8 March 2020

Four Ways To Cope When The Going Gets Tough

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Woman holding her head
Woman holding her head (image via pexels.com)
No life is without its challenges, and it would be unrealistic to expect completely smooth sailing all of the time. That's why developing healthy coping mechanisms is so important for everyone - and especially if you have kids to teach those skills to as well. Managing well and having appropriate outlets for stress ans being able to stay calm will serve you well no matter the depths of the situation you encounter. Whether it's going through a personal situation like a divorce or facing redundancy, processing past trauma, or simply not letting the smaller day-to-day incidents build up, learning some tips and techniques can serve you well.

Source Professional Support

Gaining the right support is definitely the first step towards bouncing back from a difficult situation. Informal support from your network of family and friends is invaluable, but it can't replace the appropriate professional help when you're really struggling. Whether it's making contact with an addiction specialist to begin a process of recovery or finding lawyers that specialise in boy scout abuse to begin a journey out of trauma, getting the right help counts for so much. It can be extremely hard to open up, but once you take that step, you're on the road to healing.

Consider Journalling It Out

The process of journalling can be a very helpful way for some people to work through their emotions. Sometimes it's easier to process events and work out feelings in writing, as it gives a critical distance from events. Over the years, people have found keeping a diary to be an extremely helpful process. Don't get too hung up on what to write - go for a stream of consciousness approach and just see what comes up. Journals can also provide a really useful marker in a recovery process of exactly how far you've come.

Show Yourself Some Love

So many people still see self care as somehow selfish, when actually it's indispensable, especially when you have been through a low period or a traumatic event. Often we put additional stress on ourselves by feeling that we have to be seen to be coping just fine without any help. If you've always found that booking a massage, taking a deep bath or using a mindfulness app helps you to feel more grounded, then ramp up that practice and make it a part of your daily routine. What's good for the soul is good for your recovery.

Make Exercise A Part Of Your Life

Getting out into the fresh air and recovering is one of the best things that you can do to help yourself. Exercise releases feel-good hormones called endorphins into your system which can give you a vital boost during tough times. Not to mention all the other positive effects cardiovascular exercise has, from increasing mental focus and problem-solving abilities, to helping to reset your circadian rhythms and get you better quality sleep. So finding a favourite home yoga routine or fitting in a quick run can make a huge difference. Taking small positive steps each day can speed your recovery and give you something to focus on.

5 March 2020

Canada: Da Vinci--Inventions Exhibition Open Through Mid-April at Kean University [Video Included]

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Da Vinci--Inventions Exhibition
Da Vinci--Inventions Exhibition (PRNewsfoto/Kean University)
From middle school students sketching copies of famous artworks, to senior citizen groups and others marveling at "flying machines," thousands of visitors have toured Da Vinci—Inventions since it opened at Kean University's Liberty Hall Academic Center & Exhibition Hall (LHAC) in January.

The soaring exhibition features full-scale models of dozens of Leonardo da Vinci's most inventive creations, from a diving suit to a catapult to a hang glider. 


Da Vinci--Inventions Exhibition
Da Vinci--Inventions Exhibition (image via Kean University)
Also on display are exquisite, artisan-crafted reproductions of the Mona Lisa and other da Vinci paintings, made with the techniques Leonardo da Vinci himself used, and hand-crafted reproductions of some of the 6,000 pages of notes he left behind.

The exhibition is open every day until April 12, with special pricing offered on select days and free admission to school groups.
"I think it's a great experience. It's a really active experience for our students," said Scotch Plains middle school teacher Carmela Lambert while chaperoning a group of nearly 100 seventh-graders who visited the exhibition as part of their studies of Italian. "When we got the flyer at our school, we thought it would be a great way to teach across curriculum."
Da Vinci--Inventions Exhibition
Da Vinci--Inventions Exhibition (image via Kean University)
Leonardo da Vinci, a brilliant Renaissance artist and inventor, dreamed of inventions ranging from military equipment to an ideal city. Most of his ideas remained drawings on paper. But recreations in the exhibit bring his visions to life for a modern audience.
"You come here thinking he's an artist, and you walk away thinking he's an engineer; he's a physicist. He was just a brilliant mind," said Lynnette Zimmerman, LHAC executive director.
The world-class traveling exhibition, which was created by Grande Exhibitions and has appeared around the world, also ushers in a new phase for Kean.
"It really creates a cultural center for Union County," Zimmerman said. "Special events, such as a social media influencer gathering, are being planned for the da Vinci exhibit and other exhibitions will be coming in the future."
Da Vinci--Inventions Exhibition (image via Kean University)
Da Vinci--Inventions Exhibition (image via Kean University)
The exhibit was a lively hubbub of voices one recent morning as teachers and students from Scotch Plains' Park Middle School fanned out through the gallery. As part of their study, students were assigned to envision themselves as Leonardo da Vinci's students, and sketch his art and drawings.

