Introducing Culture Thursday

    

"The reason one writes isn't the fact he wants to say something. He writes because he has something to say."
~F. Scott Fitzgerald~

After some thought, I have decided to move up to every day posting!  This is quite a commitment given my workload at this time, but I feel that it is do-able with a little forethought and commitment.  I will be using my Tuesday and Thursday posts to open my information mine to you, dear reader.  I will post only the absolute best finds that I have encountered in my search for truth, culture, and knowledge.  Today I want to share with you the site of a philosopher named Ravi Zacharias.  Dr. Zacharias is in my mind one of the most lucid and eloquent reasoners alive today.  He speaks from a classically trained philosophic viewpoint, and comes to some startling conclusions about the trends of culture and where we are going as a people.  His site has made available for free a massive archive covering a plethora of relevant cultural topic.  I have never heard arguments stated so logically, so eloquently, in all of my searching.  check him out!

Questions that need to be asked?

As I was considering what to post, I thought about how nice it would be to get some feedback on some of the issues that I've been thinking about recently. Additional perspective is always welcome, and almost always reveals facets of a subject that I had not thought of. So what I'm going to do is release to you all some questions and concepts that I've been considering writing a post on. Read them, think about them, and get back to me. I would really love to hear from any of you, so sound off! Here are some questions that I think need asked:

· Is teaching evolutionary theory as fact in the school system causing a detrimental effect on society?

· Is the Constitution still a viable document as is, or does it need to be amended or restructured to accommodate modern times?

· Are we Americans really as terrible as we are making ourselves out to be?

· Is MTV poisoning society?

· Why is there such a push towards “zen living” and “information diets” recently?

· What is the value of reading the classics?

These are just a few of the things that I've been thinking about lately. Feel free to comment, email me @ joeaholmes@gmail.com , or IM me via the digsby app on the right hand side of the site. I look forward to connecting with all of you!

After a Short Hiatus....

Lots going on here in Joe Land. I have been crazy busy trying to keep up with the schedule I have set myself, as well as working on some of the many dreams floating around in my head. Oh yes, and I shaved my head. If all of this sounds like a mental breakdown, fear not. It is rather the delightful sound of life buzzing on down the track. Of special interest to you, dear reader, is the happy fact that I have been accepted as a contributor at http://www.culturefeast.com ! In fact, My first article, entitled has formal education become passe is on the front page today. So support my work, and my new friends over at culturefeast, and check it out!

Happiness is a Warm Gun

With the general election looming in the near future, its time to start taking a look at the issues. Not that I'm really electrified about any candidate this go round. I suppose the question at this juncture is "Which candidate will leave me alone the most?". Which one will let me make a living without dipping into my pockets too deeply, and which will allow me the option to protect myself in the manner that I see fit? Looking at McCain, I see a saddening, but not entirely surprising bland voting record. Some cursory research @ Glassbooth reveals that he voted against a ban on assault weapons, but was for greater restrictions on gun access. So while he's not really an opponent of gun ownership, hes not exactly a champion of our rights either. Naturally, both of the democratic candidates are strongly supportive of all types of gun control. This is totally expected, as the democratic candidates generally are supportive of any law by which government can further intrude into, and control, the lives of the citizenry. So I am left one one hand with a candidate who doesn't really care what goes on with gun rights, and on the other hand, I have a candidate so naive that they actually think criminals go through legal channels to obtain weapons. Frankly, thats a stupid notion. I don't see why people have such a hard time seeing that gun control only takes weapons from law abiding citizens, NOT the criminal. To me this is an obvious conclusion, but it appears that many today are so smothered in PC rhetoric that they can't see it. Gun control advocates have gone to some ridiculous lengths in proposing solutions to the problem of crime, but few make them look as stupid as the "Gun Free Zone". Want an example of a gun free zone in action? How about Virginia Tech? Enjoy the parody below, but also be aware of the sad and at times deadly consequences of such a naive and dangerous mindset. Is there not room in this world for an individual to be optimistic and realistic? Do I have to be an unrealistic starry eyed hippie, or a soulless corporate tycoon? Is that really what the two parties in this country have become? A troop of far left clowns who want to run your life, or a group of money hungry power brokers? Once again, I'm optimistic yet realistic, and it looks like this election will be another case of picking the lesser of two evils.

