Bad Fortune

NO, it ISN'T.

Ignorance on Fire WOULD, however, make a great name for a prog rock band.

A Classy Thing That Will Never Happen

Here's an idea for the age of digital media that will never, ever happen:

When a popular artist, author, or entertainer dies, for 24 hours after his passing, his entire body of work becomes available for free download. Just an idea.

Nothing is New

Continuing in the vein of received wisdom regarding teh Intarwebs, this shiny bauble from Making Light:

Anonymous nastiness is easy to write, and will always find an appreciative audience. I don’t care. It’s not a manifestation of the free and open discourse of the internet; it’s a thing that destroys that discourse. To be specific, it’s the same old trashmouthed bullying we all know from junior high and high school. Putting it on the net doesn’t cause it to develop any novel complexities or interesting emergent behaviors. It’s just the same old sh*t.

If you have a weblog or live journal, or you administer a website that has comment threads, stand up for yourself and your readers. The jerks are never going to like you, or praise you, or admit that you’re doing the right thing. And if you’re waiting for someone to give you permission to suppress and thereafter ignore malfeasants, you have it right now. If you want, I’ll make up a certificate. Go forth and civilize.

Mostly in reference to the recent calls for civility from Tim O'Reilly, a man who convinced the world to produce free content for him to drive his investment capital business, and Jimmy Wales, best known for creating the foundations for the largest repository of questionable information ever assembled.

Simple Truths

It disturbs me how frequently Tycho over at Penny Arcade will perfectly and unexpectedly articulate some deep thought rumbling deep within my own musings.

People seem to think that by posting in threads and agreeing with other people they are changing the world. They are not. They are posting in threads online. The universe will not be altered by forum threads, even those which are very wry. Being outraged online is a form of entertainment, and refreshing a thread to receive a hit of consensus packs the thrill of genuine activism without requiring any sweat. I'm afraid this test may require more from the community than a sardonic jpeg.

Similarly, James Wolcott has a comment on the futility of the vox populi or, more frequently, the vox cognoscenti.

Oh god, not another national dialogue... National dialogues are a wordy ritual doomed to rhetorical stalemate and eventual exhaustion, since so few minds are ever changed;--a pretext for the usual roundup of pundits and thumbsuckers to leap aboard a moving controversy and hijack the stagecoach for their own purposes.

It is my sober and sacred duty to bring you these gems of wisdom as they surface amidst the shifting sands of the Innerwebs.

More Love for Tycho

Today's Penny Arcade:

Entitled "Moral Kombat," the trailer for it is mostly a sensationalist sort of hook whose urgent piano strains to convey the unrelenting danger of the coming Cyber Game War.
--
I haven't seen it, though I would love to. We did, however, approach their trailer with our characteristic scorn as is required of us by the Penny Arcade Charter. There's a lot of strange quotes and received wisdom I don't especially have any use for, and to dredge up that fruity "9/11 Terrorists Trained On MS Flight Simulator" stuff to score rhetorical points in a completely unrelated discussion is (I have chosen to be polite) weak sauce. You'd better have a Goddamn good reason for invoking that day, and "so I can sound like a smart motherfucker on the teevee" ain't gonna cut it.

A sentiment that I have been harboring, like a falsely-accused fugitive from the law, for some time now.

Public Service Announcement III

Touchdown, Cynics

James Wolcott, in discussing the Frey-Oprah book flap, says a few things that needed to be said about dime-store sap.

I'm just automatically suspicious of every tale of woe that's peddled as a tale of redemption. The whole concept of redemption seems fishy to me, another form of sentimentality.

Americans love a born-again hero. It's almost pathological - the romanticization of the fallen seeking forgiveness. It pervades every element of our culture, from religious texts to secular psychotherapy to every branch of our literary heritage. Trite, easy to digest, and just as easy to fake.

Wikisdom

Some days, I love Tycho so much it hurts me inside:

Reponses to criticism of Wikipedia go something like this: the first is usually a paean to that pure democracy which is the project's noble fundament. If I don't like it, why don't I go edit it myself? To which I reply: because I don't have time to babysit the Internet. Hardly anyone does. If they do, it isn't exactly a compliment.

Any persistent idiot can obliterate your contributions. The fact of the matter is that all sources of information are not of equal value, and I don't know how or when it became impolitic to suggest it. In opposition to the spirit of Wikipedia, I believe there is such a thing as expertise.

The second response is: the collaborative nature of the apparatus means that the right data tends to emerge, ultimately, even if there is turmoil temporarily as dichotomous viewpoints violently intersect. To which I reply: that does not inspire confidence. In fact, it makes the whole effort even more ridiculous. What you've proposed is a kind of quantum encyclopedia, where genuine data both exists and doesn't exist depending on the precise moment I rely upon your discordant fucking mob for my information.

Ideology with Fries

I just realized something.

Free-market Capitalism is pouring your ketchup directly on your fries. Some get nothing, but the lucky ones on top get a huge, disgusting dose.

Socialism is putting your ketchup on the side. Everybody gets a little, but you leave a lot of ketchup stuck to the plate.

Found Wisdom

In lieu of any semblance of quality updates recently, here is a

Quote of the Day

There is a natural tendency to think that all opinions have some validity, and, by carefully plotting a conservative course somewhere between two representative arguments, you can make a serviceable approximation to something you could call “truth”. This is an admirable impulse, and often a constructive one, except if one (or both) of the positions is horseshit. Then, you’re fucked.

-The Poor Man

The Wisdom of Warren

Mostly through Jason's influence (because my own reading habits are notoriously narrow unless acted upon by an outside force), I've become a fair-weather fan of Warren Ellis. He has some interesting thoughts on the lessons of Cabaret, re: Marilyn Manson's recent angsty references to it as nihilistic outsiderism.

The lesson of the 1930s is that, in a time of encroaching conservatism and creeping repression, the correct response is not to flush your fucking spine down the toilet.

Read the article. It's good.

Also have a look at this Brainpowered article from a while back.