The man on the street, April 2012

Big Brother Follows You: Like?

I'm not sure what the phenomenon is called: "street-steering?" The thing that happens when a journalist calibrates the range of responses to a question in man-in-the-street interviews, whether deliberately or subconsciously, according to her sense of where the acceptable limits of discourse lie. We're human, and it's reasonable to assume this happens, whether through avoiding interviewing certain persons, how she asks questions, or simply discarding some interviews altogether when the answers are not TV friendly. Or Youtube friendly, if you prefer.

Clearly I don't know if this is happening here, and possibly I pick on Lori Harfenist too much, but I wonder if people really have such sheepish views about a security state. Then again, maybe I'm sheepish too.

Max Keiser and Bitcoin

Keiser Report: Anti-Bank Currency (E272)

As is generally the case with Keiser Report videos, the first half is Keiser and Stacy Herbert's patter and the second part is an interview, this time with one Michel Bauwens, regarding the the advent of Bitcoin. Possibly you've heard of it before, an internet based currency, which Keiser seems bullish on.

It occurs to me that Bitcoin is a little like silver insofar as its status makes it vulnerable for the possibility that some groups may try to corner the 'market' in Bitcoin some day, should it start to gain serious traction.

I liked what Bauwens said, however, around 17:00-18:45, about how the problem with capitalism in its current manifestation is that it's based on the false assumptions of "pseudo abundance and artificial scarcity"(of natural and financial resources, respectively, although for the latter category he's also talking about the artifice of Intellectual Property as a construct...)

The interview starts at around 12:30.