I can already hear your arguments and thoughts saying that oh man are there people who still actually buy records? Let me tell you this post is not intended to discuss formats like vinyl vs. Spotify or paper books vs. Kindle etc...I enjoy those new formats as much as anyone and appreciate their advantages over some conventional formats. I would never judge the usage of various formats as long as they are properly done. If you want to read a book on Kindle, that's perfectly fine...
What I really want to express is that the general population and especially the younger generations are being pulled away from some basic elements that make up, I hate this definition but, an intellectual human being. They are being guided into some pre-designed boxes where all types of control (i.e. political, commercial and behavioral) are much easier, cheaper and most importantly standardized.
Of course there are exceptions and I am happy to observe that these exceptional people can achieve much better than the generations before them did on an individual basis. I believe this type of success is a pure result of that individual's cultural loneliness or alienation from his/her environment and I am sure that even this type achievements will start to fade away in the future.
What I cannot understand is how will the younger generations will enjoy life and culturally nourish in such a monophonic environment? Another sad thing I observe is that these generations generally do not have one single hobby. They are not even aware what a hobby is. When I ask young people what their hobbies are, the most common answer I get is "playing video games". There might be some people who are involved in video games at a hobbyist level but most people confuse pastime and hobby. A hobby is something that cannot only serve to make time pass agreeably, it needs at least some basic effort, except your fingers... I meet people saying that listening to music is their favorite hobby and what they only do is turn on the radio. In my opinion this is not listening to music but rather hearing some music. In this sense one can argue that there is not even one human being in the whole 7 billion world that listening to music is their hobby.
But whose fault is it? Is it only the final consumer of culture? Is it the politicians and governments? Is it the education system? Is it the older generations?
I believe it is a collective and an intentional effort. Unfortunately where the world is being carried to is quite a dull place for the general population and interestingly this process is being conducted by the most creative minds via using really high technology. We are all surrounded by our smart phones which we replace at the core of our lives and TV stations that can tie you to a La-Z-Boy feeding you with shows they want you to watch. There is an abundance of material but we never enjoy anything anymore like we did with our portable cassette players or black and white TV sets. We don't get to choose (which requires certain level of effort) but we rather try to catch everything that's on the market.
I obviously do not know how to overcome this very serious situation but I truly believe that with focusing on art and culture we can at least alleviate its personal impacts. In today's hectic and cruel world we need to embrace artistic things that would culturally and mentally enrich our inner selves. We need to hang on to our hobbies, support its supporters and do not let anything to take them away from us.
"Bella Ciao" by Tom Waits & Marc Ribot
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