Activists’ battle against business takes many forms; it’s not just Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network, Occupy, etc. that attack the capitalist system. Sometimes the battle gets taken into school.
Yes . . . into school.
Recently, WCAV-TV in Charlottlesville, Virginia reported on an anti-business song that was “written” and sung by third-graders in Charlottesville’s Woodbrook Elementary School. Below is a 2 minute 34 second YouTube clip from the TV station’s report.
In the video, school officials take a “throwing up the hands” attitude by claiming that the song’s lyrics were written by the kids. The school officials say that they wouldn’t censor the kids. (Funny. It seems that schools are always ready to censor children on other issues.) That “explanation” notwithstanding, it seems very odd that 8 year-old children would come up with lyrics like this.
Some people have it all
But they still don’t think they have enough
They want more money
A faster ride
They’re not content
Never satisfied
Yes — they’re the 1 percent
I used to be sad, now I’m satisfied
’Cause I really have enough
Though I lost my yacht and plane
Didn’t need that extra stuff
Could have been much worse
You don’t need to be first
’Cause I’ve got my friends
Here by my side
Don’t need it all
I’m so happy to be part of the 99
Let’s just teach our kids that a future of mediocrity is fine. Oh . . . excuse me. I forgot. The kids weren’t taught these lyrics. The school officials said that the kids came up with this little ditty on their own.
Right.
With a future population aiming at mediocrity, created by their schooling, activists’ future job of applying anti-capitalist pressure on business is likely to be much easier.
There was an interesting video item yesterday on Fox News. An economics professor, Jack Chambless, of Valencia College in Florida, via essay took an informal poll assessing his students’ opinions on the role of the federal government in their lives.
In a Fox News interview, he reported that about 10% of his sample said that they wanted the feds to stay out of their lives as much as possible. But about 80% said that they wanted the feds to supply jobs, housing, free education, money for retirement, and other goodies. Professor Chambless theorized that his students felt this way due to lessons they had been taught in K through 12.
They called it Generation “Gimme.”
Click here to view the video and see the interview with Professor Chambless.
This is the sixth post in the continuing series about Rainforest Action Network (RAN) and how it involves children in its campaigns against companies. To have a look at the previous five articles in the series, just click here.
Today’s post is a short one.
Recently RAN released a report regarding their assertion of how children’s book publishers use paper that is linked to the destruction of the rainforest. Well, as are many of RAN’s reports arguable, so is this one. But I am not, today, commenting on the validity of the information within their report or on the integrity of their research processes. My post today is made simply to draw your attention to RAN’s strategic choice of the continued employment of children into their anti-corporate campaigns.
Why would RAN choose children’s books about which to write such a report? Why not, say pulp fiction books? Or how about romance novels? Or mysteries? Or graphic novels? Or even porno magazines? Why not? Because those other genres don’t carry the presumed innocence that children’s books carry, the very innocence that is attached to children themselves. There isn’t as much shock involved in stating that, say for example, mystery novels use paper that is contributing to deforestation of the rainforest. No. Focusing on the children’s genre attracts a lot more media attention than would focusing on most other genres. And residing within that attention is the shock that RAN wishes to strategically leverage for their purposes.
Truly shocking only if their report is correct. But is it? Or are they creating shock in kiddy paper? You may take a look here at their report and then decide for yourself. And after reading that report, you might want to regard it within the context of the findings that I have made regarding how RAN uses children in its private political campaigns against companies.
My article from last week, “Rainforest Action Network . . . Does Indoctrination Count,?” drew a bit of attention on this blog. That article was the first in a case study series on how Rainforest Action Network involves children in its various anti-corporate campaigns. Today’s post is the second article in that series.
Below you’ll see a link to a Rainforest Action Network video that appears on YouTube.com, in the Rainforest Action Network channel. This video involves a toddler, to the seeming confusion of his mother, in declaring, toward the end of this 48 second video, that he doesn’t want any “rainforest destruction” in his cereal.
I’m assuming that this young man was a child actor hired for this specific RAN video. I assume this because I don’t realistically believe that any toddler is going to utter the words “rainforest destruction” of their own choosing. So, my question becomes:
Is using child actors appropriate in a politically-motivated campaign?
And, yes, this is politics. Private politics is the process of “collective interactions between parties attempting to advance their interests that do not rely on the law, public order, or the state.” (Source: Contention and Corporate Social Responsibility, p. 30.) NGOs practice private politics when they engage a company to get the company to change its behavior. In the RAN campaign of which this video is a part, RAN is attempting to affect a change in General Mills’ (the maker of Cheerios) purchases of palm oil, an ingredient in their cereals.
Concerning the above question, you’ve probably guessed my opinion, especially if you have read the previous post in this case study series, “Rainforest Action Network . . . Does Indoctrination Count?”
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About  Here at " Richard Telofski on The War on Capitalism," I discuss and analyze the individuals and groups conducting campaigns against capitalism. In the articles on this site, I provide analysis on lesser known facts about this movement. More . . .
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