Once again I’ve been roped into “writing something” for the newsletter by our brilliant and youthful staff – and true to form for the old man I am, it’s gonna be a wandering diatribe – and yes also, buy records, buy records, buy records. Not only because my little boy turned one last month and needs to go to college someday, but I’ve also been pondering the idea that going analog might be the right move for all the ailments our world is currently facing.
This theory comes to mind often when I turn off my computer, put down my phone, switch off the TV to hide it from my young son so his brain will develop in a good way. This is the advice of the American Academy of Pediatrics, which says that showing him what we all see everyday all day can stymie a baby’s brain development, including their cognitive abilities and attention spans. I find it dissonant that we all readily consume this thing that we largely agree is really bad for our kids.
Back when I was young it was just TV absorbing our eyeballs, and even then there was plenty of hubbub about how bad it was, with “Kill your TV” scrawled on many walls with Krylon paint. Any wild kid who would find a TV in an alley or whatnot would inevitably smash it. And while there are many critics now of social media, screen time, and the spread of misinformation, there also seems to be a general acceptance that it’s a necessary evil. Kids aren’t smashing computers in alleys these days, they’re trying to get them to work. Even we at Wax Trax are advertising our analog LPs on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. And how would I even get this message to you, if it weren’t for email, since nearly all advertising has abandoned newspapers, magazines and leaflets to make sure every eyeball is counted and tracked with internet and social ads instead. The Rocky Mountain News is gone, the Post is a husk of its old self and even the Westword is great, but gets thinner and thinner as advertising slows down. And with all the insanity we are experiencing in the world and in our own backyard, it seems we are all going to be forced to face how bad the internet has become.
When they created our system of checks and balances, America’s founders clearly understood historian Lord Acton’s maxim: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” But their folly was to trust that Congress’s independence could not be overcome by party forces (they hadn’t even conceived of political parties at that point). And, they could never have foreseen that we would all communicate on vast digital networks that are manipulated and controlled by individuals.There’s nothing in the constitution that says one man can’t control the way we communicate.
I wish I could say Wax Trax was immune from this dilemma we’ve gotten ourselves into. This email was composed and sent on the network controlled by CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai, who sat in the room for Trump’s inauguration, and maybe you found it through the networks of CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who sat three seats over. Or maybe if you don’t like this email, you can shop instead with Mr. Bozo who sat alongside them (did I spell that right?).
And it’s not only about the Oligarchs, it’s also about us all being in the same (if fractured) virtual world that they created. Even just 20 years ago, there was a regionality that allowed people to live different lives in different worlds with different music and food and, if you weren’t behind the iron curtain or under a dictatorship, you could travel between them if where you lived didn’t feel right. It also created places we didn’t like or didn’t feel safe in, but at least we didn’t have to battle it out for the ultimate power over what all the space is gonna be like. Sometimes with much sacrifice, but people could ultimately make safe spaces.
Now, with everyone on social media and the internet, powerful actors can create worlds that target different demographics, and produce vast amounts of disinformation that creates division and a powerful desire to dominate those who disagree. They can set those demographics against each other as a way to maintain power at the top.
What is certain is that we need ways to live, communicate, and organize that are not giving immense power to individuals who will ultimately be corrupted by that power in really ugly ways. Maybe the trend toward our beloved analog records is part of a wider collective intuitive longing to get away from the internet as much as we can? Or maybe not, who knows. But in these wild times I do find myself shying away from all social media, reading books and the news (from actual journalists) instead. Call it a nostalgia for when truth was a thing we all aspired to.
Last week on a walk around the block with my son, we ran into a neighbor on her porch. We talked for a while about everything going on, and about trying to figure out what to do about it. It was a difficult conversation, but it felt right, and it felt powerful to connect with a neighbor on these massive changes going on.
In the old days, conversations like these are where organizing began, and it was a much stronger foundation, and one that can’t be monitored or affected by an algorithm. If our government won’t limit the power of the tech oligarchs and their elected pompadour, then I suppose it’s up to us, organizing in the old grassroots ways. And I guess that also makes watching DVDs, riding a bike, reading newspapers, listening to records, and making calls on flip phones and land lines revolutionary acts? At the very least, it’ll cause a little pain to the oligarchs if we turn our eyes and ears away from their products.
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