WOKE A SPECIAL EDITION OF LAVENDER CLEAVAGE
COVER ART BY LYDIA COOPER www.lcooperart.com INSTAGRAM: @lydiacooperart
THIS VERY SPECIAL EDITION OF LAVENDER CLEAVAGE WAS NOT POSSIBLE WITHOUT THE INCREDIBLE SUBMISSIONS BY SOME TRULY TALENTED AND WONDERFUL PEOPLE. THANK YOU, TRULY. I HOPE, DEAR READER, THAT YOU ENJOY THIS EDITION. I HOPE THAT YOU LEARN AND REALIZE THINGS ABOUT YOURSELF OR THE SOCIETY WE LIVE IN AND ENJOY THESE INTRIGUING PIECES. WE ARE SURROUNDED BY SO MUCH NEWS THAT SPARK PANIC AND CONCERN. WE HAVE ENTERED AN ERA OF UNCERTAINTY AND STRUGGLE (AT LEAST I DO) TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO COPE IN OUR MONOTONOUS LIFE, BEING DRIP FED NEWS AND WHATEVER COMES UP ON OUR TIME LINE. I HOPE TO RESUSCITATE THE INDIVIDUAL CHARACTER YOU ARE, TO PROVOKE THOUGHT AND ENJOYMENT OF DISCOVERY. PLEASE, INITIATE CHANGE. FOR, WITHOUT IT, OUR GENERATION AND WORLD WILL REMAIN STAGNATED, ROTTING IN THE STATIONARY SEDATIVE STATE WE ALL ARE IN RIGHT NOW.
ONCE MORE THEY COME A PIOUS MAN ONCE SPOKE OF THOSE WHO WERE NOT HEARD OF THE SILENCE OF THOSE WHO COULD OF THOSE WHO DID NOT SPEAK HE SPOKE OF THOSE WHO CAME WHO FED OFF THE DESPAIR WHO THRIVED IN THE SILENCE FROM THOSE WHO DID NOT SPEAK “FIRST THEY CAME” HE SAID FOR EVERYONE BUT HIM BUT ONCE HIS TURN HAD COME NO ONE WAS LEFT TO SPEAK HIS WORDS, I FEAR, WILL SOON SPEAK OF THOSE AGAIN OF THOSE WHO WERE CONDEMNED BY THOSE WHO DID NOT SPEAK BUT THIS TIME WE MUST SEE THEM IN THE CROWDS, IN THE DESPAIR WE MUST STAND BY THOSE THEY’LL COME FOR AND THIS TIME WE MUST SPEAK.
WRITTEN BY LUKE CAIRNS
READ WITH PASTOR NIEMOLLER’S “FIRST THEY CAME”, SEE BACK PAGE
W POST TRUTH SOCIETY post-truth – an adjective defined as ‘relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief ’.
e live in a society in which everyone is a publisher. Everyone posts, everyone’s words are read, anything can be published. Newspapers, broadcasting services are now in competition with the entire internet to be read, as are all individuals. Ethics in journalism and publishing have been compromised since online platforms are becoming more prevalent. The shift from traditional publishing to online publishing has caused posts to become clickbait and fail to convey news, opinions or expressions. News corporations try to maintain an audience by creating extravagant titles, games, quizzes around their articles. The desire for more readers obstructs the integrity of articles, and what we read now is influenced by our circles of “friends” and algorithms. Modern studies have shown incredible results about where individuals read their news; major-
ity of people read it on facebook and twitter (1). In a Pew research experiment, out of the age range from 18 to 20 year old people, 50% view their news on social media platforms (1). The algorithms are completely out of control of the reader, and places news stories into a hierarchy of most clicks/ views; this transforms the population’s knowledge of world events. The term “clickbait” is used to describe internet content that is of a sensational nature in an attempt to attract attention, it is more often than not extravagant of exaggerated. Companies, corporations or individuals use clickbait frequently online to gain views. Modern new stories have terrifying or eye-catching headlines, with graphic images or games to draw in an audience. However facts that reputable sources quote have started to be ignored or disregarded. We live in a world that has been transformed into a post-truth society. A society that would rather absorb themselves in memes and funny stories than accept news and truths that are deemed too scary to accept. This is demonstrated in Trump’s speeches, where 51% of what he states is false (3), yet he has a large number of followers and people who take his word for granted against the statistics and facts of experts. Another example of the post-truth movement is the Brexit van, which on the side of the vehicle stated that £350 million went to the EU, despite all manner of government bodies proving this is false. In Emily Bell’s speech for the Hugh Cudlipp lecture, she states that, “we have to decide how to make an impact without the benefit of owning or controlling the distribution chain” (2). The distribution chain are the algorithms that social media platforms have created, based on what the plat-
forms believe users will click on, which does not include publishers discussing truth and change. It is our own responsibility to change this, to re-transform society into a truth speaking, willing for discussion society. How do we do this? Educate ourselves and spread awareness. I had not even heard of the “posttruth” movement until it came up in a discussion at university. Once I started looking into it, I took posts and news I viewed with a pinch of salt and began to conduct my own research into facts and views shared. If you want to look into publishing and ethics, I’ve found some links below you can check out. Let’s make our generation and this year one of revelation and truth.
