<nettime> Media Ecology: Russian Style

[Newmedia@aol.com]

Fellow Scientists:

Today's (Thursday, 2 Sept 99) NYTimes storyhead (page A8):

"Moscow Blast Tied to Anti-Materialist Group: A Kremlin security chief
sees violence linked to extremists" 

The article continues . . .

"An explosion on Tuesday evening at a lavish underground shopping mall
opposite the Kremlin may be the work of a previously unknown group that
opposes materialism and warns that it is dangerous to consumers . . ." 

Hmmm . . . "it"?  Is "materialism" dangerous or the group? 

In the home of Dialectical and Historical Materialism -- or Dia-Mat for
short (rhymes with Haz-Mat) -- this attack on "materialism" is shocking. 
Eye (and ear) opening. 

" . . . the Federal Security Service said a leaflet that attacked modern
society, attributed to a group called the Union of Revolutionary Writers,
had been found at or near the video arcade that was the blast site." 

"'Consumers, we do not like your way of life and we are dangerous to you',
the pamphlet stated.  'The half-eaten hamburger left by the dead man on
the streets is now a revolutionary hamburger.'" 

So . . . it is the Union of Revolutionary Writers that is dangerous.  And,
so are revolutionary hamburgers. 

First, the Pediatricians Association in the U.S. advises that no child
under 2 should be shown any television whatsoever.  None.  Turn it off! 

Then, the Columbia television network shifts its coverage of the local
killings by (the presumably) narco-terrorists from color to black and
white.  On the theory that B&W on a color TV is more involving.  In order
to "heat up" the audience by "cooling off" the medium, which is intended
to stir up outrage about these attacks. 

Now this. 

Writers bombing video arcades. Dialectical materialists attacking
"materialism." 

According to the NYTimes, Moscow Mayor Yuri M. Kuzhkov called the writers
"beasts" and said "These people should be shot." 

Media ecology (i.e. the science of altering one's intake of various media
-- the actual media, regardless of their content) in order to cause
various mental and emotional effects has just stepped up to a new level of
experimentation. 

Microscopically,

Mark Stahlman



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