Culture Trends in America: The Illusion of Escalating Needs

Last Sunday I had an epiphany while attending services at my local church. This wasn't a moral or spiritual epiphany (although I've had some of those lately as well). No, this was an epiphany of a much more concrete sort. The lesson was dealing with cultural trends, which as you all know I have a great interest in. The minister was enumerating some features of our culture, among them was a concept that I found to be particularly insightful. It was titled the illusion of perpetually escalating needs. The gist is this: we always find something else to "need", and our consumer culture makes sure that its always there for the purchasing. And that's when I had my epiphany. I have fallen prey to this escalation of "needs" on at least a level. Raise your hand if you've upgraded your ipod, cell phone, or computer before you really needed to. How about your car, bicycle, or wardrobe? Can you see just how prevalent this concept is, and how deeply ingrained? Now, if you've read my previous post you know that I am a strong proponent of capitalism as a governmental model. It is however not without weakness, and this is perhaps one of them. The free market pushes companies to get the average individual to consume consume consume. And one of the most effective ways to achieve this is through the escalation of perceived needs. The tech world is positioned well for this strategy due to its rapid advancement and lowering cost. So now, in tech at least, we can have a new "must have" item every month. So the question is, have you fallen prey as I have to the escalating needs? Is this attitude wrecking your finances and stealing your enjoyment of life? I have made a list of three questions that you can ask yourself in order to escape from the escalator:

1. What really makes me happy? This is a crucial question. Many times we assume, without really thinking about it, that new gadgets will make us happy. If your like me though, a quick look around the house at all of yesterdays "must have" items tell a different story. It may even be helpful to make a list of things that make you happy. Most of the time, you'll find that they aren't the latest and greatest thing.
   
2. What's Wrong with what I have? Yesterday, I noted that my younger brother was still listening to a old discman that I had given him when I got my first ipod. I've since upgraded three times and probably spent at least five hundred dollars on the process. Sure, I can carry all eleven thousand songs in my pocket, but do I need to? When I listen to the Zepp, does it sound any different than on my old discman? I don't think so. Asking yourself this question, I have found, will save you loots of money.
   
3. Why do I want the "new thing"? if your answer has anything to do with a new commercial or because your friend owns one, you're probably falling prey to the "escalator". If you didn't need it until you realized it existed, you probably don't need it.
   

If you consistently ask these questions, it becomes much easier to jump off the escalator, free yourself of "stuff", and just get down to loving each day. That's where it's really at after all.

*********************************POSTSCRIPT***************************************

Here is a simply fascinating series of articles dealing with the concept of digital culture. Many thanks to Artmaker for the link!

INTERACT: Breaking down the barrier beween the reader and the author

Well, its the end of my first month of consistent blogging. I must say that I am enjoying it quite a lot thus far. The ability to voice ideas and be read is extremely cathartic to me, and I have begun to anticipate each posting. One aspect of blogging that I have grown to really love is the immediate and instant contact with the reader. I find that this instant feedback refreshes me, and inspires me to write well. What I want to do with this post is get even more personal in my interaction with my readers. To that end, I have placed a twitter widget and a IM widget on FreshSqueezed. So please, feel free to drop me a line. Complain, comment, trade ideas and opinions, or just say hi. I would love to hear from you. This to me is one of the most exciting aspects of digital publishing. not only for ones voice to be heard, but to build relationships with ones readership. how exciting!

Vapid dialogues and Shallow Demagogues

“What is your substance, whereof are you made,
That millions of strange shadows on you tend?”

~William Shakespeare~

I don’t know about you, but I'm sick of hearing about the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Senator Obama’s racist, anti-Semitic minister. I know, I know, it’s important to the campaign. And it’s not that I'm sitting in Obama’s corner wringing my hands about his chances of winning the primary elections. I'm simply weary with the fact that we as a people haven’t moved beyond this. In my estimation, the dear Reverend isn’t even the main issue here. There have always been and always will be madding, divisive demagogues spewing forth their vitriol to the masses. The question that looms in my mind is, when the masses will stop listening? The real moral tragedy isn’t that the Reverend hates me because I'm white, or hates me because I'm middle class, or hates the Jews. The tragedy is that he has been able to make a lifelong career out of playing the race card and harming his own ethnic community through his attitude of learned and eternal victimhood. If he was one crazy, hateful man, it wouldn’t matter. But he’s not. He’s one hateful man that has 10,000 people in his congregation who evidently really enjoy listening to his drivel. THAT is a moral travesty. My suspicion is that, as senator Obama maintains, many in the congregation aren’t even listening to what he’s saying, perhaps the senator and many others are only there to enjoy the reality-TV-show like shock factor. Regardless of the reason, this huge following is very telling. Our popular culture seems to be more fixated on ideas and people that are shocking or entertaining than upon those that have substance. Our world has become so superficial that we have in many ways regressed into a pre-enlightenment dark age in which spectacle reigns supreme. We look with horror or morbid amusement at the savage glee surrounding witch hunts, but have we not become the same? Giving our attention, and often times support, to an idea or public figure merely because we are amused by the grotesque nature of them? In the last few decades, we’ve lost our moral anchoring, and drifted into hedonism. Now I fear that even hedonism has lost its allure, and something darker and uglier is beginning to hold us in its thrall. Are we becoming modern barbarians? Fixated on the spectacle of watching proverbial blood spill? Only time will tell. We desperately need a grassroots movement that champions ideas , entertainment , and people of substance. The greatest hope for this, I believe is in the free exchange of ideas we find here, on the web. So let’s stop having vapid conversations about hateful men, and move on the dialogues that have some substance!

