Revolve Wednesday May 17, 2006, 2 comments

There is a cultural revolution brewing in the West. For too long, too many generations, the money men and engineers have systematically sought to excise that which they couldn’t control or understand.

For too long, Western culture has been associated with hollywood, with the beautiful elite. With perfect smiles and predictable plot lines. Moneymen figured out how to package and sell beauty.

The perfect body can be quantified, measured, and the engineers have made it possible to shoehorn everyone into this mold. Graphic Design, the only art form acceptable to the moneymen for its ability to sell water to the drowning, convinced everyone that they were imperfect if they didn’t fit the mold.

The music industry (and just the fact that its called an industry boggles the mind), riding on the backs of mathematics and marketing, has developed a formula for music that will sell. It often involves a barely legal, barely clothed blonde girl doing things in front of camera no mother would be proud of. Soft porn with a soundtrack you can buy through the iTunes Music Store.

Culture is meant to fill the void in our souls, not stretch it wider. They profit on our misery, and we willingly let them.

It’s time for a change. Stand up. Tell the labels and radio stations you’ll no longer stand for the garbage they’re trying to spoon-feed you. Tell the television networks that you will no longer tolerate mindless tripe. Turn off the television and send a message, that you will no longer subsidize the production of trash.

Go support original artists, who are trying to expand the human condition. Go see unknown musicians. Support the good ones, encourage the poor ones. Buy original artwork that speaks to you. Tell Oprah and her book list to stuff it and choose your own reading material. The library makes it cheap to experiment. When you find a good unknown author, buy the work. Support and encourage. Tell your friends to do the same.

You are more than a variable in a mathematical profit model. Revolve.


Comments

el tigra Wednesday May 17, 2006


I don’t think the money men (we’ll leave the engineers out of it for now) have sought to excise that which they don’t understand. I think they have merely sought to exploit that which they do understand. I do think you are appealing, though in vain, to the right people here. It is the consumer who is complicit in all of this. One can argue that they are duped, mesmerised, led to water against their will. But they drink, and willingly, as a surrogate for having to exert any thought or effort of their own.

Adrian Wednesday May 17, 2006


There’s definitely some truth to what you say, and there’s some truth to what Daniel said about yesterday’s post.

I am railing against two specific groups, and perhaps blaming them for evils they are not wholly responsible for.

Nonetheless. We need more than numbers and formulas.

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