Son, You’re On Your Own……

It seems to be a particular mindset that will create a problem and then just shrug it off as something that no one can do anything about. Our latest example of this seems to be Twitter insiders saying that they are powerless to control the beast they have unleased. More to the point, Twitter, as it stands now is no longer able to protect users from trolling, state-coordinated disinformation and child sexual exploitation. Like Mr. Bounderby in Hard Times, he is constantly undone that people keep getting stuck in his machines, loosing fingers or more, and slowing down the entire process of progress. To Bounderby, workers were know as hands, there to do the company’s business. Now we are reduced to users, influencers or even eyes on clicks. Not humans but only servants to the lords of industry. Oddly enough, the English and Europeans have taken the lead in regulation internet safety and protections. We have created a beast and who are we to try to tame it?  Even as the U.S. Department of Labor has seen a 69%  increase in children being employed illegally by companies, no one seems to be able to do anything. Its just too expensive to save them.  Corporations would be wring their hands but they need them free to count the money. As the pastor Blazing Saddles says in the face of conflict, “You’re on your own”.

 

 

We are living in a content world

In his book, “Toward a New Architecture” Le Corbusier declared “A house is a machine for living“. We know things change and these days it seems a house is a machine for content. We became aware of this while flipping through a copy of the coffee table book detailing the history of the Barbie Dreamhouse. Barbie got her first dreamhouse in 1962, more than a decade before women were allowed to attend an Ivy League university, open a bank account or take out a mortgage without a male co-sign in the US. Perhaps then a house was just a house (or home). Her most recent house, launched in 2021 is based on the model of a  “Content House” a house where influencers band together to create content for social media  living in a place where members can tag each other in their content, expanding their audience and playing off one another’s popularity to gain more popularity on their chosen platforms. Not just a house but a Warhol like factory for content, a place to be seen perchance to influence. But then why should a house be only a house? We now expect everything to do double duty and have added value if not value in terms of  financial capital than value to our social capital. Even college students are looking for brand name colleges – not even a college is just a college any more. After a content house, is a content college or content life far behind?

A forgivable digression. While writing about houses our mind wanders to the still sore loss of American composer, songwriter, record producer, and pianist, Burt Bacharach and his 1967 rendition of A House is Not A Home. Thank you Burt- You will be missed.