What is the connection between story and politics? “Re:Imagining Change” by Patrick Reinsborough & Doyle Canning (PM Press www.pmpress.org ISBN 978-1-60486-197-6) explains that, along with step-by-step directions on how to examine your world and ideas and change the parts of the world that don’t work. This is a small book, easily read quickly. It covers how activists need to use advertising and what actions work best. Different campaigns are taken apart and examined to see what works and what doesn’t. Fundamentally, the take away is that the ones that control the story, control politics.
It covers what images a protest group should include and how to keep from ‘preaching to the choir”. Whether it’s a mascot that sums up the whole campaign or how to avoid looking fake; it’s in here.
The alphabet test is fascinating alone. How far has advertising wormed into your brain? The answer could, -- no, will shock you. Each letter is taken from an ad and that one letter can sum up a whole ad. It can be a great way to prove how deep ads work into our brains even if we think we are above it.
The glossary alone is fascinating as it explains how there are “memes” in culture that are like genes in biology. These “memes” evolve but the difference is that humans are in control of memes. What do you want the world to evolve into?