The Imperative to Create

“True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new.”

~Antoine de Saint-Exupery~

Last weekend, I went to a cabin retreat with some friends. It was just a time for everyone to relax and unwind (and contributed to the absence of posts this week). I considered working on a new post over the weekend, but I couldn't quit fiddling with my rekindled interest in ink sketching. Micalyn and I had bought art supplies to play with since the forecast called for rain, and I chose some ink and nibs. Initially when I sat down with my new supplies, I just doodled. As I continued to play around however, some great ideas began to flit back and forth in my mind. Then I really found my muse, and for the rest of the rainy day, that's what I worked on. In that moment I had an epiphany that has been burgeoning in my mind since I began writing for SqueezedFresh. I had forgotten the joy of creating. I had forgotten the catharsis of making something, instead of consuming something. We have become increasingly a culture of consumers instead of creators, and have forgotten the joy in producing something original and uniquely ours. In a prior post, I wrote about the potential power of the web to bring forth a remix culture, but I didn't really stress how important I feel it is to the human soul that this culture grow and spread. Throughout our past, individuals have always created. Many times this creativity was spurred by necessity. In this modern time, where our every need is met, what is the spark that will bring us back to the act of creation? I think that in this time of convenience and consumerism, we need desperately to rediscover the unique joy of being creators. We need to learn not only to enjoy works of art, music, and cinema, but to produce them. The tools are at our fingertips like never before. So let this be your wake up call. Get out there and cut, paste, draw, write, act, play, and create!

Culture Trends in America: intellectual property and the information age

"So uncritically do we accept the idea of property in culture that we don't even question when the control of that property removes our ability, as a people, to develop our culture democratically."

~Lawrence Lessing~

I have a confession to make; I have trouble feeling bad about file sharing. And I am not alone. p2pnews reports that as of October 2004 over four and a half million p2p users online at any given moment. Amazingly, that’s just the statistics for American IPs. Add in the global IPs and you can tack on another two million users. Mind you, these are not monthly or even daily numbers; they are a moment by moment average of users. The obvious question that these statistics being up is this: why is it that so many people don’t find an issue with crossing intellectual property boundaries? Is this just perhaps a practical extension of the maxim that everyone would be a thief if they knew they would be caught? After all, though there is some chance of litigation against a file sharer, its likelihood is truly remote. Lifehacker puts the matter succinctly: “The RIAA has conducted about 26,000 lawsuits, and there are more than 15 million music downloaders. Mark Mulligan of Jupiter Research said it best: "If you're a file sharer, you know that the likelihood of you being caught is very similar to that of being hit by an asteroid." So is that it? Are people just amoral when they don’t fear punishment? While I agree that may be part of the answer, I don’t feel that it is the whole of it. Other concurrent trends are emerging that point to a complete shift in the way we think about intellectual property. One of the most prominent of those trends is the growing community of writers, artists, musicians, and software developers who embrace the concept of remix culture. Remix culture is a term first coined by creative commons founder Lawrence Lessing to describe a culture that embraces the natural creativity of the individual. In a remix culture, changing and improving music, literature, art and software is not just tolerated but encouraged. Furthermore, the individual would be free to use the creator’s intellectual property in any non-commercial way (Mr. Lessing has written a freely available e-book on this topic). This vision of a free information society is really resonating, and has already produced some amazing but controversial works of art, music and software. One of the most notable is the grey album by dj dangermouse. This freely distributed album was a creative remix of the black album by Jay-Z and the Beatles white album. Another thriving creative commons community is sourceforge. Sourceforge is a community of software developers, and most work under creative commons license to write software for the masses. These are but a few examples of how our culture is evolving into a free information society. I think that the attempts of the RIAA , MPAA and other corporate entities to strictly control their intellectual property is not a matter of catching pirates, but of trying to stop an entire culture from undergoing a paradigm shift. That, I believe, is why these organizations will ultimately fail. The future of intellectual property demands new methods of monetization. The old models are broken, and trying to fight a culture shift is just a good way to get plowed under by the ideas of the future. While the RIAA may be having a fit, this brave new cultural frontier is actually very exciting for the individual and the creator. A remix culture will bring about a new level of intimacy between the creator and the consumer, and will empower the average individual to produce and create without the need of an expensive and restrictive middleman. It’s the future, and I say bring it on!