Media Outlets

 Ok everyone here is another mad blog topic which has to do with publishing.  And that is the transformation of the meaning of “platform” in recent years.  I could be wrong but I think that “platform” used to refer more to a perspective and background of an author, sometimes even including their story communicated in their work itself.  Now, in some circles, the term is used almost interchangeably with “following,” referring to contacts on facebook or twitter, etc.  I agree that some overlap makes sense and is simply a fact, but mostly I think this conflation reflects slight cheating from the publishing industry, who wants it to go unnoticed that the author has to supply their own publicity now, as well as an aggression from other influencers who see their political and social advantage and want to equate the author’s worth and meaning with popularity. 

 

This leap of reference and the expectation that everyone will go along with it and either won’t notice the difference, won’t acknowledge the change, or just never knew until they were taught this new view of things, has implications that I think could go beyond the impact of books and communication, on into philosophical and religious grounding within this culture and others. It’s just a step in a selling-out process, and could be more dangerous than people realize when truth is up for a vote and majority mob rule has the last word. And that itself is the deception, because it’s not even a matter of having the last word, but a claim that the popularity is the word itself.  Go ahead and stretch that interpretation all the way to people thinking they’re God. It’s not far from the tragedy of a whole industry and profession agreeing on that shortcut together. People can say, oh, selling out, like how your books haven’t sold out so you’re complaining. Maybe, but I don’t know who can read them anyway if people are just going to change the definitions of words and exchange prophets for profits.

The Powers that Were

 Well everyone, this is not really a whole blog post but just a sketch for a post. It has to do with powers that be.  And just that I remember as a kid sometimes my dad or someone would point out something interesting about a product, or a store, or the way things were done, and say an explanation like “they do that because of such and such.” They have the label on the side so you won’t get mixed up with whatever.” The railing is like this because such and such.  And a lot of times it would be something logical and protective.  Like plastic bags being labeled for safety. Then, in the late nineties, someone said something like, “at Bilo they pump a bread smell into the air so people will buy more.” And this was different than some kind of strategy to help people. It was about the cash.  And I guess a lot of stuff was always about the cash, but I think that things have gotten even worse now, where it’s not even about the cash. It is about power, also because of cash, but also just for the power.  Products being unsafe, ingredients not being labeled, power plays, cash register lines with not enough cashiers, music that is too loud, music that is inappropriate, credit card devices that threaten refusal to serve, etc.  Honestly I don’t have great examples for any of it.  That is why I say it is not even a whole blog post, much less an article.  But I know I am right.  And a lot of the people who won’t acknowledge this decline (get it, declined, like your credit card when you don’t match a profile) anyway, I am saying a lot of people who are in denial think they are the ones who are going to be at an advantage as people set up these bad systems, but I think everyone is going to suffer.  Even the ones getting the profit will not have the joy of living in a fair society.  It won’t benefit them either in the long run.  It’s just something I noticed, something that almost seems the same and is probably used to criticize some people who suggest that there has been loss as well as gain in recent decades.  But it is a sign for the logical reasons for things to not be in our favor anymore, in this evil “our.”