There's a favorite quote of mine that goes (paraphrasing)
"A culture is what it does with it's attention"
In measuring what our culture is, we should look at what we do with our attention. We spend a whole lot of it staring into one screen or another. From what we've seen recently, that's not all bad; what with Facebook and Twitter being so instrumental in the recent revolution in Egypt and others now underway in Libya and brewing in Africa as well. Not to mention the protests in Wisconsin and other midwest states in support of collective bargaining rights.
In alot of ways, technology has been an empowering tool to those in need.
On the other hand, spend a day watching the morning news shows. Watch Dr Phil and Oprah. Not saying make a habit of it but just notice what gets covered. Usually there's at least one "human interest" piece. Don't ask me where that particular euphemism came from. Then there's hollywood gossip, a scandal or two, and then a studio full of women ages 18 to 80 losing their mind because Oprah gave them some stuff. Oh granted, its really cool stuff. Ipods and Ipads and even cars.
Yep...crying and hugging and wailing for STUFF. Yeah we haven't lost our way as a culture at all. Nah...we're doin' just fine.
But watch all of this drek for just a day and make a list of everything you saw that you actually needed to know. Stuff that you're better off knowing than you were without it.
What's truly ridiculous is, all these same shows do stories about why the kids aren't learning.It's like OJ saying he was commited to finding Nicole's killer. The media puts itself out in front of the issue so they can steer it away from themselves.
Don't get me wrong though. I'm not talking about the "Liberal Media" here. I'm talking about the Capitalist Media. The media that paints itself as commited to informing the public when all they really want to do is ply their wares. Selling stuff rather that teaching stuff.
Remember that old saying about the news business..."If it bleeds it leads"?
Those were the days.
I know. I know. Bleeding is bad. People dying, that's bad. But at least its actually news. Car accidents, robberies, criminal activity...there's a public interest involved there. People need to know those things are going on.
They actually have a segment on the Today show now where a realtor is promoting properties that I presume she'll get a commission on if they sell. No doubt the Today show is paid some kind of "consideration" in the deal as well. We're talking essentially an infomercial here. And while I'm on this...are you familiar with product placement? It's been around in some form for a long time but now its everywhere. An advertiser pays the network and its products are intergrated into a tv show. The characters use a certain brand of cell phone (Brenda on "The Closer" uses a TMobile phone, you can tell by its characteristic ring)or a computer, or to drive a certain make of car, that sort of thing. That was one thing. Now actual dialogue is being written to refer specifically to the product in question. Commercials are being written into the actual story itself now.
So what is our culture doing with its attention? Buying stuff and selling stuff. That's it. That's all. We don't need no stinkin learning. We've got stuff. Lots and lots of stuff.
I know I know...those broad sweeping statements get some people's ire up. "Dude! That's not all there is. There's good tv out there."
You mean like PBS? Yeah you're right. PBS is great. And its such a high priority in our exalted culture that its actually possible Congress might strip it of all funding. Let me say that again.The network that shows more educational programming than the other big four networks put together is having its funding targeted by Congress.
This is the country we're living in. This is what we're doing with our attention. This has got to change. I know I know...Declarations are easy. Change is hard. So here's what I'm sayin.I'm going to use this page to point out the stuff that I think matters.
Pay attention.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
Path to a Better World
The idea of a better world, one that casts off the flawed methods and ideas of the past in favor of more sustainable and efficient alternatives, is appealing to most people to one degree or another. For a certain segment of the populace though it can become almost an obsession.
For those people there are two things that you can count on them being aware of. The Ishmael books by Daniel Quinn and the Zeitgeist series of films.
The Ishmael books examine the evolution of Western Civilization and confront certain missteps we've taken along the way. You might call them design flaws. Things that, once realized should be corrected.
The Zeitgeist films cover a variety of topics but the main thrust seems to deal with the Monetary system and explaining how it is fundamentally unsustainable.
Generally speaking, I agree with alot of the ideas present in both of these. The obvious flaw in both is that while they make a compelling case for the need to bring about change, they fall short of mapping out a clear path from where we are to where we need to be. Quinn even comments on this in his Non Fiction book "Beyond Civilization", saying that it was a response to readers having commented on the lack of a clear path to a more sustainable way of life.
In the Zeitgeist films there is a reference made to "The Venus Project" which is a separate organization that works in cooperation with the producers of the Zeitgeist films. The Venus Project has a design for a sustainable city. The films dedicate a portion of time to detailing how the city would function in broad strokes, which sound very sensible and doable. They describe the approach as a resource based economy.
The ideas are very interesting. It's fires the imagination to think of the kind of world that could exist if they were undertaken like the space race was a generation ago.
I could be wrong but I'm just not feeling the urgency to take this from an idea to a working functioning model. And there has to be follow through. Because books and films like these that suggest a need for change speak to that segment of the populace that is hungry for it.
Mention is made in the latter 2 of the Zeitgeist films that this culture of money can't be replaced until it finally crashes and burns. That seems like an excuse for not taking on the very hard work of setting aside these old ways and carving out new ones. I'm reminded of a quote from John Kerry (I believe) where he said "How do you ask someone to be the last soldier to die for a mistake". If you believe this way of life is so wrong, how do you ask people to waste one more moment of their lives in support of it? The progress that can be made at the beginning might be small but it will most definitely get us further than waiting five years or ten and starting then.
What is essential is that those true believers are able to see regular measurable progress. There is energy here that is looking for a direction. If it doesn't find it here, it will find it in something comfortable and mundane and profoundly unremarkable.
