The wild kindness vs. the dedicated evil

David Berman may not be producing any new music or poetry these days, but that doesn’t mean he’s keeping quiet. According to poet and editor Jeremy Schmall, Berman has dedicated himself to decrying the propaganda proliferated by corporate PR reps, including, most notably, Berman's own father.

Berman’s talk in NYC last week inspired Schmall to reflect on how corporations have affected “freedom” of choice (as it relates to fashion, fast food and Saddam Hussein), at HTMLGiant:

It’s tempting to believe we have a wide spectrum of choices, and are operating at a zero-level, in which we receive information at a neutral remove—and then react—but is that possible? The amount of corporate (and other) propaganda already circulating in our minds—at the level of pre-conscious thought—is staggering. And that’s where the true power is. And precisely where that power is, you’ll find Richard Berman hard at work. There’s a detailed account up at Bermanexposed.org, but for the present discussion it’s enough to know that he goes straight to the public—with ghost-written editorials, TV ads, websites—fighting on behalf of the corporations who profit from (to name a few) genetically modified food, high fructose corn syrup, trans-fats, union busting, minimum wage stagnation, tanning beds, and puppy mills. Berman’s father is possibly the most evil man in America, according to Berman, working at the intersection of politics and industry, touching nearly every issue, and affecting how those issues are perceived by the public . . .

(Also: read Ed Park's take on Berman's book of drawings here)