[Nettime-bold] Re: [Genius2000Conference2000] Its The End Of The FuckingWorld

["Nicholas Hermann" <NHerman@hga.com>]

>>> fluxis@mediaone.net 04/24/01 04:55PM >>>

Ruling 5-4 in a case that could
affect anyone who drives a car, 
the justices said such an arrest
does not violate the Constitution's 
Fourth Amendment protection against 
unreasonable seizures. 

++

Guess we know which five.  I've been feeling worn out, pessimistic, and
frustrated lately, but doesn't it seem like they're getting ready for a
hot-earth military state?  I can't even imagine objecting if the rioters
and have-nots are after me and my dog Freda.  I'd probably accept my
locator chip and do whatever job they thought I had a high enough IQ
for.  I know it's immature to put down REM and Nirvana but I consider
them to be entertainment and not a sufficiently powerful weapon to save
democracy.  I'm not against entertainment, as a rule, but isn't it just
entertainment?  I remember back on the cookie list Eryk someone said
"wouldn't G2K mean that people would act out the love scene from
Coppola's Dracula on the street corner?"  There are so many forms of
entertainment, and many we can invent ourselves if we're not too
stressed.  The very stressed of course rely completely on TV, because
their own minds are too traumatized or conditioned to create their own
recreation.  Conversation among people one likes, for example, ought to
be fairly easy but the popularity of "Friends" and such like proves that
most people rely on TV for their spirit of social enjoyment.  It's not
just that the actors on Friends are so pretty and clever; they belong to
us and can't see us.  

I shouldn't say bad things about entertainment but I agree with Frank
and Chomsky that the main reason for broadcast entertainment is to
absorb and neutralize people's creativity in order to deliver a
susceptible consumer to the admen.  Sometimes there might be something
so special and bountiful it has to be broadcast, but what about the
world that did exist before color TV?  I don't deserve to judge those
who love Ken Burns' Jazzumentaries or Ally McBeal.  Who am I to go over
to the admin twenty feet away and call her a stupid maggot for loving
Ally?  Or the minister who loves kitschy jazz guitar tunes like "Hot Hot
Hot"?  But Frank is right, cool has been satanically transformed into
selling stuff.  And what's cool on the global marketplace, from Scotland
to Singapore?  Hollywood.  Why do people want Pentium 4's?  To get cool
streaming content.  In the Baffler they make a great argument that the
culture industry is the decisive economic sector in maintaining US
supremacy.  This all in addition to the role of content-delivery in
maintaining manufactured consent.  Bait and switch.  

I like the blue sky story but I want it to come true or something, and
not be just a story.  I can't do that if all the politicians and
academics and critics and other authority people are corrupt.  

Let's all promise to email each other fifty years from now to see how
fucked up things are.  And as for Kim Gordon loving Yoko Ono enough to
get invited to the Walker and lecture about her, well that's what I call
adequate reason to doubt the broader meaning of popular music.  It's a
good thing that has been turned against us.  I mean isn't it at least
arguable?  Everyone thought Dylan was this great protestor figure but
Frank calls him a fake who ripped off Woody Guthrie's accent, and my
pottery teacher in high school said he never liked Dylan, but found him
fatuous.  Certainly we can't say all those sixties protest songs are all
we need to fight the corporations who own the Supreme Court.  

The corporate military state is the likeliest outcome for the next 100
years, as I am certain most prognosticators inside the NSA will verify. 
Genius 2000 is a long shot.  Who knows, maybe they'll even make it
illegal.
 



_______________________________________________
Nettime-bold mailing list
Nettime-bold@nettime.org
http://www.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold