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Monday Report
below!
This week's report by Tom Hendricks, ULA
Zombie Nation or Sleeping Giant?
An open letter to Echo Boomers (people born 1982-1995)
Does the letter 'Z" stand for you Echo Boomers, as in 'zzzzzzzzz'
sleeping? Are you the least rebellious generation of all?
No generation in history has been more programmed by
corporate art. But worse than that, none has succumbed to
control of corporate art faster than Echo Boomers. No generation
has abandoned their underground culture more completely or
more quickly than Echo Boomers.
Your generation's music is not played on radio. Your
generation's paintings are not reviewed in mainstream
press.
Your tv shows are MIA. Your writings are not published by
the major publishing houses. And what's your response?
What's that?
What's that, I can't hear you?
Time to change.
The most common response I get from Echo Boomers is this,
"I am not a part of corporate art so why bother." Yet your safe
underground world is shrinking in size. You are awakening to the
fact that you can't run away - there is no place to hide from
corporate art/media/ propaganda. And by insisting that you can,
you are unconsciously abandoning your culture to their corporate
control.
And this corporate control is not a vast conspiracy - it's
mostly a 6 company corporate plan: Disney, Fox, GE, Viacom,
Warners, Bertelsmann!
Time to stop running and hiding from corporate controlled
media and arts.
Time to end the lies that you base your beliefs on. Let's
count them:
1. They, media/art conglomerates control the arts/media
now and always have.
2. They, media/art conglomerates will always control the
arts/media no matter what we do.
3. All art is subjective so we can never criticize them, the
media/art conglomerates.
And popularity, as determined by the media/art
conglomerates, is the only decisive factor of what media/art
deserves recognition and publication.
4. No art is good unless it has big money behind it, the
money that only the media/art conglomerates can provide. Thus
technical excellence, that can only be bought is THE determining
aspect of quality in art.
Now for the truth. Let's go through the list again:
1. The control of the arts/media now is a weird and unusual
anomaly in history. Just because you were born into it, does NOT
mean it was always this way. It was not. It is only in the last few
decades that a handful of conglomerates with their bizarre
money-above-all-else philsophy have gobbled up the
competition in a process they call synergy, a slick word for
monopoly.
2. They will only control the future of arts/media if your
generation allows it.
Note that in the classic novel of mass control, "1984", those
slaves that were born into the state control system were much
more docile than those who were not. You were born into this.
But don't believe for one moment that this mass media control
is permanent.
3. Art is not subjective. That 3rd grade finger painter is not
as good as Rembrandt - honestly! Reasonable people can see and
appreciate that which is great in art and media. And reasonable
people see that talent, hard work, innovation, and all the rest
that talented artists have, is valid and real. No brainwashing
will force them into thinking all art is the same and that anyone's
opinion can take away greatness from great art or add greatness
to poor art.
4. Expensive technical achievements that only a few
companies can afford, can add to the quality of arts, but it is not
necessary. We've had thousands of years of great art that no one
plugged in. For a while we all were enamored by new technology
tricks. Yet we also see its limits. And great art need not be
expensive art. Matter of fact, it seldom is. Only those who
control the expensive technical equipment praise that
technology as necessary.
So, echo boomers, are your eyes more open? Are your
zombie steps starting to be less clunky and more like dancers?
Well here's the good side of this coin. You have the power to
change all of this.
Corporate art/media has an Achilles Heel, a sore spot. It is
that they have no moral compass. They will switch on a dime, to
get a dime. They will go with the money.
And its your money that calls the 'tune'. And here it gets
very exciting!
Echo Boomers, if you collectively said no to corporate
art/media with your dollars, they would change - and change
very quickly - within months if not a year or so. These dinosaur
corps (not an abbreviation this time) move slowly, but when
profits are at stake they move the fastest.
So,
IF YOU collectively said NO with your dollars to their
publishing novels - YOUR zines would be published and reviewed
in mainstream media.
IF YOU collectively said NO with your dollars to their music -
YOUR music would be on mainstream radio and on mainstream tv.
IF YOU collectively said NO with your dollars to their art -
YOUR artists would be the artists that illustrate books, makes
cartoons on tv and film, and are shown in mainstream galleries.
IF YOU collectively said NO with your dollars - YOUR theater
would be on broadway.
IF YOU collectively said NO with your dollars - YOUR film
would be in mainstream theaters across the country.
IF YOU collectively said NO to their architecture, dance,etc.-
YOUR architecture, and dance programs, would be the
mainstream across the country
IF YOU collectively said NO with your dollars to their
mainstream media - YOUR media would be the mainstream, and
issues that you think are important would be the issues of the
day.
IF you are the best artist of your generation, shouldn't your
generation know it?
And if the powers that be purposely block your generation -
in what is clearly cultural genecide - destruction of an entire
generation's culture - then shouldn't you oppose that?
Rise up from your lethargy. See that your generation doesn't
have to walk the walk of zombies. Instead your generation, the
Echo Generation, can allow your culture to shine - all the other
generations before you have.
IT'S YOUR TURN - DON'T TURN IT DOWN.
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Tom Hendricks publishes the zine Musea. He has two cd's for
sale, "30" and "NEXT." Check his music site, www.hunkasaurus.
com, for more information...
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