Teacher Angela Cammilleri said the students were impressed by da Vinci's diving suit invention and ideal city.

LHAC Program Coordinator Keyaira Boone said while the exhibition is wonderful for school groups, everyone is welcome to enjoy it.

"You don't have to be a Kean alumnus or a student to see it; you can just come," she said. "It's fascinating for people of all ages."

The Video:


  • Special ticket prices are now being offered to Da Vinci—Inventions. Children 12 and under are admitted free on Friday-Sunday, March 6-8; Wednesday, March 18; and Friday-Sunday, April 3-5.
  • In addition, two-for-$20 general admission tickets are available on Saturday, March 21, and Thursday-Sunday, April 9-12; and patrons are welcome to "pay what you wish" to enjoy the exhibition on Sunday, March 15.
  • Admission is free for school groups.

4 March 2020

American Masters Spotlights 26 Unsung Women Who Changed History with Unladylike2020 [Trailer Included]

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American Masters Spotlights 26 Unsung Women Who Changed History with Unladylike2020
American Masters Spotlights 26 Unsung Women Who Changed History with Unladylike2020 (image via unladylike2020.com)
Beginning this Women's History Month, American Masters illuminates the inspiring stories of little-known American heroines from the early years of feminism and the women who now follow in their footsteps with Unladylike2020, an innovative multimedia series launching in honor of the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage. 

Narrated by Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife; ER; Billions) and Lorraine Toussaint (Selma; Orange is the New Black; The Glorias), American Masters – Unladylike2020 spotlights 26 diverse changemakers, in 26 documentary shorts premiering Wednesdays, beginning today through August 26, Women's Equality Day, on the American Masters YouTube channel

  • In addition, an hour-long American Masters – Unladylike2020 special will premiere as part of PBS' summer-long celebration of female trailblazers.
American Masters Spotlights 26 Unsung Women Who Changed History with Unladylike2020
American Masters Spotlights 26 Unsung Women Who Changed History with Unladylike2020 (screengrab)
Only a century ago, women in America did not have the right to vote, and had only recently won the right to own property or get divorced. They faced limited career and educational choices, it was illegal for married women to work in some places, and women could even be arrested for wearing pants in public. Women who worked outside of the home were usually single, widowed, divorced, poor, or women of color who had to contend not only with sexism, but also severe racial discrimination. 

Despite that, intrepid women managed to break into new professions, step into leadership roles, and fight for suffrage and an end to discrimination – challenging expected behavior for "a lady." 

Presenting history in a bold new way, American Masters — Unladylike2020, produced and directed by Charlotte Mangin, brings the incredible stories of these pioneering women to life through rare archival footage and interviews with descendants, historians and accomplished modern women who reflect upon their influence. 

Original artwork and animation created by visual artist Amelie Chabannes adds visual texture, infusing black and white images with captivating color and action. The focus on modern-day trailblazers also enriches the content with dynamic juxtapositions of past and present.

Some of the women featured include Bessie Coleman, the first African American to earn an international pilot's license; Susan La Flesche Picotte, the first Native American physician who also founded a hospital on the Omaha Reservation; Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress; Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim across the English Channel; Sissieretta Jones, the first African American to sing opera on the main stage at Carnegie Hall; and Lois Weber, the first woman to direct a feature-length film, among many others

The Trailer:

The "Bessie Coleman: First African American Aviator" Video:

U.S. history curriculum materials for grades 6-12, produced by WNET Kids' Media and Education, will be available via PBS LearningMedia beginning in March. Unladylike Productions, LLC will also launch a nationwide community engagement and screening initiative in partnership with public television stations and community organizations.
SOURCE: WNET

3 March 2020

Galloping Gargoyles! Is Harry Potter Losing His (Earning) Power?

