194

The Last Time I Had Hope.

“44” | Nov. 4th, 2008

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Why not a throwback to a time when things were looking totally different for the world? I remember this day so well: I was working the floor at the Ralph Lauren Rugby store in Chicago constantly checking the computer for updates as to how the election was unfolding. I had recently returned from spending the summer in East Hampton, New York watching the richest community I’d ever lived in look on in horror as their August vacations were being cancelled left and right as the banks on Wall Street were collapsing in an epic worldwide economic meltdown caused by the same people I was watching panic about their vacation fall apart.

You might not remember, but Obama spent the first 10 months of 2008 campaigning on changing the world based on one word: Hope. He represented the next sea change that my generation was desperately clamouring for. We had been raised in the 1990s with so much wealth dripping around us that it was a huge shock when our educations were being sold at prices that were going to saddle us with debt for the same amount of time a mortgage would. No less, by the same people that our parents told us to vote for, people who happened to love sending our peers off to die in wars that were sold on lies.

Obama was a new thing. A chance for the USA to go forward into this economic crisis and re-write how we would ‘rule the world as the greatest country on earth.’ In his victory speech Obama declared,  “This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.”

Looking back we know it took only 3 years for Obama to forget that he included this passage in his speech: “Let us remember that, if this financial crisis taught us anything, it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers.” Because it only took 3 years for the Millennial segment of Obama’s movement to move on from him and become Occupy Wall Street. Had Obama listened to the younger generation in this movement, where would we be now?

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But I digress, I was working on the sales floor of Rugby, checking updates and simultaneously trying to get my ticket to be at this historic event. After countless disappointing refreshes of the site, I checked in with my mom and found that one of her co-workers had gotten a ticket that wouldn’t be used and I jumped at the chance to meet her downtown and go see Obama give his first speech as President-elect. The energy of this moment was unparalleled as a quarter of a million people filed into Grant Park to catch a glimpse of the first non-white man given the power to be the ‘most powerful person in the free world.’ What a moment it was.

The absolute electricity of this moment was unparalleled. Outside of some crazy sporting events and the Daft Punk show (in the same park!), I had never experienced anything like this. The open weeping, the unity felt by all who were there. A monumental moment in my life. I will never forget how much we believed in this moment.

It was so refreshing, as the regime Obama was replacing was so callous, so crass, so unbelievably detached from reality. The United States was crumbling then and all the signs were there. The power grab that was the Patriot Act, the wealth inequality, and the gutting of the systems that had been built to prevent abuse of the everyman. The sickness of greed had poisoned the well and we were all drinking the water without being aware that it had taken hold.

There has been a systematic and planned dismantling of the checks & balances that have led to today. We have witnessed the repealing of the Fairness Doctrine, which broke down the media’s unbiased approach and created the Unfair & Unbalanced news you watch today. We saw Citizen’s United declare that the corporations you sell your time to are also capable of deciding the laws that you are subjected to through unlimited and extremely uncompetitive SuperPAC money. We watched lobbying evolve from discussions on how to help your constitutes into Quid Pro Quo for the political servants. Our politicians have never held power like they have today. They are accumulating wealth through deals that the Founders could never have dreamt of.

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Pause for a second and consider that I have laid all of this out in front of you without mentioning the single greatest impact on our society today: the internet. You have a voice! I have a voice! You yell loud, I yell louder! And who knows anything about anything? Neither you nor I. We are all participating in “conspiracies against the laity” (George Bernard Shaw, The Doctor’s Dilemma 1906), we are all the experts of our fields because we have democratised information. Fact is no more. We are all Philistines, proclaiming the way we know as the truth, with total disdain for the other side’s views. Oh, how Orwell was a prophet.

On top of all the above, a country does not arrive at someone like Trump without watering down education to the point in which the electorate looks at him as an option and doesn’t see it for what it is. So allow me for a second to tell you what Trump is exactly. He is the logical progression of fascism that we have seen before. The current rise of Trump is eerily similar to that of Hitler’s in Germany right down to the Jewish population of the planet being a major factor in the regime’s rise. [NOTE. Israel does not represent the view of Jewish people. However, the Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people directly resulted in millions of lost votes for Harris in the last election.] Both were felons, both attempted coups on their government from a position within government. There are the dogwhistles and then there are events like January 6th that scream fascism. Trump went so far as to declare “You Don’t Have to Vote Again” in this last election cycle. This is history undeniably getting very close to repeating itself.

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I do not state this lightly, as all of the hallmarks are there. The political scientist Dr. Lawrence Britt studied five 20th century fascist governments and concluded these 14 tenants:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
   Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
   Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
   The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military
   Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant Sexism
   The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and national policy.

