...on the future past

..or book report on all tomorrow's parties

so the bastard hasn't actually finished the book but i came across a fascinating observation about the future of popular culture as we know it. the quote goes as follows:

>>alternate subcultures. they were a crucial aspect of industrial civilization in the previous two centuries. they were where the industrial civilization went to dream. A sort of unconscious R & D, exploring alternate societal strategies.<<

>>but they became extinct<<

>>we started picking them before they could ripen. a certain crucial growing period was lost, as marketing evolved and the mechanisms of recommodification became quicker, more rapacious. Authentic subcultures required backwaters and, there are no more backwaters<<

that is to say, the bastard spent a bit of time looking at the marketing of subcultures. this is just one of a series of observations the bastard has found in his reading about the fact that there are no original ideas anymore and apparently marketing has done its fair share to help this along into the entropy. you see, everything and i mean everything is marketable and don't you even try to think otherwise. it's just a fact of life. unless you plan on getting off of the grid, there's no getting around it. accept it. be aware of it and pick when you're going to fight it on your terms. sure one could argue that starbucks is evil corporate shilling but they make a decent cup of coffee and their everywhere. sure you could go to the diner but that coffee sucks. you could go out of your way to avoid name brands but at the end of the day, we all compromise on something on some level. wait the bastard is getting off message. pop culture dying. murderred by marketing. pass the coffee please.

—the bastard