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Galloping Gargoyles! Is Harry Potter Losing His (Earning) Power?
Galloping Gargoyles! Is Harry Potter Losing His (Earning) Power? (EPA/Johannes Eisele AAP)
By the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter in 2017, over 400 million Harry Potter books had been sold worldwide and translated into 68 languages. In spite of J. K. Rowling’s rejection by a dozen publishers before her success with Bloomsbury, Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone became one of the best selling books of all time.

The film franchise of the books grossed US$8.5 billion, book sales totalled US$7.7 billion, US$7.3 billion has been made from toys and merchandise, and US$2 billion from DVD sales. The Harry Potter “empire” has an estimated total worth of US$25 billion.

With bars, theme parks, fan conventions, mugs, costumes and knitting patterns going gangbusters, it seemed the little wizard could do no wrong. Words like “muggle”, “quidditch” and “Hogwarts” have become part of our vocabulary. But more than a decade since the last Harry Potter book was published, it appears the lucrative spell is wearing off.

For the wool wizards.
For the wool wizards. (Booktopia)

 Page to screen to stage

Since the end of the beloved series (the last book in 2007 and film in 2011), there have been two spin-off stories: the film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and the play Harry Potter and The Cursed Child, both released in 2016. The film’s sequel Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald was released in 2018.

The first Fantastic Beasts film performed reasonably well at the box office, grossing US$814 million worldwide, which is within the earnings range of the first eight Harry Potter films.

However, the Fantastic Beasts sequel resulted in less box office revenue than the first, at US$654 million globally, the lowest grossing of all the “Harry-verse” films.

Subsequent questions have been raised about how the third planned film will perform, let alone the rest of the five-film series that had previously been mooted.

The Harry Potter and the Cursed Child play is broadly considered a West End and Broadway success and has toured internationally. Despite the huge amount of money invested and the creative approach taken in promoting the production, ticket sales have seen a considerable drop in the past year (50% since their peak).

Harry Potter franchise revenue streams.
Harry Potter franchise revenue streams. (Statista, CC BY)

A turning point

In and of itself the play was always going to be a challenge: it is a two-part production which means theatre goers have to buy two tickets and attend twice. The producers say it is intended to be seen “in order on the same day (matinee and evening) or on two consecutive evenings”.

This makes cost a problematic factor. It’s also a big time commitment. The play has a rather daunting running time of around two hours and 40 minutes each time, making a total duration of just over five hours. That’s likely to be too much for many young fans.

It’s hard to imagine anyone but Rupert Grint, Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson playing the central roles onstage.
It’s hard to imagine anyone but Rupert Grint, Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson playing the central roles onstage. (IMDB)
And about those “young fans”. When the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets movie debuted in 2002, 60% of the audience was under the age of 15. This cohort are now in their 30s and this age group is considered as “non-theatre goers”. In the UK the average theatre audience member is 52. The average age of the Broadway theatregoer is 42 years old. Australian audiences at musicals and operas were last estimated to be predominantly between 55 and 74 years of age in 2014.

Another huge part of the appeal with the books and the films is the incredible fantasy world presented. Though audience members were encouraged to #keepthesecrets, transferring the magic of film CGI to the stage is an obvious challenge.

Another issue could be the recasting of Harry, Hermione and Ron. Not only are the famous three played by completely new people, but they’re no longer the young mischievous kids who captured our hearts.

The play, also published as a book, is set 20 years on from the last film, and Harry and the gang are all grown up. Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint have become so cemented as their characters, it is a stretch for audiences to accept anyone else in these roles.

Losing momentum

As well as challenges with the play, there are reports that ticket sales for theme parks and book sales are also slowing. Perhaps this is to be expected, given the nature of marketing “momentum”.

Marketers build momentum through exposure of their brand, product or service and through generating excitement. But eventually, when a product has been in the market for a certain period of time, momentum inevitably slows. Demand subsequently drops and may fall away completely.

For some Harry Potter fans ‘it will never end’.
For some Harry Potter fans ‘it will never end’. (EPA/Justin Lane)
Product campaigns – and Harry Potter is indeed a product – need certain elements to be successful. It all starts with marketing the right product, promoted with the right message to the right audience at the right time. Marketers add momentum into this mix and voila - you have marketing gold. The Harry Potter franchise ticked these boxes in a way that few brands have ever done, providing wonder and delight to audiences worldwide and riches to its creator.

Over 20 years later, the highly successful book and movie franchise, and all its various spin-offs, may finally be losing momentum.

