.com/

Hi everybody! I’m going to throw an opinion question out there.

A few months ago the people at FUSE magazine (www.fusemagazine.org) asked us if we’d like to contribute a cartoon to their magazine. Of course we said YES because I read FUSE magazine and I like it a lot (yes, I really do have a subscription). Well, our first comic finally came out in the current issue - Volume 33 Number 3 for those of you who want to look for it at the magazine store - and wow, it is really neat to have a Pinky Show comic. We are on the last page. And not to pat ourselves on the head too much (because that’s bad manners, right?) but we like the way it came out and I can imagine doing all kinds of neat things in a comic format!

So… Bunny and I have been talking a lot about comics and how that might actually be a better format for the Pinky Show than videos. Basically we just think it’s a lot more do-able. There’s certain things we can do in videos that probably wouldn’t translate well to a comic strip format, but the opposite is true too. And anyway, producing animated educational videos is really not a two-cat operation and we just haven’t been able to figure out how to sustain our project financially by making free videos & art. We have many thousands of fans but precious few supporters - on a good week we might receive one or two donations, which isn’t nearly enough to pay for food, electricity, equipment, and stuff like that. So we need to figure out a different way of doing things if we want to keep putting stuff out there.

So here’s the question: What do you folks think about The Pinky Show changing formats to comics? It might help us to expand our audience (if we could get it into college newspapers or whatever) and maybe a year or two from now, when we have enough comics, we could put them all together and sell them in a book, which might bring in some income (well, we hope - I’m not even sure if people still buy books…). We might still put out a video once in a while - “whenever possible” - but for now we have to figure out a way to survive, and don’t human beings like to read comics?

What do you think? Stupid idea? Any feedback would be appreciated.

Take care,
pinky

A few months ago Pinky guest-blogged on the Center for the Future of Museums’ website. Now Elizabeth Merritt, director of the Center for the Future of Museums, returns the favor (well not really, I just lifted the entire entry from their blog). Her blog post from today is below. Read it while it’s still warm.

< CFM blog entry begin >

THURSDAY, JULY 29, 2010

The Pinky Show Cats’ Report on the Future

“We, three cats from the Pinky Show, went to the future. We brought back notes & stuff.” Read the report.

Those of you who attended the AAM annual meeting this spring may have stumbled upon a curious exhibit in MuseumExpo—a set of cases (generously lent by Gaylord) filled with artifacts documenting the time travel expeditions of the Pinky Show cats.

You may be familiar with Kim’s interest in museums (documented in this wickedly accurate Pinky Show episode.) These recent expeditions resulted from Kim’s desire to see how museums develop in the future.

While not formally trained in futurism, the cats caught on fast to the fundamental principles of our practice:

“One of the things we noticed when we first started time-traveling” reports Pinky, “was that often there seemed to be no obvious connections between the various moments-in-time we visited. In fact, many of the futures we experienced seemed wildly different - sometimes even apparently ‘opposite’ - from each other, even when separated by only a few years. We later learned … that the reason for this is that the future, as it relates to the present, only exists as an infinite array of possibilities fanning outward.”

This is great description of what futurists call the Cone of Plausibility (depicting the range of possible futures diverging from the present.)

Pinky and company visited six museums at times ranging from 2028 to 2098. Being thorough researchers, they checked out the cafes and gift shops and observed how people use museums in the future. They discover both bright futures (where people hang out in the museum 24/7, “doing their own thing” 365 days a year), and dark futures (characterized by an over reliance on blockbuster exhibits, safe predictable programming and “edutainment.”)

I particularly like their interviews with cats they encountered in their travels, (Section V: 2028-2098 Voices from the Future). Margarita-cat offered (will offer?) the following words of wisdom: “You don’t have to be in a position of power in order to do good in this world. But you must be fearless… What does a fearless museum-worker look like?” Good question, and one I will think about a lot.

There are many ways to explore the future, and this was a pretty interesting experiment. I hope you check out the report—as Pinky says, “perhaps the diversity of artifacts presented here will serve as a reminder that a positive future can only be what we are willing to desire and fight for.”

< CFM blog entry end >

Download & read the document here: The Pinky Show Future Museums Report: Some notes on our time-traveling expeditions, 2028-2098. (1.8 MB, PDF file)

Posted by Bunny.

Our talented musical pals Hugo & Giordano are back and this time they’ve made a great video about Wikileaks. Please watch it - we need more freedom on the internet, not less!

The lyrics can be found on the Rap News page at Reverb Nation.

And, please don’t forget that The Juice Media, creators of Rap News, has a YouTube channel with all kinds of excellent video pieces that are very, very important to watch but are currently hardly getting any eyeballs. So please take a peek and if you are so inclined, pass the links around to your friends. Thank you!

Take care,
pinky