RESOURCES http://www.journalism. org/2016/07/07/pathways-tonews/ http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jan/28/emily-bells-2015hugh-cudlipp-lecture-full-text http://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/ https://ethics.journalism.wisc.edu/ resources/digital-media-ethics/ WRITTEN BY EVE WARNER
WHY LIFE ISN’T FILM We like to think we are in Act 3 of a film. That’s not surprising, the third act is the best part. They stop saying names you don’t know, they finally kiss and that’s where they keep all the good explosions. We like to think that in Act 1 we were innocent and working on Aunt May’s farm and then Act 2 happened and we found out Father Christmas wasn’t real now we are just trying to get through in this hum drum world until the inevitable devastating climax and well chosen eighties pop song over the directors name. We seem convinced as a culture that we have taken the red pill, we see the truth, and now we must overcome it to get back to the simple innocence we know in the first expositional ten minutes. There is a fundamental flaw in this theory. None of us are Neo, and that is a very good thing. The real world has pacing problems. Great evils don’t take over the world, or spread to an overwhelming zombie plague. Ebola wasn’t spread by Umbrella Corporation, it was spread by the bodily fluid of the infected (http://www. nhs.uk/conditions/ebola-virus/ Pages/Ebola-virus.aspx#transmission) and I strongly doubt that World War WC will be hitting
the box office anytime soon. Most notably because of the huge lack of apocalypse. We don’t like our solutions to be partially helpful, largely preventative, and time consuming, we like big game changes that will fix the current, all consuming problem that everyone cares about as much as us (except the villain of course) before the credits roll, and god forbid it be something we moreor-less already knew. Which is why it’s so painful that the solutions we already know, don’t get enough attention to work. We are shooting ourselves in the foot. It’s why the budget for global peacekeeping is less than half of one present of the global budget for defence (http://www.un.org/ en/peacekeeping/operations/ financing.shtml) Because we can watch a bullet make thing better or worse but pity the world’s greatest peace keeper, who must prove their worth and all the lives they have saved, with all the conflicts that haven’t happened, all the people that are just fine, and all the money that wasn’t spent. Good luck keeping your job. Or the guy who pitches human contact as a way of helping depression, anger, or chemical dependency. (https://www. psychologytoday.com/blog/ lifetime-connections/201501/ skin-hunger-why-you-need-feedyour-hunger-contact) (https:// www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-59810232/american-adolescents-touch-each-other-lessand-are). No realist wants to utter the words “Hugs not Drugs”, no matter how real the research. News that doesn’t have three act structure tends not to make the news, or at least stay there. And fear what all writers fear, the sagging and slow middle section. Remember #BringBackOurGirls because a lot of them still aren’t
home (http://www.bbc.co.uk/ news/world-africa-32299943) Why is that not in the news every night anymore? Because no news is no news. We treat the opposition like the enemy. You can’t be wrong you have to be evil and ignorant. Then maybe you’ll be worth talking about, and if you find the secret of being worth talking to, tell me because I haven’t found it. (I’d include a link with this argument but I think it would just be easier just to point you towards the lower half of the internet). We can’t have heroes and villains in a real world. Most people don’t just want to watch the world burn. And if you want to see how complicated conflict is, try explaining what’s happening in Palestine. (https://unispal.un.org/DPA/DPR/ unispal.nsf/udc.htm). Or that the United States Military hasn’t actually been in a war since 1973. (http://niagaragenealogy.org/pdfs/ timeline_of_us_military_conflicts. pdf). What have they been in since then? It was more complicated, that’s what. I’m not calling anyone out here, I’m not trying to punish anyone, god knows I do this to. But the point is that we all need to stop. Stop looking for Hans Gruber in bureaucratic inefficiency and see the bureaucratic inefficiency. Paperwork is scary enough. We need to stop looking away from real solutions because they seen too much like what an unrealistic (or un-cynical) person might think. We need to stop sitting on our high horse and pretending were just on our toes. If we stop looking for the people out to get us, maybe we will see the lamp post we are about to walk into.
WRITTEN BY HEATHER LIVINGS
FIRST THEY CAME FOR THE COMMUNISTS AND I DID NOT SPEAK OUT BECAUSE I WAS NOT A COMMUNIST THEN THEY CAME FOR THE SOCIALISTS AND I DID NOT SPEAK OUT BECAUSE I WAS NOT A SOCIALIST THEN THEY CAME FOR THE TRADE UNIONISTS AND I DID NOT SPEAK OUT BECAUSE I WAS NOT A TRADE UNIONIST THEN THEY CAME FOR THE JEWS AND I DID NOT SPEAK OUT BECAUSE I WAS NOT A JEW THEN THEY CAME FOR ME AND THERE WAS NO ONE LEFT TO SPEAK OUT FOR ME