[lbo-talk] Tower Records

[Tayssir John Gabbour]

On 1/4/07, Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu> wrote:
> It seems that entertainment can be just as good opium for the masses as
> religion.  Forget about the traffic, forget about the lack of efficient
> transportation, affordable health care or being one paycheck from
> homelessness, forget about the war, corruption, crime or lack of prospects -
> just put your earphones on and tune in.
>
> As to your downloading music from the net.  There are people who will always
> be looking for new things and those who seldom will - regardless of how easy
> or difficult it is to find it - so I am not trying to blame particular
> individuals or the medium, as your reply seems to suggest.  My point was
> that there is such a thing as too much information, and that can be a bad
> thing for the same reason as trying to find the proverbial needle in a
> haystack.

Well, I'm admittedly one of those iPod-listening bozos. But I load up
with podcasts of talks, not just music.

I like the solidarity of anarchist viewpoints whispering in my ear as
I walk down past all the little corporate secret societies on the
street. Right now I'm listening to the recordings of the "Renewing the
Anarchist Tradition" conferences.

I'd be happy to participate more in society. I'd love the "information
overload" of open corporate books, to peruse like sports stats. I'd
like to pass by someone moving heavy boxes and lend a hand. But it
ain't that kinda participatory society.

If you don't want to completely tune out, you might wear only one
earbud. Or yank both out. Even with both on, you can still hear your
environment. In contrast, I don't know anyone who can read a book with
only one eye.

I do have friends who complain about info overload. But my problem is
the opposite; too much good info is hidden away behind costly books
and DVDs. I don't have the time to go to some fancy university
library, where people are mostly told to keep their mouths shut.

But I do have an internet connection. And there are forums where I can
gain feedback on what I've learned. If it's hard to extract info, I
can build tools to help me sift.

Tayssir