6. Controlled Mass Media
   Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

7. Obsession with National Security
   Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined
   Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.

9. Corporate Power is Protected
   The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed
    Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed .

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
    Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment
    Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
    Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

14. Fraudulent Elections
    Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

https://osbcontent.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/PC-00466.pdf

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This is now. Every single one of these bullets is happening now. Please reader, I do not want to alarm you, because if you are reading this and have not recognised this yet, well, then you have not been paying attention. Examine each of those points and find one that is not currently happening. Then, take these points and understand why they are happening. The intention is to create a fascist state in order to control the wealth.

How do we suppress the female population? We regulate the one thing that we as males cannot do, carry children. What do we do when our Police are overzealous in protecting capital? Crack down harder, flood their budgets with more money, and pass laws that directly violate our First Amendment right to peaceful protest. I can go on and on, and if you are not aware of these liberties being ripped from the populace, I do ask that you step out of the bubble you have cozily wrapped yourself in.

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Let’s take a step back from these problems to where I am today. I am an immigrant in a country that has everything the United States promised but could not provide. I have a social net that catches me when I fall and I am able to make my way raising children in a place where they do not have to go through Active Shooter Drills because the concept of a gun is still thought of as a hunting tool and not a weapon. Further, beyond hunting as a concept, there is no need to own a gun as the fabric through which this society is weaved is made of empathy. There is no threat of violence, the chances of being robbed are so low it is not a consideration. My family live in a society that cares for each other and votes to prove that they do. Is it perfect? Absolutely and emphatically, no. Yet, having the simplest cares in place allows the population to focus on what truly matters: building a world around you that you want to occupy. Society is simply that which we build around us. Letting a population focus on building that society while sometimes stepping in to prevent inequality is what the government is for. It’s written in the document the right wing of the United States populace clings to so hard, but seemingly has never read: “We the people…” Living outside the border walls of the United States allows for a perspective that is unique. I can look in the mirror and see an American, and at the same time look within and see a citizen of the world. And as a citizen of the world, I am worried because I cannot see a future past the status quo. It is invariably skewed towards a group of people that have accumulated so much wealth that the power distributions we have known are no longer applicable.

Now here is where I am going to really scare you if the fascism thing doesn’t already. At this point, if we look at the economy through all standards in which we measure it, we have surpassed the tipping point of wealth inequality. There is no known legal way forward for the 99% of us to reclaim wealth to balance the capitalist system again. The 1% simply buy whatever company that encroaches on their market share. The 1% own the political capital to stop any rebuke of their greed. There is no value they cannot afford. And anyone who doesn’t sell out to them is made a fool because only a fool would pass up the opportunity to be in the club just outside the club that has all the power.

You might be reading this and feeling a massive pit in your stomach because you are realizing all of the above are happening right now. We aren’t reading history, we are making it, living through this right now. So how do things change then if there is no legal way around the wealth accumulation we have allowed to persist? The only change we can enact that will put a dent in the problems laid out herein begins with refocussing the culture war and instead framing the divide to what it truly is: Wealth vs. Poverty. Only an active disregard for wealth accumulation can save the rich from being victims of the mobs that are coming. Anyone reading this who lives comfortably needs to know that their comfort will end at the whim of the wealthy. And no, outside of the .01%, you are not wealthy no matter how much you have in your bank account. There are maybe 20-30 people in the world who are wealthy. The rest of us are just their pawns. Some of us get promoted to knight or rook, but do not be deceived that you have any real power.

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If all this still reads to you like I am a nobody shouting on the internet, then take it from one of the .01%:

“…Seeing where things are headed is the essence of entrepreneurship. And what do I see in our future now? I see pitchforks. At the same time that people like you and me are thriving beyond the dreams of any plutocrats in history, the rest of the country—the 99.99 percent—is lagging far behind. The divide between the haves and have-nots is getting worse really, really fast. In 1980, the top 1 percent controlled about 8 percent of U.S. national income. The bottom 50 percent shared about 18 percent. Today the top 1 percent share about 20 percent; the bottom 50 percent, just 12 percent.

But the problem isn’t that we have inequality. Some inequality is intrinsic to any high-functioning capitalist economy. The problem is that inequality is at historically high levels and getting worse every day. Our country is rapidly becoming less a capitalist society and more a feudal society. Unless our policies change dramatically, the middle class will disappear, and we will be back to late 18th-century France. Before the revolution.

And so I have a message for my fellow filthy rich, for all of us who live in our gated bubble worlds: Wake up, people. It won’t last.” - Nick Hanauer, from a speech given in August 2014, https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchforks-are-coming-for-us-plutocrats-108014/ (for those that can’t read: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2gO4DKVpa8 )

If someone inside the club can say this, and say it over a decade ago, then why are we not listening? Are we living in Huxley’s dystopian vision, too soaked in Soma to understand that it is all falling apart? Has everyone collectively decided to be Cipher in The Matrix and choose the steak over freedom? It certainly appears so.

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Which brings me all the way back around to November 4th, 2008. To me, this is the day that we lost it all. Let me be clear, I am not blaming Obama. He seems to be a fine person and did some wonderful things —healthcare for everyone? How Socialist. The campaign that he ran, the one that promised Hope, it turns out did not matter. There never was Hope, there was just marketing. If a person as smart as Obama could not change the system, then the system was never going to change.

This is not a manifesto. This is an observation of where we are and an understanding of the situation we are in. It’s bad and it will not change peacefully so long as those who control the wealth [the .01%, the real Capitalist] continue to act the way they have shown us time and time again. Currently, their values are dictated by currency and so long as currency dictates your values, then fascism is up next.

“In the same way those who possess wealth and power in poor nations must accept their own responsibilities. They must lead the fight for those basic reforms which alone can preserve the fabric of their societies. Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” - John F. Kennedy, March 13th, 1963 “Address on the first Anniversary of the Alliance for Progress.”

There was a time when the leaders of the western world understood their power was not a mandate but a responsibility. War was close in the review mirror and the lure of fascism was proven to have horrible consequences. Today, as we have just declared a ceasefire that stops the most visible and abhorrent genocide since the Holocaust, we are welcoming a fascist President into a seat that commands the largest superpower the world has known. As we all know, giving this man this power right now will only lead to a worse situation before it will get better.

It is a frightening time to be alive without any Hope.

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193

f3.5 | 1/200 | ISO400

BTS

Turns out this might be the last BTS I am able to post for a while, the business is slowing here and it feels like doom is surrounding the entire business. LA is burning, AI is rapidly developing, and greed is being exposed all over.

How does greed factor in it? Well, the business minds here are very good at sifting their piece from the pie without providing much more than a good time all the while scraping the bottom of the barrel wherever possible from the labor that actually puts the product on the carousel. Now, it’s not that bad, I mean, the opportunities are fantastic and the fun of the production is always exciting, but the reality is the equity is dependent directly on how well you are able to ignore the negatives. The long hours, the poisonous materials inhaled, the inability to affect the artistry when those in charge are making uninspired choices…

I really sound ungrateful, don’t I? Well I will tell you that it is not that at all. I am throughly grateful right up until the point the money is no longer there. The problem that I can discern is that these companies promise big things and then use whatever means necessary to exploit budgets to be as top-heavy as possible. And who is really doing the work?

My last project was a failure from the top down. The people at the top promised this and that and delivered nothing of the sort. Now, a majority of the workers were putting in 110% to make sure that the train stayed on the tracks and we made it to our destination. But, the amount of bloat between the dirty hands and the hand-wringing was spectacular. I will walk into battle with that shooting crew again any day, but when the production team doesn’t do what they set out to do and seemingly think that we are all meant to be on 24/7, things end up quite lame.

But this is all a microcosm of how the industry works and it is in dire need of fixing. Poor management is the death knell of any business, it is a symptom of poor ownership (ownership of problems, ownership of quality control, etc.) and when it reaches the managerial level, that is when you know things are not going to improve. Because if the production team can’t fix things without throwing money at the problem, then there is no fixing the problems that are being swept under the rug.

Will this business change? Who knows. All I can hope for is to work with the good people I encounter, the ones who stick up for the rights of those on the front lines and the ones who know how to plan these major projects accordingly. Until then, I am excited to use my camera in other spaces.

For those who I worked with on the above project, know that it wasn’t you who I am talking about here, so much as the lack of a cohesive unit that I am skewering. The people, the ones who I know in and out, they are my family and I appreciate everything they did for me.

192

f2.8 | 1/60 | ISO1600

Trawler

In this frame I was hoping to capture the ice formation on the sea, while at the same time putting something else into the frame that showed context without any scale.

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f2.8 | 1/125 | ISO400

The church in Valldemossa felt otherworldly as we roamed the ground of the Carthusian Monastery. This space must have been truly brilliant to hear Chopin’s work in back the time when he lived there. You know is a special place when a 2.5 year old is staring in amazement the same as his parents.

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f3.5 | 1/250 | ISO50

Well this is nice. Friends of my sister booked a boat journey to a cliffside restaurant that ended with some floating in the Mediterranean. Beer, paella, salt water, sun, and swimming — life has a way of being so unbelievably good, it makes you wonder what choices you have made that make things like this possible.