Perhaps another fictional character will take his place. There are no doubt authors sending their pitches to a dozen publishers right now and hoping this will be the case. Or maybe Harry Potter was a once-in-a-lifetime wizard.

About Today's Contributors:

Louise Grimmer, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, Tasmanian School of Business and Economics, University of Tasmania; Gary Mortimer, Professor of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour, Queensland University of Technology, and Martin Grimmer, Professor of Marketing, Tasmanian School of Business and Economics, University of Tasmania

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

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2 March 2020

Final Fantasy VII Remake: Demo Now Available

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Final Fantasy VII Remake
Final Fantasy VII Remake (PRNewsfoto / Square Enix)
Square Enix has announced that PlayStation owners worldwide can now download a playable demo of the role-playing hit Final Fantasy VII Remake to be released on April 10 , 2020 . 

The demo from the PlayStation Store allows all PlayStation Plus subscribers to experience the game's first mission and the events that occur during the Mako Reactor 1 attack up close. 

  • Anyone who downloads the demo by May 11, 2020 will receive an exclusive PlayStation 4 design for the release of the complete game.
Final Fantasy VII Remake
Final Fantasy VII Remake (screengrab)
Final Fantasy VII Remake takes players into a world in which the opaque Shinra Corporation controls the life force of the planet. Cloud Strife, a former member of the SOLDIER elite unit and now a mercenary, is helping a resistance group called Avalanche. 
The first game of the project takes place in the city of Midgar and presents a completely independent gaming experience for role players who want unforgettable characters, a captivating story and the opportunity to determine their own playing style with a combat system that real-time action with strategic, command-based Fight connects.

The Trailer:

  • Final Fantasy VII Remake will be released on April 10 , 2020 for PlayStation 4. 
  • The demo of Final Fantasy VII Remake is now available for download on PlayStation 4. 
For more information see: www.ffvii-remake.com


SOURCE: Square Enix

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1 March 2020

Bernie Sanders: Making Socialism Cool Again

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Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks during a campaign event in Spartanburg, S.C., on Feb. 27, 2020.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks during a campaign event in Spartanburg, S.C., on Feb. 27, 2020. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Love him or hate him, Bernie Sanders has emerged as the indisputable front-runner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

Sanders has inspired a massive, energetic, hardworking and fiercely loyal following, determined to carry him to victory at the Democratic National Convention in July.

To the great agitation of his rivals and critics, Sanders has demonstrated a stunning popularity among a diverse cross-section of voters, including women, Latinos, Blacks, Muslims, union members and especially young people.

The oft-repeated trope of the white “Bernie bro” has proven to be more myth than reality. Sanders’ rapid and dramatic rise to front-runner status has sent his critics in the Democratic Party into a full-blown panic, revealing their inability to understand the current historical moment and the rhetorical power of the Sanders campaign.

Women, including young women of colour, are among those who have been energized by Sanders. Supporters are seen here in South Carolina.
Women, including young women of colour, are among those who have been energized by Sanders. Supporters are seen here in South Carolina. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
How, they wonder, has Sanders risen to the top of the field? What exactly is his appeal? 

Why are young people, including young women of colour, going for the old white guy?

Perhaps most importantly, why are so many Democratic voters warming to socialism, long regarded as antithetical to the American way of life?

As he did in 2016, Sanders has exposed a deep rift in the Democratic Party between its centrist and progressive wings.

The Third Way

This rift is not so much an intra-family dispute as a longstanding rivalry between two distinct political traditions. The first of these traditions is the so-called Third Way, first described by British sociologist Anthony Giddens in the early 1990s.

The Third Way was conceived after the end of the Cold War as an alternative to the left and the right. Also known as the “radical centre,” the Third Way rejects both the robust government interventionism championed by the left and the intolerance and bigotry congenital to the right.

It pursues incremental change while vigorously upholding a capitalist order. Bill Clinton was the first American president to put Third Way politics into practice. The Third Way has since become the reigning orthodoxy of the Democratic Party. Even Barack Obama, who campaigned on the lofty rhetoric of “hope and change,” governed as a resolute and unapologetic centrist, much to the disappointment of his progressive base.

Elizabeth Warren is also at odds with the Third Way.
Elizabeth Warren is also at odds with the Third Way. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
 With the exception of Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, the rest of the Democratic field falls squarely within the tradition of the Third Way.

