The Oil Drum

76 comments on Resource Depletion, Persuasion, and the Ongoing World Meme

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writerman on October 27, 2007 - 2:46am

And probably the most disturbing thing about this piece is that since the 30's things have actually gotten worse. The concentration of media power has accelerated, espcially in the last twenty years. The 1930's almost seems like a 'golden age' of ownership diversity! I read the other day that the FCC was considering 'relaxing' the restrictions on concentration even further. The way we're going in a relatively short space of time over 90% of the US media will be controlled by just three giant corporations who 'co-opperate'.

One can also look at the negative cultural effect all this has on American music. There's so much great music that never gets played or heard, because the formats are so proscribed and controlled. These days many of the iconic and groundbreaking bands from the sixties would never get played because they don't conform to the station's format. These 'monopolies' are strangling American music culture, and that's a shame.

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airdale on October 27, 2007 - 7:22am

Writerman,

Your right man.

So my response is to find that music on the FM radio as 'Golden Oldies' and of course zero 'news' on that station or just a very little.

That music however just doesn't seem to want to 'fade'. Its far too good to do so. Yet mainstream America doesn't listen to it...one wonders just what the hell they do listen to?

I think nothing ...except the incipient(correct word?)..cellphone stuck to their ears and the ubiquitous TV.

My wife was enchanted and enthralled by the 'infomercials' on TV..she thought they were honest folks who knew everything. I suppose to her Ron Popeil was a visionary.

For her generation(the one after mine) she was totally hooked and never could squirm off. It seemed to feed some part of her brainstem, some imperative to just 'listen' to this quakery. And then of course "Go Shopping"....

I never did understand this behavior in her. Perhaps why I live more or less alone sans TV..but lots of sound and music..bluegrass primarily and some favorites from my youth...music that really spoke to the inner person..and not just advertising trash.

To this day my wife hears it on TV..to her its gospel!
She never really was able to read either fiction or non-fiction..her parents had wired her brain backwards I think. My daughter ditto...even if she is a school teacher...my son the same..even if he is a CPA and has a MA in accountancy...they are wired far different than myself...not a boomer. Yet my wife's father was never in the military!