In the worlds of business, academia and government , you usually hear it backwards: "Mission, Vision and Values." But think about it. Where do our "Missions" [in life] come from if not from our "Vision"? And where does our "Vision" [of the kind of world we want to live in and our place and role in it] come from if not our "Values"? And where do our "Values" come from?
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The Sixth Estate is formed in reaction to both the Fourth Estate ("mainstream" media) and what some call the "Fifth Estate" (or the "critics"--Left, Center and Right--of the Fourth Estate). Sadly, many of the critics, of the so-called Fifth Estate, especially in the pampered West, often resemble the very "Fourth Estate" that they critique and which some of the critics often seek to be a part of.
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In all camps one often finds Basic "Framing" and Rhetorical Sleight-Of-Hand such as:
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1) Cherrypicking;
2) Contrived syllogisms;
3) Basic Logical Fallacies
a. Composition
b. Division
c. Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc
d. Appeal to Authority
e. Correlation Equals Causation
f. Ad Hominem
g. Etc. [Add your own]
4. Misuse of Statistics and Statistical Methods
5. Misuse or Omission of Context
6. Misuse/Misrepresentation of Visual Images, Audio and Texts
7. Contrived Polling and Misuse of Polling Results
8. Selective Leaking, Reporting/Non-Reporting and Punishment/Non-Punishment of Leaks
9. Taboos (Subjects, Scopes/Angles/Subjects of Analysis, Sources, Data)
10. Source/Data/Quote Mongering and Echoing
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The Sixth Estate rejects any boundaries in terms of "Subjects" open for discussion. The only "boundaries" have to do with all methodology, evidence, data, sources and reasoning, no matter by whom it is written, being subject to rigorous scrutiny at all times. The basic philosophy and intent of this Blogsite is to "Deconstruct the Deconstructionists" which includes ourselves being subject to the same as that to which we subject others.
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Our guiding philosophy is embodied in the letter by Karl Marx to Arnold Ruge in 1843:
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"If the construction of the future, and its completion for all time is not our task, all the more certain is what we must accomplish in the present; I mean, the ruthless criticism of everything that exists; the criticism being 'ruthless' only in the sense that it does not fear its own results and it does not fear conflict with the powers that be. "
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And to quote another Marx--Groucho: "I would not want to belong to any club that would have me as a member..." And: "The two keys to success are honesty and sincerity; and if you can fake those, the sky is the limit."
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Further The Six Estate rejects the notion of "Hierarchies of Victims" into "Worthy" versus "Unworthy", "Taboo" versus "Acceptible" victims and also rejects the notion that anyone can tell another for whom they must or must not grieve and how they must or must not grieve. In that sense we are guided by a quote from the film version of John Le Carre's "The Russia House" in which the main character, Barley Scott Blair, in a drunken rant at a Russian Dacha says:
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"If there is to be hope, we must all 'betray' our country. We have to save each other, because all victims are equal and none is more equal than others. It is everyone's duty to start the avalanche. Nowadays you have to think like a hero just to behave like a merely decent human being".
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This Blog is about IDEAS, STRUGGLES, ISSUES and REAL PEOPLE and not the author. So many Blogsites are really exercises in personal narcissism, Andy Warhol-like-15-minutes-of-fameism, self-absorption, screaming and overall self-promotion. While as the author of this blogsite I will have some of my own work on this site, all of it will be about critical information from critical and unrepresented sources as well as about real, critical and concrete issues and struggles in concrete venues. My own work will constitute but a small part of the totality on the Blogsite and will be integrated with it.
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And finally, this Blog will deal with subjects and sources that even the Fifth Estate does not deal with even in the course of attacking the "Fourth Estate".
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In the end, the only weapons we have in our struggles against all forms of despotism are the truth as we believe it to be, the most effective ways to tell it, and above all, without which the others are meaningless, the courage to try to discover the truth and tell it without fear or favor.
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Omahkohkiaayo i'poyi
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