Resources for July 30, 2015

Bookchin, Murray, Billy Bragg and John Taylor Gatto. "Ecocidal, Homicidal, Mass-Instructed Me! (Ecology, Hierarchy, Education and Social Control)." Unwelcome Guests #319 (August 13, 2006)




Gatto, John Taylor, et al. "Why Do You Stay in Prison When the Door is Open? (The Market, the Gift, and the Destruction of Thought)." Unwelcome Guests #320 (August 20, 2006) ["Economics is usually spoken about as a subcategory of activity within the politics of society, but I would like to suggest that the economics of our society are the politics of our society - in that they create the type of political structures and institutions we have. Whereas it is usually said that we have a market economy, what we in fact have is a market society, a market government. Everything is shaped by that fact, even people's individual personalities and behavior, through the institutions of the society. The persistent social ills, poverty, war, violence, greed, waste, remain because they are intrinsic to the structure of markets, not aberrations within in it."]

Ramsey, Joseph. "Who Will Rule the Webbing of the World." Red Wedge (July 27, 2015)

Coval, Kevin, et al. "The Politics of Hip-Hop." We Are Many (July 2, 2015)





Gatto, John Taylor. The Underground History of American Education: An Intimate Investigation into the Prison of Modern Schooling. (Entire book available on Internet Archive as a PDF: 2003)

Human Resources: Social Engineering in the 20th Century (Metanoia Films: Scott Noble, 2010: 119 mins) ["Human Resources is a documentary about Social Control, examining the history, the philosophy and ultimately the pathology of elite power."]

If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (USA/UK: Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman, 2011: 85 mins) ["For years, the Earth Liberation Front–autonomous individuals operating in separate anonymous cells without any central leadership–carried out spectacular direct-actions against businesses that destroy the environment. Some of the targets were logging corporations, SUV dealerships, ranger stations, a slaughterhouse and a multi-million dollar ski-lodge at Vail, Colorado that was expanding into national forest. As authorities were not able to crack the case and disbanded many years later, the FBI got lucky when they were led to a former activist who agreed to co-operate with them and become an informant. If A Tree Falls provokes hard questions about environmentalism, activism, and the way ‘terrorism’ is defined by following the story of the activists who were turned over to the FBI, and their fate."]