Politics

Levis Legacy: Can advertising ever be authentic?

August 10, 2011 by Ian MacKenzie

I came across the new ad campaign for Levis jeans that tells the youth of today to “go forth.”

From their site:

THESE ARE NOT EASY TIMES. BUT THEY ARE OUR TIMES. And together, there is nothing we can’t do—or undo. It’s this pioneering spirit that makes positive change possible. It’s why we support pioneers and invite you to join us in helping them create a better world.

The brand then asks you to pledge your support for the non-profit Water.org. And oh yeah… buy their jeans.

The ad, on its own, is quite beautiful. Yet the Levis logo at the end leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. As if you’ve just been duped. Why? Advertising has long been criticized for its lack of “truth.” And yet, when it tries to attach itself to truth (or authenticity) by proxy, we hate it even more.

In light of the London riots, Youtube commentor diejakedie writes:

Fuck you Levi’s, your first on my looting list.

The London backlash (and more that will come) is retribution for a lifetime of being told you’re not good enough. Laurie Penny, huddled in her London apartment, writes:

People riot because it makes them feel powerful, even if only for a night. People riot because they have spent their whole lives being told that they are good for nothing, and they realise that together they can do anything – literally, anything at all.

Brands are missing something important here. This rage that has arisen is in direct opposition to what you continually attempt: to co-opt that which is still free.

Our growing crises will not be solved by buying jeans. Not while we exist in an economic system that is inherently exploitative and unsustainable. We need a shift from ‘scarity economics’ to sacred economics.

The Light Has Gone Out

June 2, 2011 by Ian MacKenzie

Photo by ^@^ina

Excerpt from Witnessing the End of an Era by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

A light in the inner world that gave meaning and spiritual sustenance to our souls and to the whole world has been going out. And it is now extinguished. Something that for millennia was central to the inner life has gone, lost through our greed, and arrogance, our ego-centered power dynamics and forgetfulness of the sacred. We are not just entering an external era of extinction, but an inner dark age. And what is more dangerous is that we do not appear to know it is happening, even though this inner light is fundamental to the well-being of our individual soul and the soul of the world. [...]

However, this does not mean that the light of the Divine, the spiritual light within creation, has gone out. This divine light is present in every cell of creation. Without this light there could be no life, no existence. The whole of creation is like a single light from the Source that goes through a prism and becomes the many colors of existence. But the light of any era is a light that is given to humanity to help it to evolve, and part of our evolution has traditionally been looking after the physical and spiritual well-being of the planet, which we have failed to do. Without this light there can be no collective transformation or evolution, no collective shift in consciousness.

The light of one era can attract the light of the coming era. This is part of mystery of “light upon light”—how light attracts light. There have been indications of this in a gradual reawakening to the interconnectedness of all of creation, a dawning of the consciousness of oneness which is one of the central qualities of the next era. Together with this awareness we have already been given some of the tools and technologies of the new era, such as global connectivity through cell phones and the Internet.

And yet, despite some implementation of “fair trade” and other sustainable practices, the development of “globalization” has just led to more exploitation and corporate greed, rather than values that are in service to the whole. Collectively we have created a greater divide between rich and poor, more ecological destruction, more collective forgetfulness of the sacred. We have placed short-term economic progress above real concern for the planet. And so the light of this past era, rather than transforming into the light of the next era, has gone out.

As a result, at present we cannot welcome in a new era—a shift in our collective consciousness towards oneness and a return to the sacred—because we lack the light, the energy that is needed to make this happen. Although many individuals have embraced this new dimension of consciousness and its awareness of the sacred, this shift has not yet happened to our collective consciousness, to our corporate or political world. It is this collective shift that is needed if we are to restore and rebalance our inner and outer environment.

Read the full Part I and Part II

The God of War

January 22, 2011 by Ian MacKenzie


Photo: roy_alx

Found while listening to a track via SomaFM, a quote woven behind the music. I don’t remember the song artist, but a Google search revealed the quote:

“People under the age of 20 have this massive hole in their soul. And they have built their personalities around cynicism. Cynicism means, simply, aping or putting into an ironic form, mocking, existing institutions, instead of building institutions of your own.

What I’ve discovered is that because these people have such a deep need for something to believe in. Someone like me or you who can come along and show these people that there is a meaning to life, that there are things worth believing in, that there are things worth being passionate about, they respond immediately.

I’ve been searching the Gods all my life and now I know them, the Gods inside of us. Or I feel I do.

Now, we’re either going to have the new Adolf Hitler’s coming along, who know how to manipulate this need, and do it with the new nationalisms and the new tribalism’s, and the new hate groups, or we’re going to have a you or a me, who will come along and pour a positive message, a positive sense of something to believe in, a positive crusade for emotionality.

The only messiahs who exist are as human beings. We human beings are all basically cockroaches at heart. That is to say, we’re insecure when we’re alone by ourselves, we have all kinds of self-doubts, we have our depressions, and we have all kinds of reasons to believe that we’re nobody at all. But it’s the ‘nobodys-at-all’ who become the Isaiahs of the world, it’s the ‘nobodys-at-all’ who become the Einstein’s of the world, it’s the ‘nobodys-at-all’ who become the Jesus Christ’s of the world.

It’s up to human beings to be the messiahs. We’re the only ones who are there to do it. And we have to do it. We have to do it. Because if we don’t do it, someone with an equal belief and passion to ours, who believes that the way to achieve things is through the old animal way – built into our limbic system, built into the lower parts of our brain, who knows that the best way to unite people is by uniting them in hatred against an outside group; and uniting them in mass murder.

