In 1999 during an interview with Wolf Blitzer, Al Gore said “During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet.”. During the presidential campaign this became the media meme “Al Gore thinks he invented the internet”, a notion that if true was preposterously self aggrandizing and for many it was proof enough that all politicians wear the same stripes. Al Gore or George W. Bush, makes no difference. 15 years later, after a few (or many) waterboardings, rectal feedings, an announcement that “we tortured a few folks”, and an unfuckingbelievable debate by the “serious” voices in the same media that helped turn the tide against Al Gore about whether or not torture was worth it, we know that it actually makes a big fucking difference.
Al Gore’s problem was that he wasn’t a rock star, we didn’t like his wife, and he generally seemed uncomfortable. The Left said he was self serving, entitled, aristocratic, and certainly no better than the idiot from Texas. Even though he was a champion of environmental issues, even though the Internet Hall of Fame now says of Al Gore, “Instrumental in helping to create the “Information Superhighway,” Gore was one of the first government officials to recognize that the Internet’s impact could reach beyond academia to fuel educational and economic growth as well.” Al Gore’s awkwardness cost him the presidency, and the Senate Torture Report shows just how much we are still paying for our distrust.
In Jerzy Kosinski’s “The Painted Bird” set in the horrifically violent countryside of Eastern Europe during World War II, the narrator describes a folksy game where villagers would catch a bird and paint its feathers bright colors and then release it back to its flock who would tear the painted bird to pieces not recognizing it as one of their own. The metaphorical painted bird is still our favorite past time. Sometimes it is crude and obvious like the religious conservative battling against the 21st century. Just as often though, it is us. The pretty smart, pretty enlightened, pretty kind whenever possible, but too overwhelmed by information and frustration to really dig into the facts behind the outrage. When you don’t have time for, or even access to the information that will lead you to the truth you go with the gut. Does this bird look like me? Does Taylor Swift look like us? No. Fuck that rich, entitled bitch, she is just in it for the money, I hate her music. This is also why we can simultaneously condemn Amanda Palmer for raising a million dollars on Kickstarter and then asking for volunteer musicians to perform on her tour (the greedy bitch), and Pampelmoose for being self-entitled, whiny brats for losing money on a tour in part because they paid their musicians (idiots) or because they developed a platform for getting paid for their millions of Youtube views (1 million Youtube plays = $1750). The single most important “fact” about these people is “I hate their music”,“it is not art” (because $$),”I hate those people” (they are not us). It does not matter if Amanda Palmer actually spent a million bucks making fancy bits of art to send to her Kickstarter supporters. It doesn’t matter if touring is actually really expensive and certainly not a way musicians can support themselves while building a career. It doesn’t matter that Taylor Swift is using her significant market power to confront a music delivery business model that shows no evidence that it will work for musicians, even at maturity. It doesn’t matter that Al Gore never said that he invented the internet, or even that he actually played an instrumental role in making it was it is today (or was before Comcast bought it). What matters is that they are showing colors that disturb the flock, and thanks to the internet we have no shortage of opportunities to attack with no need for any fact beyond, they are not us.
In our society, artists are something like a domesticated painted bird. We tolerate and admire them for their difference and willingness to stand on the outside, but that domestication has its rules and one of them is that artists work for the love of art and only cheap imitations (who need to be torn to pieces) do it for the money. The truth is, we all do it for the money. We do it so we can keep doing it, because unfortunately being a domesticated painted bird doesn’t include room and board. Think about this. Since 1999 (when Al Gore invented the internet) music industry revenue from album sales, downloads and streams has declined from $15 billion to around $7 billion, and it’s still falling. Major labels aside, that translates to a lot of working class musicians becoming part time musicians with a day job. According to the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics there are 45% fewer professional musicians today than there were in 2002. This brutal economic scenario is true for both the musicians you like, and the ones you do not.
So before you dismiss those who are opening up about what goes on behind the curtain, think about the difference between what you really “know” about them and what you “feel” about them. Keep in mind that while the same machine that helped bring down the alternative to President George Bush is feeding the outrage about greedy, whining musicians, Google is still making mad money selling advertising on piracy sites and is in fierce competition with Wall Street over who has the slickest revolving door with the US Government and its regulatory agencies.
