The Evolution for a Revolution
What the Fuck is going on? What are WE doing?
Maybe I’ve been listening to Adam Curry podcasts for too long.
Maybe it’s because I consumed all of Warren Ellis’ Global Frequency comic books too quickly.
Maybe I took V for Vendetta way too seriously.
And just maybe the movie Endgame, about the Bilderberg Group was more scary to me than the Exorcist.
Despite of all this, or maybe as a result, and with the world near a point of economic collapse, I need to ask; Where are the citizen driven sub-channels for communication? I’m not talking about Anarchy, I’m talking about a return to Normalivization; some strange mix of civilization and normalcy sprinkled with Pleasantville, where the people of the world have taken back their rightful assets (like the airwaves) to balance themselves and refrained from commercial media attacks 4,000 times daily, that has since left us curled up in a fetal position in front of our fat, flat-screen TVs.
I really thought that Clay Shirky was right about our spare cycles. That once we realized what kind of productivity was being lost to Gilligan’s Island reruns and Heroes, we could do amazing and innovative things, collectively and collaboratively and globally. That manifesto came out over a year ago; what new innovation has come out in the last year? Name one – ANY one.
I am inspired nearly weekly by emails from Jason Calacanis who never fails to remind me why I consider myself an entrepreneur and why I have begun to establish the business opportunities I have. While being fully aware of the personal and financial impact I might provide to employees. That inspiration, combined with quarterly re-readings of the Four Hour Work Week as if it were a bible, leads me to ask myself, where is my newly designed lifestyle? And why am I still employed by someone else? What’s your excuse?
It just seems that everything is in place. According to Adam Curry (self-professed new age nut-ball), that with one exception, ALL of the major radio networks and satellite network(s?) have stock values that are now nearly worthless. Newspapers and magazines are going out of business so fast that you’ll need an RSS feed just to keep up. The music industry has finally conceded that using watermarks and other control techniques to stop people from sharing great music files with on another is a losing battle. High definition Blu-ray Discs are stalled at the gates of success because our generation is now VERY comfortable with downloads and intangible media that doesn’t need to take up shelf-space or need to be protected in a UV filtered case or swaddled in DRM. “You can take my external drive when you pull it from my cold, dead hands.”
During these last death gurgles of old media, social and cellular media are going crazy. People are no longer shopping for comfort, they are reuniting online with old friends and new friends using FaceBook, Twitter, MeetUp, MySpace, LinkedIn, Flickr, etc. Our iPhones, Blackberry’s and other pocket devices help us find one another with GPS, get us recommendations on restaurants, books and films, while allowing us to quickly compare prices when we do actually visit a retail store. We aren’t listening to radio anymore because it stopped being local/important to us during the great media acquisition land rush that took place in the 80’s and 90’s and was mostly the cause of the homogenization and ultimate death of radio. Thank you Clear Channel - enjoy your self-inflicted collapse. We use Blip.FM and Twitter now to play each other songs we used to hear on the radio or MTV. Blogs, podcasts and YouTube have become our new news sources (and a sincere Thank You to those taking the time to read this on my blog). And to the car makers seeking hand-outs; if you want to sell us a new car, make sure it has a $2 headphone-plug for the god-damned iPod! Ask your kids about them, an amazing new company called “Apple” sold about 100 million of these things already. They are a bit more popular for us daily drivers today versus your HD Radio sets or sterile satellite radio services with recurring monthly fees.
Speaking of old media and out-of-touch corporations, the only physical newspaper I have ever even wanted, in the last 40 years of my existence, was the weekend Wall Street Journal. But that company, with its infinite business wisdom, decided that I needed to receive a full week of newspapers just to receive the weekend edition. No thanks and fuck you. You were not that important in the first place.
And while I know it’s been covered to death already but… “Attention Wal-Mart Shoppers, we have a Sears/K-Mart Blue Light special going on right now, that is happening at the front our store this morning. Please get the hell away from that blue light because it’s a god-damned ambulance attempting to save the life of a minimum-wage employee that you all just stampeded in an attempt to save $30 on some piece of shit gift from China that is going to be thrown away this Summer anyway.” Wal-Mart Shoppers, please STOP watching NASCAR because that competitive thing you’re on is really getting the best of you. Strapping yourself into a cage with four wheels and 1,000 horsepower is one thing, but shopping should not be a competitive sport where people lose their lives or get shot. If you want to compete, go to work early tomorrow and do your job measurably better than anyone else who does what you do. Had you not STARTED shopping at Wal-Mart in the first place, your former employer probably wouldn’t have shipped your last job to Mexico or China, so that you had to keep shopping there.
So this is a call to action. Get your shit straight and start to lean in. It’s nearly 2009 so turn off the TV. Let’s move further away from consumers to being creators and innovators. Establish a new “open source” landscape where ownership is transparent. Put the worst global corporations and media giants in your sites and make sure they are not getting dollar one from you, or your tribe. Get to know your local merchants and vendors, by first name. Support one another in whatever we do and realize that business is an important factor for the success of all, and that all life is precious. Establish the new media programs and channels that inform, educate and entertain us. Develop the tools that allow us to collaborate, motivate and inspire and save one another.
You are on the Global Frequency!
-pjc
Dec 08 - UPDATE: The day after I wrote this, the mega-media Tribune company filed chap 11 re-org. I have too much respect for Mr. Zell to think that this is a death warrant, but at the same time, if this is happening to the Tribune, who isn’t it happening to? Here’s a great post on the Future of the News, in a similar vein, with more emphasis on Twitter and Mahalo for the delivery of news. Be sure to read the comment from Vern (#2) on the same page.