While the Third Way proved to be a politically salient politics during the 1990s, it has since calcified into rigid and obstinate dogma. The longstanding habit of ignoring the poor, siding with the rich and powerful and pursuing only incremental change has run up against a brick wall of brute reality: Gilded Age-levels of income inequality, skyrocketing medical debt, US$1.5 trillion in student loan debt, a racist criminal justice system and impending ecological collapse.

‘Massive failure’

Set against this stark empirical reality, incrementalism appears to far too many voters to be a massive failure. And the apologetic habit of dressing it up in the robes of pragmatic necessity has become a kind of secular theology: it demands faith in a better future that it can never deliver, a future lacking precise detail because it lacks a definable goal.

In the logic of the Third Way, incremental change becomes an end in itself: change for its own sake.

The problem with this delicate high-wire act — preaching incremental change in the face of exponentially worsening social and environmental crises — is that it has become impossible to pull off convincingly. Talk of incremental change doesn’t sound very promising or encouraging when the planet is on fire and climate scientists have given us a very short window to act.

By contrast, Sanders has been a lifelong advocate of democratic socialism, a tradition whose core principle is that democracy should be expanded from politics into the workplace — the sphere of life in which we spend the bulk of our waking lives.

Democratic socialism goes beyond mere social democracy — beyond programs like universal health care and public pensions — by calling for a fundamental change in the relationship between executives and workers.

It holds that workers should also have decision-making power, including over how revenue is distributed and how they get paid.

Deep, structural change

Democratic socialists want the workplace to be structured democratically, not like little North Koreas, in which CEOs rule like tyrants. Socialists see capitalist exploitation of people and the planet as the root of injustice. Hence, they advocate not incremental, but deep, structural change.

The reason Sanders has been so politically appealing to a diverse coalition of voters is because he offers a powerful explanatory key for making sense of America’s crisis moment.

He indicts not just specific people, like Donald Trump, Michael Bloomberg and Jeff Bezos, but the system: The political economic structure in which the super-rich have amassed extraordinary sums of wealth at the expense of everyone else, and our shared planet.

Bernie Sanders is seen speaking to an overflow crowd at a Super Bowl watch party campaign event on Feb. 2, 2020, in Des Moines, Iowa.
Bernie Sanders is seen speaking to an overflow crowd at a Super Bowl watch party campaign event on Feb. 2, 2020, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Sanders’s rhetorical genius is to have linked different types of injustice, like income inequality, racial inequality, gender inequality, and environmental breakdown, through a single frame: corporate greed.

This enables voters to see injustice in big-picture terms. Sanders has equipped his base with a revolutionary political vocabulary for expressing their sense of injustice, as well as a language of shared struggle against a structure that thrives on exploitation. Solidarity, it turns out, is incredibly empowering.

Rise of a new politics

Third Way Democrats have scrambled to understand the Sanders revolution.

They’ve dismissed him as an old man yelling at the clouds and a snake-oil salesman offering the false promise of “free stuff.” Worse, they have been forced to perform the awkward dance of claiming the mantle of progressivism while disavowing popular progressive proposals and “revolution politics.”

This has inspired rhetorical gimmicks like cowboy talk and meaningless platitudes, that have been mercilessly satirized online. The desperate turn to disavowal and gimmickry strongly suggests the collapse of the Third Way and the rise of a new politics for the Democratic Party.

Democratic socialism might just be about to have its moment in America.

About Today's Contributor:

Jason Hannan, Associate Professor of Rhetoric & Communications, University of Winnipeg

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

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29 February 2020

How Socialism Became Un-American Through The Ad Council’s Propaganda Campaigns

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Bernie Sanders was asked at a CNN-sponsored town hall about socialism.
Bernie Sanders was asked at a CNN-sponsored town hall about socialism. (CNN screenshot)
Bernie Sanders has emerged as the Democratic front-runner in the race for the presidential nomination.

Yet even some left-leaning pundits and publications are concerned about what they see as Sanders’ potential lack of electability.

Sanders is a Democratic Socialist. And the label “socialist” is a political liability in American culture. According to a Gallup poll released on Feb. 11, 2020, only 45% of Americans would vote for a socialist.

I am a scholar of American culture with an interest in the relationship between political ideologies and popular culture. In my research, I have found that this antipathy toward socialism may not be an accident: American identity today is strongly tied to an image of capitalism crafted and advertised by the Ad Council and American corporate interests over decades, often with the support of the U.S. government.

A screenshot from one of the corporate Cold War-era cartoons linking the Bill of Rights to free-enterprise ideology. (Internet Archive, Prelinger Collection)

Business and government solidarity

In 1942, a group of advertising and industry executives created the War Advertising Council, to promote the war effort. The government compensated the companies that created or donated ads by allowing them to deduct some of their costs from their taxable incomes.

Renamed the Ad Council in 1943, the organization applied the same wartime persuasive techniques of advertising and psychological manipulation during the Cold War years, the post-war period when the geopolitical rivalry between the U.S., the USSR and their respective allies raged. One of their goals: promoting the virtues of capitalism and free enterprise in America while simultaneously demonizing the alternative – socialism – which was often conflated with communism.

Government propaganda at home portrayed the communist USSR as godless, tyrannical and antithetical to individual freedoms. As a counterpoint, America became everything the Soviet Union was not.

This link between capitalism and American national identity was advertised through a sophisticated, corporate effort as efficient and ubiquitous as state-driven propaganda behind the Iron Curtain.

The campaigns used the ideological divisions of the Cold War to emphasize the relevance of their message. In a 1948 report, the Ad Council explained its goal to the public: “The world today is engaged in a colossal struggle to determine whether freedom or statism will dominate.”

Extolling capitalism’s virtues

The campaigns started as a public-private partnership. At the end of World War II, the government worried about the spread of communism at home. Business interests worried about government regulations and about the rising popularity of unions. The Cold War provided both parties with a shared enemy.

In 1947, President Truman asked the Ad Council to organize the Freedom Train Campaign, focusing on the history of America’s political freedoms. Paramount Pictures, U.S. Steel, DuPont, General Electric and Standard Oil provided financial support. For two years the train crisscrossed the nation, carrying original documents that included the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.

One of the Ad Council’s messages about capitalism in America
One of the Ad Council’s messages about capitalism in America. (Outdoor Advertising Association of America Archives, Duke University Libraries)
The following year, the Ad Council launched a business-led campaign, called The Miracle of America,” intended to foster support for the American model of capitalism, as distinct from its Western European version, which was more friendly to government intervention. It urged increased productivity by U.S. workers, linked economic and political freedom and, paradoxically, asserted capitalism’s collaborative nature.

Sure, America is going ahead if we all pull together,” read a brochure. Another flyer, “Comes the Revolution!,” cast its support of American capitalism in the language of global struggle: “If we continue to make that system work…then other nations will follow us. If we don’t, then they’ll probably go communist or fascist.”

In its first two years, the Miracle of America message reached American audiences via 250 radio and television stations and 7,000 outdoor billboards. Newspapers printed 13 million lines of free advertising. The Ad Council boasted that the campaign made over 1 billion “radio listener impressions.”

American factory workers received about half of the 1.84 million copies of the free pamphlet “The Miracle of America.” One-quarter were distributed free of charge to schools, and 76 universities ordered the booklet.

This pro-business propaganda, expressed in the language of Cold War patriotism, had reached roughly 70% of the American population by the end of the campaign.

How Ad Council campaigns after WWII helped make socialism un-American.

Cartoon capitalism

The efforts produced more than just print and billboard messages.

In 1946, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, founded by the former head of General Motors, paid the evangelical Harding College to produce “Fun and Facts about American Business,” a series of educational cartoon videos about capitalism, produced by a former Disney employee.

Between 1949 and 1952, Metro Goldwyn Mayer distributed them in theaters, schools, colleges, churches and workplaces.

The films promoted the same messages as the Ad Council campaigns, although they were not part of the project. They continued a decade-long effort by the Sloan Foundation to start, in the words of its executive director, “a bombardment of the American mind with elementary economic principles through partnering with educational institutions.”

To both Sloan and the movement’s backers, business interests were synonymous with the national interest. The free-enterprise system was a shorthand for freedom, democracy and patriotism. Unlike in Europe, the videos suggested, class struggle – of the kind that required unions – did not exist in the U.S.

In the cartoon “Meet the King,” Joe, the archetypal American worker, realizes he is not an exploited proletarian. Instead, he’s a king, “because he can buy more with his wages than any other worker on the globe.”

Conversely, government regulations of, or interventions in, the economy were described in the cartoons as socialist tendencies, bound to lead to communism and tyranny.

