Avenues Tumbl (Slava Sakhnenko)

Following threats to our staff of a very serious nature, and some ill informed reports from certain corners of the British media that could directly lead to the harm of some of our staff, Liveleak.com has been left with no other choice but to remove Fitna from our servers.

This is a sad day for freedom of speech on the net but we have to place the safety and well being of our staff above all else.

I don’t mean to get heavy, but a person is not a commodity; and not even the shallowest individual is ever as shallow as his or her version as a brand. Whatever one’s view of the transition from “soul” to “self” as the preferred name for human significance, the transition from “self” to “brand” is catastrophic.

The wonder of it is that so many people are eager to be regarded, and to regard themselves, as a commodity.

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Auto- commodification is the worst sort of commodification. But as I say, the language of business is now the smart language. This society is surrendering not to economics but to economicism, which is what happens when economics settles where it does not belong. The popularity of Freakonomics and of that idiot Gladwell is evidence of this epidemic error. These days there is almost nothing more heterodox to be said about American life than that there are vast realms of it in which economic reasoning should have no place.