tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905155363976375938.post4941658966184443835..comments2024-03-21T22:36:54.451-04:00Comments on HISTORIES OF THINGS TO COME: The Elephant in the RoomLC Douglasshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04250961297714038453noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905155363976375938.post-23606227600849148652012-09-24T13:21:26.747-04:002012-09-24T13:21:26.747-04:00Thanks very much for your comment, Anon. I have si...Thanks very much for your comment, Anon. I have similar worries about what will happen in Gen Xers' old age. Part of getting older involves a deepening of perception, at least we hope that will happen. That reconsideration of priorities depends partly on harsh lessons and tough experience. I understand my grandparents' attitudes more now because of the Great Recession.<br /><br />In a recession, it becomes more and more difficult to take things at surface or face value and believe in ads and marketing - about ourselves, others, products, or political 'marketing' about groups, interests, issues or and countries.<br /><br />Some people still do believe the hype. The troubling thing is that if you still believe the superficial messages, the economy and society will reward you. You can still ride the wave of consumption, even now in a bad recession. Also, there are lots of people around right now who are saying: Recession? What recession? <br /><br />It has not touched them, and consequently the soul-searching, introspection and caution that arrived with the recession has not touched them either. You still see loads of economic commentators complaining about the crisis of consumer confidence; they keep trying to prod people to borrow money to buy disposable crap they don't need. Industrialists could turn to improving manufacturing so that products don't have obsolescence built into them. But that won't happen, because of the huge emphasis on consumption as a core driver of the economy. A fateful and wrong decision IMO.<br /><br />This means that the financial sector fundamentally did not learn the lessons of the 2008 recession. They want the recession to end so they can get back to doing what they did before. That means the recession did not end at all (technical definition or no technical definition) and is still ongoing. The recession reflects a gap in our values.<br /><br />I think, however, if personal experience through hardship forces one to see through the hype, it becomes impossible to go back. You just can no longer buy into the illusions pushed by global consumerism and fake demands of managerial competitiveness. After seeing through these surface messages, it is easy to fall prey to disillusionment and lose hope. <br /><br />In fact, there is a way through, and that is the creation of new institutions, financial models, and economies, new power bases and new ways of doing things, hinging on the explosion of technology. And by that, I do not mean iPhone5. We have not reached the point of seeing a major overhaul of our economic model because (a) there are still plenty of people profiting from the old economic and political power structure, who don't want things to change and (b) those same people are trying to manipulate the new technology so that it serves old purposes, not new ones. Facebook is the prime example.LC Douglasshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04250961297714038453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905155363976375938.post-8987070495962683432012-09-24T08:44:30.952-04:002012-09-24T08:44:30.952-04:00I really admire your voice. This post is another ...I really admire your voice. This post is another example amongst many that I hope others think on, observe, and then act. Wonder Woman had a huge impact on me as a child. I shudder to think of what her portrayal would be like today, and no longer follow comics to know any more about them than I read from your blog.<br /><br />Beingan artist, I personally feel as if the corporate world has taken the word "creativity" and is using it against the creative themselves. No longer are people learning skills and discovering new methods of sharing their creative voice. No! Instead every Tim, Dave, and Susie is being brainwashed into thinking that buying a prepackaged product and sticking it together via instructions provided by the company who sells it or someone who is compted for providing instructions suddenly makes them a creative genius. Give me a 3 year Old's finger painting, a 5 year old's wild crooning, or the decadent assortment of mud pastries created by those same children over the picture perfect atrocities consisting of one finished, predesigned piece glued to another.<br /><br />Don't get me started on the "kill kill" mindset of imaginary playtime. When I was a child and we pretended to be super heroes, we were trying to save the world and help Janey get her cat out of the tree. I won't even share my nephew and friend's idea of how things should play out. Not that those areeven scenarios they would come up with.<br /><br />My grandparents had a lot to say about the changes in the world before their deaths. To have went from a time when a handshake and a man's word was all one needed to the practices of the 21 century. I am a gen x'er. What will things be like when I reach my sixties or eighties? I always thought and told them that I would be knowledgeable and hip to the latest technologies. My grandmother refused to cook in a microwave or use a dishwasher. I thought that crazy. She claimed to use it was lazy. Prepared food was a bignono. And yet she was loyal to one brand of "soda pop" and wouldn't allow another in the house all because my grandfather had once worked for the compatible. She had definitely bought into the marketing spills of different products, for why would they lie? <br /><br />As I grow older I find myself stepping away from society more and more. Choosing a way of life not so common place around me. I keep up with things so as to be informed and not become lost songster the racket, but I don't use, participate, nor strive to be or have the best of anything. The complex life I once yearned to live would be a nightmare to the simple living, appreciative soul I have become. Political practices and the mindset of our younger generations do give me a little anxiety when I think of the elder years for my generation.<br /><br />The brave new world that Star Trek: the New Generation had me yearning to boldly go now gives me pause, for the ship I boarded is fading from view. A good enough ending for my unintended semi-rant. Who knew blindness would become a pandemic, huh?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905155363976375938.post-25070265364663604042012-09-14T13:41:14.910-04:002012-09-14T13:41:14.910-04:00Thanks for your comment Fifi. I think comic books,...Thanks for your comment Fifi. I think comic books, at least mainstream ones are already banal homogenized corporate products, and have been for some time. The problem is that comics, as I have said several times on this blog, peddle eternal human symbols of good and evil - whether the editors and creators fully get that or not. My sense is they simply think of sales and gimmicks to drive sales. They don't understand that they are holding heroic archetypes in trust.LC Douglasshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04250961297714038453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905155363976375938.post-30325416194619856102012-09-14T13:38:08.959-04:002012-09-14T13:38:08.959-04:00LOL that's quite a website, Paul. Frank would ...LOL that's quite a website, Paul. Frank would love it.<br /><br />I think it goes a long way toward proving my argument that we are getting mixed up between reality and the media depicting reality. I liken the rampant spread of onlne media to the entire globally connected population over the past 15 years suddenly becoming addicted to a perception-altering drug. We're so entranced by this new technology that we don't see what it has done to us, what it is doing to us.LC Douglasshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04250961297714038453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905155363976375938.post-44368397333895241032012-09-12T13:08:58.007-04:002012-09-12T13:08:58.007-04:00Great post, ToB! In a similar vein, have you seen ...Great post, ToB! In a similar vein, have you seen the Milwaukee Police Dept's website?<br /><br />http://www.milwaukeepolicenews.com/<br /><br />Who is designing this stuff, Bruce Wayne? I think Frank Miller has a boner right now.Laroquodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17025800770736538936noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905155363976375938.post-19010361963571327932012-09-12T13:03:00.579-04:002012-09-12T13:03:00.579-04:00Amazing post. Brilliant. It would be a tragedy i...Amazing post. Brilliant. It would be a tragedy if the comic book heroes were banal, homogenized corporate products. <br /><br />I love new patterns of communication that bypass the "entertainment" monoliths. Peer to peer, many to many. Fifi [Feeling is First]https://www.blogger.com/profile/10144680325988687577noreply@blogger.com