Good Day, Friends and Neighbors. My hope for today is that each of us finds a way to break at least one link in the chains that the Down-Pressors employs to bind us.
My Brethren, on this fine winter day, I find myself perplexed. Thousands of our good Sisters and Brothers are re-occupying Wall Street, as well as occupying banks, foreclosed homes and other locations across our great land, in an attempt to call attention to the greed of the Corporate Demons. At the same time, many of the powerful Down-Pressors gnash their teeth and, in an attempt to end the occupations, are sending in their hired guns to beat, pepper-spray and otherwise assault our Brethren. Those in power object to the actions of the Occupy Movement, yet the Down-Pressor has been attempting to occupy our workplaces, our communities and even the sanctity of our homes, for more than half a century. Why should we, the working populace, be assaulted and jailed for attempting to spread a message of reform, while the marketeers are allowed to spew poisonous messages at us in the form of a constant barrage of advertisements?
If those who control the police wish to make a valid contribution, they might consider employing the folks wielding the tasers, stun guns and pepper spray on the denizens of Madison Avenue and the rest of their advertising ilk. In this way, the riot police could still use the toys they are so fond of, and perhaps slow the steady flood of advertising that has become the constant backdrop to our culture.
For many years, the Corporate Demons, their government lackeys and their agents, the Down-Pressors, have attempted to inculcate the working populace with their warped ideas of over-consumption. In the late 1950's, as television sets became more widespread in American homes, the Ad-Man began to have direct access into the homes of our citizens. They have been making fine use of that, and other media, in the intervening half-century. Despite the social criticism of the time, and an ongoing drum-beat of warnings from a plethora of thinkers, writers and activists; consumerism, and the idea of conspicuous consumption, have become a huge presence in our culture. In fact, the juggernaut of consumerism has become the engine of the runaway train that our economy now resembles.
The Down-Pressor was not content to simply invade our homes with advertising messages. The Ad-Man uses billboards, pop-ups, newspapers, magazines, reader boards, radio, airplanes with banners and logos on sports figures. In an even stranger twist, some of these marketers have convinced our Brethren to actually pay for the "privilege" of becoming walking sandwich boards for Tommy Hilfiger or Nike! There are even advertisements above urinals in public bathrooms. Where is a nice tall stool when a Brother needs one?
Estimates of how many times a day we see advertisements vary, from 300 per day in the 1990's to 3000 per day at present. In any case, the number is far to high. The estimates of how much advertisers pay each year hover on the order of 620 Billion dollars!!
This, then, is the source of my perplexity, Sisters and Brothers. For longer than the Rev has been alive, the Down-Pressor has been engaged in an invasion of the lives, homes and the very psyches of our working Brethren. The continuing efforts of these charlatans to sell their snake oil has caused us to be beset on every side by their messages of deceit. And yet, and yet good Friends, when we as a people become angry, and express our displeasure as allowed by the Constitution, we are pepper sprayed and arrested. Why? The Down-Pressor has occupied us for long enough!
The Reverend urges all of our Brethren to fight back! One of the easiest and most effective ways to strike a blow is to disregard, avoid or turn off the exhortations of the Ad-Man, one of the slipperiest of the Down-Pressors. If each of us do everything in our power to set aside the influence of advertising in our daily lives, we effectively remove one of the strongest weapons in the Down-Pressor's arsenal. Deflect the influence of the Ad-Man, Sisters and Brothers! In the words of our friends, Public Enemy: "Don't Believe the hype!!"
If we re-occupy our own homes and communities, without inviting the Ad-Man to join us, we are both becoming members of the Occupy movement, but we are also reclaiming what was, and is, rightfully ours in the first place. The only thing, Brethren, that is simultaneously New and Improved, Old Fashioned, and Stronger than Dirt, is our faith in ourselves, in our friends and families, and in our communities. Until next time, Keep that Faith!!
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