Make Mine Freedom,” and “It’s Everybody’s Business” presented the state as a perpetual threat. A money-sucking tax monster, the government reduces everyone’s profits, crushes private enterprise and takes away individual freedoms: “No more private property, no more you.”

According to an estimate from Fortune magazine, by 1952, American businesses spent US$100 million each year, independent from any Ad Council campaigns, promoting free enterprise.

‘Peanuts’ pushes freedom

In the early 1970s, business responded to rising negativity about corporate power with a new campaign coordinated by the Ad Council.

The American Economic System … and Your Part in It” was launched alongside the bicentennial national celebrations. It was the largest centralized pro-business public relations project thus far, but only one of many independently run by corporations.

Part of a page from the 1970s booklet that used Charles Schultz’s ‘Peanuts’ comic strips to explain the benefits of America’s economic system.
Part of a page from the 1970s booklet that used Charles Schultz’s ‘Peanuts’ comic strips to explain the benefits of America’s economic system. (Amazon)
The media industry donated $40 million in free space and air time in the first year of the campaign. The Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor contributed about half a million dollars toward the production costs for a 20-page booklet.

That booklet used data provided by the departments of Commerce and Labor and Charles Schulz’s ‘Peanuts’ comic strips to explain the benefits of America’s economic system. The system was again presented as a foundational freedom protected by a Constitution whose goal was to “maintain a climate in which people could work, invest, and prosper.

By 1979, 13 million copies had been distributed to schools, universities, libraries, civic organizations and workplaces.

Echoes now?

For four decades, the Cold War provided a simple good-vs.-evil axis that consolidated the association between freedom, American-ness and free-enterprise capitalism.

The business community, independently and through the Ad Council, funded massive top-down economic education programs which shaped American perceptions of business and government and of capitalism and socialism.

The Cold War ended 30 years ago, but its cultural structures and divisions endure – perhaps, even, in the responses of some Americans to Bernie Sanders’ socialism.

About Today's Contributor:

Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy, Associate Teaching Professor of American Studies, Miami University

Cet article est republiĆ© Ć  partir de The Conversation sous licence Creative Commons. 

28 February 2020

"Shadow Arena" Now Available for Global Beta Test

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Shadow Arena Now Available for Global Beta Test
Shadow Arena Now Available for Global Beta Test
Pearl Abyss announced that its upcoming title, Shadow Arena, is now available for a global beta test. Available on Steam, the beta will run until March 8 with support in 14 languages.

Shadow Arena is an action battle royale that pits 40 players against each other in a ruthless fight to become the sole survivor. Players can choose from nine Heroes, each with their own unique fighting styles. While battling fiercely against opponents, players must also slay monsters to collect loot in order to upgrade their gear and gain buffs to become the winner. 
After successful Beta tests in Korea and Russia, Shadow Arena now features a number of new systems and content to offer an improved gameplay experience.
Badal the Golden is the latest Hero to join the roster of Heroes and offers a new combat style that players can enjoy. He is a fierce melee fighter with the ability to throw lightning-fast combos at his opponents. This new Hero is recommended for those looking to defeat their opponents with stylish, bare-fist combat and powerful combos.

In addition, the global beta offers "Team Mode" where players can team up in pairs and combine their skills to gain a tactical edge in combat. "Practice Mode" allows players to learn the basics of the game and test out new tactics. "Private Matches" can also be hosted with select groups of people for a customized gaming experience.

  • Matchmaking has also been introduced in this beta, which is a purely skills-based system that advances players to higher tiers based on their performance. 
  • Item sealing is also available, allowing players who obtain items from a previous match to seal one kind of item and bring it into the next match. 
  • Defeating monsters can also grant players special buffs that can be activated at the Ancient Altar to give them a further advantage on the battlefield. 
Shadow Arena Now Available for Global Beta Test
Shadow Arena Now Available for Global Beta Test (image via Steam)
Shadow Arena will offer a game experience that draws from the MOBA, Battle Royale, and MMO genres. Players can explore a range of distinctive skills and abundant features that the game is offering during the beta period. 
Shadow Arena Now Available for Global Beta Test
Shadow Arena Now Available for Global Beta Test (image via Steam)
Shadow Arena will be released on PC during the first half of 2020 and is expected to launch on console at a later date.

SOURCE: Pearl Abyss

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