We have to come along before that person comes along. We have to fill that void, and we have to fill it with positivity. It’s about digging into the elemental passions. All of this plays a part in trying to give to the new generation a movement that’s based on something extraordinarily passionate. That you can powerfully believe in. That you can use to advance humanity tremendously, absolutely tremendously, but that excises, deliberately, the God of War.

When you find the Gods inside yourself, you’ll find the God of War. You’ll find the God of bloodlust. You’ll find the God of genocide. And he will be one of the most powerful passions in you. And you have to knife him out of existence. You have to freeze him in his own private Hell, and make your positive Gods the Gods that take you over.

And by ‘the Gods that take you over’ I mean you have to find those passions that are so much more powerful than you, than anything you’ve been allowed to express in your life, and making those things the things you work on. In other words, not putting off until you’re 40 or 50 the things you feel passionate about at the age of 15 and 16 – but going directly to those things, and trying to implement them when you’re 20.

Pass ‘Go’. Forget the 200 dollars. Go directly to Park Place. And put your life there, on the line, with all the emotion and power and passion and insight in you.

And fuck the God of War.”

- Howard Bloom

Letter To Shane and Josh

December 24, 2010 by Ian MacKenzie


Photo: decade_null

511 days in detainment. 511 days in a cell, in the thin light of prison, footsteps echoing up and down the halls. I read your story, and your history. We’re almost the same age.

Shane, I am a photographer and filmmaker, just like you. I have traveled to foreign cities, found myself in strange circumstances, and thankfully, left with my freedom.

But perhaps, what if one of those times it turned out differently? What if I woke up, on a grey morning, with bars in front of my eyes? What if freedom became a memory? I realize, it could have been me. It could have been me.

You are serving time for all of our sins. All the suffering we impose on ourselves and others. All of the prisoners languishing in solitude. In a different world, one that I know you both imagine, strangers could meet one another without fear. I believe one day this world will come.

Until then, I think of you both.

www.freethehikers.org

The Enemy Within

December 15, 2010 by Ian MacKenzie

Last week, I shot the Cancun Climate Summit (COP16) for the upcoming documentary Evolve Love. I produced this short clip of one of the climate actions put on by 350.org, to urge negotiators to hurry up (some countries are literally drowning)

It was a fascinating experience to be among world leaders and activists from all over the world, deciding on the future of the planet (or at least humanity’s role).

Just a few months earlier I was in an elementary school in the suburbs of Vancouver, shooting a friend’s “Zero Heroes” theatre show encouraging kids to be green.

I realize there is a war going on… and it’s fought on multiple fronts.

Now more than ever, we need to realize the true enemy isn’t evil corporations, fundamental terrorists, shady governments, or apathetic populations… these are merely symptoms of the greater issue. We need to shift the paradigm of who we are and why we’re here… and drop the delusion:

We are not separate from the greater whole, and we never were.

The Problem With Conspiracy Theories

March 3, 2009 by Ian MacKenzie

Spend enough time on the internet and you can find information on just about anything.

For instance: did you know that the Apollo moon landing was a hoax? That 9/11 was an inside job? That flouride is a mind control substance designed to keep humans dumb and under control?

The list goes on. Some of these theories may, in fact, be true. The vast majority of them are more likely false. But given an infinite space as vast as the web, and the tools for anyone to publish any thoughts in their head, and you have the ability to refute or bolster any claim imaginable.

Therefore it is much trickier to believe that any worldview is “the truth.”

The problem with conspiracy theorists is they ask you to demolish your mental programming, but demand you replace it with their own.

The result is to exchange one unproven worldview for another. And unfortunately, basing your decisions on the conviction of “knowing” is responsible for many of the world’s ills.

The only real truth is that it’s impossible to “know” anything. And the only real method of making decisions is through probability.

Bonus: Michael Shermer on why people believe strange things

Us Versus Them

February 1, 2009 by Ian MacKenzie

We. A film based on the words of Arundhati Roy

The defining conflict of the 20th century tends to be characterized as Democracy versus Totalitarianism. First, the Fascist dictatorships of Hitler and Stalin, then the spectre of Communist Russia.

By the turn of the century, it appeared that Democracy had won. Then suddenly, a new threat emerged to fill the hole: Islamic fundamentalists.

It’s tempting to see this struggle as something new and far different than previously fought. After all, nations can be reasoned with, truces negotiated, cease-fires declared. But terrorists (theoretically) want nothing less than to destroy or convert the infidels.

Bush Jr. made it clear when he stated, “You’re either with us or with the terrorists.” There is no middle ground in this war.

And so the 21st century’s defining conflict has become Religious Fundamentalists versus Freedom. Or has it?

The real issue is revealed when you look closely enough.

Distilled even further: Good versus Evil.

Finally, you arrive at: Us versus Them.

The current struggle is simply another incarnation of the previous wars. The enemy changes, but the position remains the same.

Rather than continue to replace one external threat with another, I believe the real challenge of the 21st century will be whether we can transcend the destructive mental illusion that we are separate from others.

We must go beyond Us versus Them.

To Govern By Fear Or Inspire Through Leadership

January 20, 2009 by Ian MacKenzie


Inauguration Day / Photo Michael Foley

If you want to govern the people,
you must place yourself below them.
If you want to lead the people,
you must learn how to follow them.

- Tao Te Ching, 66

For the past 8 years, the US has been governed by fear. Fear that the world is against them. Fear that barbarians are at the gates.

And that fear has left many Americans feeling hollow and empty.

But today is a day of transition.

If Obama represents anything, it is the shift to governance by inspiration.

He on his own can do very little. But if he serves to empower others to take matters into their own hands, to accept responsbility for their own actions, and to create the world we all want to inhabit…

That is a very powerful change.

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