Month: August 2012

I recently made my first ever Etsy purchase, and my first backing of a Kickstarter Project. The purchase from Etsy was in fact a decal for my computer which reads “This Machine Kills Fascists” (thank you, Suzie Automatic). These things along with the recent Woody Guthrie Centennial and Pete Seeger’s appearance on Stephen Colbert’s “The Colbert Report” got me thinking.
Many are the days I lament the big-box, bigger brand, pre-packaged culture I often find around me. I drive my Volkswagen to work where I do my job for what could be the most recognizable company in the world and sometimes I stop into a Starbucks on the way, wearing my name-brand (though biodegradable) sneakers. The ironies are many, for example, the VW Autogroup is a giant, multinational corporation based in Germany, and yet when I buy one here on Long Island its still called a Volks-Wagen or People-Car. Yes, the car possesses all the straightforward, pragmatic design that the brand is known for all over the world, and yet the name still seems slightly out of place. When I stop into Starbucks, it is the identical, ubiquitous, pocket of sameness known on every corner of the globe as Starbucks. But at one time, that was a unique pocket of radical differentiation. So well honed and carefully considered is my experience at this coffee shop, I’ve come to have almost no experience at all. On a television in the corner, a Budweiser commercial featuring rap artist/ entrepreneur/ professional famous person/ brand/ wristwatch salesman, Jay-Z, speaking what amounts to an excellently conceived (though not so brilliantly written) oratory on why art is vital and important. But it is an AD FOR BUDWEISER, so I do not pay it much attention.

But meanwhile, quietly, there are things happening. And it may be too early yet to say changing, but things are happening, often on the internet (hence the post title). We have this tool in the internet, that could remake culture into the organic thing, where white-haired men with banjos ask everybody to sing along. Kickstarter, Etsy, internet-based payment processors like SquareUp, are opening doors for artists and makers. But I think its more important to think about what these kind of things can do for the world of consumers and our relationships to the things we buy and use. Big budget branding would have us define ourselves by the things we buy. Find the brand that looks like your aspirations and perpetuate an ever longer series of these Starbucks-style non-experiences. Instead we can now reach out and change that relationship to invest again in craftspeople. I have suddenly been reminded that these things can be two way interactions.

So here it is, the guitar and banjo of the 21st century, the new call to listen and call out for the best in those who might not otherwise hear us. I believe we have a unique opportunity for choice, and an opportunity to turn back to the interested and the culturally important. Not by discussing with our friends and family which group of panderers we prefer, but by engaging in new economies and by funding and engaging in new arts. We can broadcast, listen to, and strike conversations on the things that threaten those opportunities, and foster new ones. The banjo that surrounds, the guitar that killed made themselves heard over hate and fascism, but these new machines will listen as well. Think about folk music, folk art, remember its true aggression and righteousness. Remember a man whose voice and musical style almost reminds us of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, emblazoned his guitar with a slogan claiming that it KILLS oppressors. So listen intently, remember to live purposefully, deliberately, do not succumb to the contentment of non-experience. Remember these are two way streets, remember that streets belong to the folks who walk them.