(To be continued)
For those people there are two things that you can count on them being aware of. The Ishmael books by Daniel Quinn and the Zeitgeist series of films.
The Ishmael books examine the evolution of Western Civilization and confront certain missteps we've taken along the way. You might call them design flaws. Things that, once realized should be corrected.
The Zeitgeist films cover a variety of topics but the main thrust seems to deal with the Monetary system and explaining how it is fundamentally unsustainable.
Generally speaking, I agree with alot of the ideas present in both of these. The obvious flaw in both is that while they make a compelling case for the need to bring about change, they fall short of mapping out a clear path from where we are to where we need to be. Quinn even comments on this in his Non Fiction book "Beyond Civilization", saying that it was a response to readers having commented on the lack of a clear path to a more sustainable way of life.
In the Zeitgeist films there is a reference made to "The Venus Project" which is a separate organization that works in cooperation with the producers of the Zeitgeist films. The Venus Project has a design for a sustainable city. The films dedicate a portion of time to detailing how the city would function in broad strokes, which sound very sensible and doable. They describe the approach as a resource based economy.
The ideas are very interesting. It's fires the imagination to think of the kind of world that could exist if they were undertaken like the space race was a generation ago.
I could be wrong but I'm just not feeling the urgency to take this from an idea to a working functioning model. And there has to be follow through. Because books and films like these that suggest a need for change speak to that segment of the populace that is hungry for it.
Mention is made in the latter 2 of the Zeitgeist films that this culture of money can't be replaced until it finally crashes and burns. That seems like an excuse for not taking on the very hard work of setting aside these old ways and carving out new ones. I'm reminded of a quote from John Kerry (I believe) where he said "How do you ask someone to be the last soldier to die for a mistake". If you believe this way of life is so wrong, how do you ask people to waste one more moment of their lives in support of it? The progress that can be made at the beginning might be small but it will most definitely get us further than waiting five years or ten and starting then.
What is essential is that those true believers are able to see regular measurable progress. There is energy here that is looking for a direction. If it doesn't find it here, it will find it in something comfortable and mundane and profoundly unremarkable.
(To be continued)
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Ideas as Action
As I write this, the protests in Egypt are entering their sixteenth day. For someone who writes, those protestors represent the struggle between thought and action. More and more our lives are lived online. We type to one another. And a well written tweet passes for accomplishment.
These people are doing the very hard work of taking back their government.
It's the kind of thing that makes you a little ashamed. All the upheaval our own country suffered through in the last decade. Maybe if it had lasted for 30 years we'd have found our collective spines and done something. I remember hearing it said, if just one percent of the populace had stood up, roughly 3 million people...just one percent and something would have changed.
I know I know...we've got a new president now and we can put all that ugliness behind us. But it's not behind us. While we take comfort in the gradual recovery they say the economy is undergoing, the next guy is out there biding his time looking to move the ball of oppression just a little further down the field.
And we sit on the sidelines posting blogs and tweets and call that taking action.
Everywhere I look I hear someone talking about making it easier to for people to get involved. Products people can buy where a portion of the proceeds are donated to this charity or that. Ribbons people wear. Donation by text message.
It sounds good right? Easier equals better, right?
Except the more that people come to expect doing the right thing to be easy, the more prone to give up they are when it's not. The fact that people think we need to keep making it easier shows how lazy people are already.
The Egyptian people put the rest of us to shame. They didn't need someone to make it easier for them. Day in, day out for coming up on three weeks now, with no end in sight. Hell, it might even be escalating if the reports I've been hearing are true. Granted the real test will be what comes of all this, but you've gotta start somewhere and they've already exceeded anyone's expectations.
But here I sit writing a blog about people sitting on the sidelines writing blogs. I know you were thinkin' it. The point is though, I know it's not enough. I'm not kidding myself that I'm doing something remarkable here. It's just the start of something.
For a very long time I've known, the world we're living in isn't the best of all possible worlds... but it could be.
That premise is what I'm building on here.
These people are doing the very hard work of taking back their government.
It's the kind of thing that makes you a little ashamed. All the upheaval our own country suffered through in the last decade. Maybe if it had lasted for 30 years we'd have found our collective spines and done something. I remember hearing it said, if just one percent of the populace had stood up, roughly 3 million people...just one percent and something would have changed.
I know I know...we've got a new president now and we can put all that ugliness behind us. But it's not behind us. While we take comfort in the gradual recovery they say the economy is undergoing, the next guy is out there biding his time looking to move the ball of oppression just a little further down the field.
And we sit on the sidelines posting blogs and tweets and call that taking action.
Everywhere I look I hear someone talking about making it easier to for people to get involved. Products people can buy where a portion of the proceeds are donated to this charity or that. Ribbons people wear. Donation by text message.
It sounds good right? Easier equals better, right?
Except the more that people come to expect doing the right thing to be easy, the more prone to give up they are when it's not. The fact that people think we need to keep making it easier shows how lazy people are already.
The Egyptian people put the rest of us to shame. They didn't need someone to make it easier for them. Day in, day out for coming up on three weeks now, with no end in sight. Hell, it might even be escalating if the reports I've been hearing are true. Granted the real test will be what comes of all this, but you've gotta start somewhere and they've already exceeded anyone's expectations.
But here I sit writing a blog about people sitting on the sidelines writing blogs. I know you were thinkin' it. The point is though, I know it's not enough. I'm not kidding myself that I'm doing something remarkable here. It's just the start of something.
For a very long time I've known, the world we're living in isn't the best of all possible worlds... but it could be.
That premise is what I'm building on here.
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