Friday, July 20, 2001

ELMER AND 'FUD': Yr. ob'd't c'r's'p'n'd't recently saw the classic 1960 film Elmer Gantry, based on the even-more-classic 1927 Sinclair Lewis novel of corruption and hypocrisy in the heartland.

I was struck by the film's remarkable willingness, for a Hollywood product of its time, to maturely handle its topic (though it was still considerably toned down from the novel's even harsher anti-hypocrisy message.) And, yes, I was pleasantly shocked to see Shirley Jones, Mom Partridge herself, as a hooker w/a heart-O-gold.

But I was even more astounded at the story's lessons for today's Netculture.

In the film, Jean Simmons's revival-preacher character is wowed by Burt Lancaster's smooth-salesman title character into turning her ministry into a cash-generating circus, only to lose everything as his snake-oil ways catch up with him and destroy her life's work.

So must the online community (those of us, that is, who've worked to make a real community out of online communication) must now work to rebuild our battered tents and broken pews after the invasion by, and subsequent comeuppance of, the IPO gang.

In the movie, Simmons's character is destroyed in a church fire (caused indirectly by Elmer's having convinced town leaders to let him ignore building codes), while Elmer soldiers on to new scams. Can the human-scale Internet avoid such a metaphorical fate?

Commentator Dave Winer, whom we've mentioned here previously, likes to use the acronym "FUD" (for "fear, uncertainty, and doubt") to describe the rhetorical hype mechanisms by which certain big companies try to control the medium's future.

Companies accomplish FUD by convincing other companies and end users that, for instance, the Microsoft agenda will inevitably prevail, and hence that any technology or business model contadicting the MS agenda (Java, Linux, Macintosh, Netscape, RealAudio, open-source software, or cross-platform Net-based applications), and anyone attempting to use it, is doomed to the eternal damnation of techno-obscelescence.

But FUD doesn't have to be deliberately spread by someone with an unterior motive. It can thrive on its own power. Folks in the tech-biz can get caught up into it on their own.

Companies can be be-FUD-dled into believing they'll never make it unless they Get Big Fast, or that they'll lose the "mindshare" wars unless they spend megabucks on hi-profile brand advertising, or that they won't get or keep an A-list staff unless they pour more megabucks into perks for executives and other "key" personnel.

Hundreds of companies were so be-FUD-dled in these ways that they put everything they had and more into business practices any sane person could see were faulty. Many of these companies are no longer with us, burned up in fiscal disasters of their own making.

Those of us who have, thus far, survived the tech-biz equivalent of a trial by fire should consider ourselves duly chastized and inspired to follow the true faith of changing the world.

(This article's permanent link.)

posted by clark 1:41 AM

Wednesday, July 18, 2001

ELSEWHERE:

A critic lists the "Top 50 Cliches of the Art World."

"Why Whites Think Blacks Have No Problems."

Longtime tech-biz observer Adam Engst has some inside insights about the Internet grocery biz in "Where Webvan Went Wrong."

posted by clark 10:58 PM

TEACHERS PETTING: As a former Marysville middle-school boy, I paid particular attention to the case of a teacher lady who lived in Marysville (but worked in nearby Mukilteo).

Second-grade teacher Susan Lemery, 37, was arrested in late June. She was charged with having sex with one 14-year-old boy and fondling another. Both alleged partners are friends of her own teenage son.

I can assure you I had no specific private fantasies about any of my instructors during my years of tender budding manhood. But it's easy to imagine that I could have, given the right circumstances and the right instructor. Cross-generational desire (in both directions, and among all gender-persuasions) is one of the perfectly natural sexual occurrances. Countless adolescents have dreamed of the experienced awakener who would gently guide them toward intimate awakening. Countless grownups have yearned for the fresh-faced plaything who would help them recapture their lost youth.

But once reality sets in, there are all sorts of power and control games going on; particularly if the boy or girl is emotionally malleable and manipulable (as so many boys and girls that age are).

Even harsher power and control games begin once a relationship of this sort becomes public knowledge, as a community's well-meaning adults rush in to proclaim their outrage and cry for strict punishment and social control mechanisms to prevent any future such abuses of power.

And thus it will always be in America, unless by some miracle American adults learn to be more grown up.

By that, I mean that we collectively accept that all these desires exist and learn to exist with them; concocting wholesome and supportive ways for these fantasies to be addressed, without turning any real-life kids into commodities or stunting their emotional growth.

And no, I don't know what that would be. But it would start with the acceptance and understanding of human nature, not its inhibition or suppression.

(This article's permanent link)

posted by clark 4:59 PM

PRINT PROGRESS: The luscious new MISC print publication is progressing amazingly. (Except for ad sales--if you've got a small business or just something to sell, email for the pertinent particulars on the investment opportunity of a lifetime or at least of a half-life). We're getting 11 great pieces of writing and art from some of Seattle's wryest writers, in addition to a score of my own little pieces. Art director Sean Hurley is finishing up some smashing illos. It should all be ready on 8/1; to be followed by the second issue the third week of Oct. Subscribe now to make sure you get yours.

BUMPER STICKER OF THE MONTH: "Re-elect Gore 2004."

posted by clark 12:20 AM

Sunday, July 15, 2001

SPECIOUS SPECIES: That "natural" cigarette which so many young-adult hipsters mistakenly believe to be "good for you" has been putting out back-of-the-pack promo cards honoring "America's Endangered." All the pictures depict birds, animals, fishes, etc. As far as I've been able to determine, none depict or represent that real endangered species, the cigs' own consumers.

posted by clark 11:34 PM

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