Richard Metzger: Ten years ago
In honor of my dear friend Richard Metzger's stint as a BB guestblogger beginning today, I dug up this link to a Wired interview I did with Richard that was published exactly 10 years ago this month. Wow, time sure flies when we're having fun. From the interview, titled "Live From Bedlam":
Wired: Information wants to be free, but does it want to be true?Richard Metzger: Live From Bedlam
Metzger: All information is from questionable sources. In the marketplace of ideas, what value does falsehood have once it's exposed?...
So what's behind the growing public fixation on the fringe? Ten years ago all of this would have been so marginal. As we become more technologically advanced, we move further away from anything real, any real ecstatic religious experiences or gnosis. People are freaking out because they see Jerry Springer's white-trash crack whores on TV and schoolkids ambushing classmates with Uzis. How much more fucked up can things get? It's apocalypse from now on. People realize that the line they've been sold, the American Dream, is over - they want, if not an explanation, then at least someone to blame...
Can the "underground" survive in an age when it's co-opted almost instantly?
The best thing that could possibly happen to the underground is that it becomes overground - to see kids picking up Noam Chomsky and hearing Jello Biafra instead of just Stephen King and Weezer.
the latest
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"At the basest level, we're going to hell in a handbasket, fast, and I'm just commenting on the slide into oblivion - well, rubbing people's noses in it, and trying to make an honest buck in the process."
This is exactly what I've been told by my church and religious friends and family. I'm pretty sure people have been saying this since well before I was born. I realize Metzger was talking about a totally different kind of Hell, but it may as well be the same thing.
I suppose my tendency to ignore, or overlook signs of bad things to come - aka the total breakdown of our economy and the normalcy that most Americans take for granted, makes me an optimist. Though to Metzger it probably makes me an idiot. I don't care - I intend to go through life with my fingers crossed, my rose tinted glasses firmly in place, at least until something really substantial forces me to act. As for now, my family and I are on top of the world - couldn't be happier. When and if there is something I can do to slow our slide into oblivion, I'll do what I can, until then, I refuse to let it break my good mood and rosy outlook on life.
I'll have what he's having.
I disagree. Jello Biafra sucks, and Weezer is a fantastic band.
#2 - Just follow the directions given in the linked video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjnvSQuv-H4
Wikipedia on Jello Biafra: "He is a self-identified anarchist who advocates civil disobedience, direct action, culture jamming and pranksterism in the name of political change."
That's a bad thing, right? Now, I admit, I read the Anarchist's Cookbook and Poor Man's James Bond just as many of you have. But, that stuff is just for blowing up a pain in the ass neighbor's mailbox right? When you talk about promoting anarchism as it is defined, along with civil disobedience, you're wading into dangerous waters. A celebrity that promotes anarchism is being irresponsible. He might not be pulling the trigger, or loading a truck with explosives, but if he influences someone else to do the same, he's just as guilty imo.
Noam Chomsky is overrated.
That's a bad thing, right?
No.
Jello Biafra is best taken with the rest of the DK's, too bad that ain't how it happens these days
Funny, back when DK was popular, I assumed they were like The Dead Milkmen - just another fun punk band.
The Dead Milkmen - Smokin Banana Peels
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVkD0RKAjt8
Whenever I see "Information wants to be free" I'm reminded of an alternate interpretation that I heard one time (I believe it was on Metafilter, but my GoogleFu is falling short of finding an actual attribution).
Information doesn't want to be free. Information wants to have sex, and it's doing its damnedest to turn your brain into a giant genital.
When viewed under that lens, infotainment and conspiracy theories are just viable reproduction strategies in low signal-to-noise environments.
If someone hasn't registered the name "giant genital" on here yet, I'm pretty sure they will shortly.
Are we nearly there yet? Ten years is a long time to wait.
As #1, Tom Hale, said- people have been saying this for literally thousands of years, yet we're still here.
The underground being co-opted by the capitalist system is terribly tempting. If all the underground could get above-ground, and stay there for a while, then I could actually live off my artwork rather than slaving for a commercial enterprise.
I disagree that we're going to hell in a handbasket. I think that all these things that are happening are, in the end, a result of changing times, and we're in transition, to come out the other side as who-knows-what.
Also, don't forget the Singularity. What is hell now may just be the first stages of the end of history, but in a good way.
"In the marketplace of ideas, what value does falsehood have once it's exposed?..."
Tru dat, except that too often, "falsehood" is open to interpretation.
Wait, TonyLine... Are you proposing? You know I'm married, right? Although, with the price of platinum what it is, we were thinking of trading in our rings.
Even after falsehood is exposed, too often it makes people believe the lies even more.
ask anyone in the street if Iraq had WMDs
to see kids picking up Noam Chomsky
Ugh, they'd be better off reading Stephen King.
And exactly how much Chomsky have you read, 1UpMushroom?