Alt.Hymn.Quiet.Version

As much as I wish to avoid being seen as one of those jackasses who quotes the Simpsons at every possible chance, I want to elaborate on my thoughts on the blogs, as well as the article on alternative media with this:

"Marge, I agree with you-- in theory. In theory, communism works. In theory."

While empowering these alternative media sources sounds like a good idea, there's a little idiom that happens to be very unfortunately true about things like this: power corrupts. Now, I'm not saying that by gaining in power, alternative media lose grasp on their values (though I did just re-watch Citizen Kane for 314, and that movie seems to show exactly that), but historically speaking, power corrupts.

Let's take Mr. Simpson's example. I won't bore you all with the history of Russia, since you probably already know it, but here's a long-story-short version. There was this big revolution in Russia about a century ago where they overthrew the czar, and everyone wanted the place to be communist, because, in theory, communism works. In theory. But of course, when they came to power, there was this one guy named Stalin who was a real sick sonofabitch and ruined it for everyone. Seventy-five years later, the flimsy, well-conceived, poorly-executed nation collapsed under its own weight.

Er... by which I mean Ronald Reagan defeated communism. Ronald Reagan brought an end to that mess. By himself. With no-one's help.

Or how about Charles Foster Kane, who came into a great deal of money, decided to run a small advocacy newspaper out of a ramshackle building in New York and as it became a national network of papers, oversaw its tragic descent into a libelous, self-promoting rag. So, Chuckie built himself a decadent palace to prove to himself that he was worth a damn, and died a lonely old man who just wanted to go sledding.

Another example is the Disney company, which was founded as a place for artists and animators and idea people in general to tell stories. Walt used to say that the difference between his studio and the rest of Hollwood is that "They make movies to make more money. We make money to make more movies." That's paraphrasing. In 1990 or thereabouts, after Michael Eisner had taken over the company and begun transforming it into a media supercorporation, he put out a now famous memo that said "We are not here to make art. We are not here to make history. The purpose of this and any other company is and always has been to make a profit." Again, paraphrasing. So, the studio that used to be for preserving the ideals of the artist became the prototypical evil corporation.

Oh, and speaking of evil corporations, that McLibel site is "Corporate Hate?" Hate? Their "issues" page shows that they're trying to preserve truth in advertising, provide nutritional facts, defend the environment, preserve animal rights, and promote fair employment. Sounds real hateful to me.

In completely unrelated news... well, not completely. It is digital, it is media, and it is RTF. This is my 318 Audio project. It's complete bullshit, but my TA recommended I try "more difficult subject matter" than what I did with my slide project, so here it is.

posted by Baylor at 12:06 PM