A change in culture Part One

The fundamental change. It's taking place in our culture right now. As information becomes more fluid, turbulence seems to be increasing. Conversations online are rude and belligerent. Polarization is more common than consensus now.

Part of it is the economy, maybe even a major part. Let's face it, even as computers and capital flow have made things more efficient, they have also led to formerly sidelined nations getting a piece of the pie, which simply hasn't grown fast enough to accomodate everyone.

Americans don't understand this. We've allowed, even encouraged our elected government to keep the status quo, that is provide the illusion of economic expansion with government spending. Twenty years ago Tom Peters predicted what is happening now. He didn't have an answer for the capital drain that is flowing downhill into China and India and soon Africa. I don't have one either, but I'm pretty sure that government can't do anything about it.

A good while back I remember an analogy made about putting a penny into the fusebox. When an electric circuit gets overheated, a fuse or breaker trips and shuts everything off until the problem can be repaired. By putting a copper penny in the break and getting electricity going, you forestall the power failure, but at the risk of burning up all the wiring. When the government pumps money or other controls into the economy, it's analogous to putting the penny in the fusebox.

It is against this background of unfocused hopelessness that todays unemployed and others are protesting against the big guys on Wall Street and beyond. They can pretend for awhile that they aren't the big guys themselves, but a look at the world will reveal the truth. Not that it makes any difference.

Move over Garrison Keillor

Poor Garrison!

Let's face it, big guy, there are only 24 hours in a day. I've never read any of Garrison Keillor's books, although I've listened to Prairie Home Companion once or twice and saw the movie, which I bought for my father-in-law. The midwest holds no romance for me, I'm one of those southern idiots whose accent you make fun of while I make fun of your attempts to imitate it.

There are tons of great writers out there, and their books are still available, many for free.

Do we really need a publisher/gatekeeper? Well, you sort of have one. It's not even human, it's called a search engine now. And trust me, we have a long way to go when it comes to decent searching.

For example, if you type Garrison Keillor books "most nostalgic" into Google, your first hit is a heap of drivel (much like this blog) called physics 198-101. It's not about physics, even.

So, publishers, get a life and go into critiques. Volunteer to help us find the good stuff that we are doing. You can't get rich on it? Well, no one is going to be rich in the hive, except for the beekeepers, and they are all getting jobs with the government.

Will this push back creative individuals? Sure! But hey, you wanted Democracy, and everyone is equal in the hive, just not very fat or well rested.

Still, we can envision somewhere the hive coming up with its own American Idol brand of writer judging, and eventually we'll see niche judging until, finally, the hive is ordered and structured in a way that we can all search.

Meanwhile, guess what, we're living in web anarchy. For the adept, that's not so bad, as long as you're unemployed and have plenty time on your hands. Have you idly ever wondered who invented those infernal coat hangers? Look them up. Facts we can find. It's judgment that is lacking on web searches, evaluations, and because these are personal, the solution is for all of us to get in line and think the same. You don't think it'll happen? When's the last time you searched for an article and didn't find the best one on Wikipedia?

We've had critical mass marketing of groceries, tires, computers, eyeglasses, and we're rapidly entering critical mass marketing of ideas, where just finding yourself in the Book of Sand is an infinite task.