[microsound] points, dots etc.

[Kim Cascone <kim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>>>> if free markets are so great, why does america lead the world in  
>>>> per
>>>> capita prison population? in obesity? in weapons sales?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> How the HELL do any of those have ANYTHING do to with  MYSPACE?
>>>
>>
>> oh my goodness...go read Adorno and Gramsci!!!
>
> Oh my goodness, I've read a metric shitload on the subject.
to be brutally honest here: it doesn't sound like you have any  
background whatsoever in Marxist theory or anti-capitalist philosophy...

especially, since you ask me to draw the (obvious) connections  
between how capitalist superpowers foster compulsive consumer  
behaviors via advertising...

and do I really need to spell out how the myth of free-markets has  
been hoisted on you/sold to you in order to keep you buying into the  
american dream i.e., upward mobility of the lower classes in  
capitalist society?...it's an illusion; a cruel hoax that keeps  
americans thinking they're entitled to 'moving up' and while doing so  
selling their labor with little protection from exploitation while at  
the same time consuming the worlds resources at a much greater rate  
than most other countries combined...
and all this happens without us ever questioning what the impact of  
that upward class movement might have on the rest of the world...case  
in point: WAL-MART...i.e., affordable goods (mostly) made in China  
for the lower classes in the USA...you can look and feel just like  
the upper classes by having the same crap they do -- at a fraction of  
the cost!

and please don't ask what that has to do with marketing/data mining  
operations like MySpace and AOL and other places where the owners  
care little to nothing about innovation or building  
communities...they just want your free labor and constantly invent  
ways to get it from you while they make you smile...your 15 minutes  
of fame on MySpace = someone else's lack/misery somewhere in the  
world no matter how many degrees of separation there might be...

and someone made a very good point about CD distro and credit cards  
etc...yes, this can also be said of playing any part in a capitalist  
society - but at least some of us try to explore options that might  
be available to us as consumers...and I know that anything I buy  
*always* embodies someone's surplus labor...especially, if it was  
made in a poorer part of the world...but I digress and that could be  
an entire post in itself...

you want to put up a site on MySpace and be a part of a 'community'?  
fine, that's your right...but don't try to tell me that it is totally  
separate from market manipulation and insidious consumer programming  
by the corporations and that MySpace somehow reflects a free-market  
based on some utopian meritocracy - because at best that is naive -  
at worst its dangerous...

MySpace and others of that ilk are all about uncovering/spotting  
hidden trends so they can profit from them and use the data to  
further hone the marketing machine of popular culture...in other  
words: all the data MySpace collects is used to feed the trend  
analysis algorithms so corporations can better target you as a  
consumer...
especially the youth market...why? so they can sell you more crap you  
don't need...and when you're still living on mommy and daddy's dime  
that is a disposable income they want a chunk of...

we're running towards an Orwellian future without one whit of  
questioning and IMO americans are the worst of the lot...and why we  
have had Gov Bush pretending to be our president for two terms while  
the puppet-masters hide in the background committing acts of violent  
cowardice and gleeful treason which would have resulted in nice long  
prison terms in most other countries: because people are being  
trained not to question things or connect the dots for themselves...

we should be leading the way in provoking people to question, doubt,  
think for themselves, not follow blindly, etc. but what do we do? we  
fill the world with our trash and pollute it with our inane pop  
culture...dunno about you but I want no part of that future...and as  
Derrida (who no doubt is a part of your 'metric shitload') said:  
'there is no future without Marx'...

unfortunately, we don't learn about Marx in grade school; we have no  
streets named after him nor do we have any statues of him in public  
places...so, you won't hear the names of Marx/Engels/Adorno/Gramsci  
et al uttered - without a hushed invocation of the 'red menace', the  
cold war or the 'failure' of communism in Russia - until you hit  
Uni...unless you are lucky enough to have had a latte-sipping,  
birkenstock-wearing, Sartre-reading teacher enlighten you in high  
school...

but look, I've already pointed it out to you - even provided a quote  
from an interesting article on MySpace in WIRED: markets are coerced  
and directed by corporate robber-barons such as Rupert Murdoch...what  
more do I really need to say here?

here are two books you might want pull out of your 'metric shitload'  
and re-read:

guy debord - society of the spectacle
http://www.nothingness.org/SI/debord.html

raoul vaneigem - revolution of everyday life
http://www.nothingness.org/SI/vaneigem.html

more info here:
Situationism:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situationist
http://www.nothingness.org/SI/

those might do a better job of refuting your points than I can...