Earlier today a friend and I were conversing over the phone. Trotsky, You remember him. From the old days, when I used to post in the Diaries almost daily. Yeah we’re still getting on. He’s a brother. Still far left of the farthest left. A lot of times I just let him call and vent. Can’t say I mind. I usually learn something. Plus it’s the decent thing to do. At first we were talking about how fucked up the Bill and Hilary tour recently sponsored by Live Nation was, how no one ended up showing up in LA and they ended up cancelling it. Then the latest Woodstock got cancelled, which he was happy about. Remember, he grew up there. Doesn’t like seeing co-opted for profit and turned into just another hippie fest copy of a hippie fest copy.
Eventually we start talking about what the hell the current zeitgeist even is, and why people would feel the need to put on yet another Woodstock now… As opposed to something more modern and current. I reminded him that there’s actually a pretty decent music festival scene going on right now, like Coachella. It’s not like we “needed” another Woodstock. Which is probably why it got cancelled. But still that question lingered. Just what is the current zeitgeist? Especially creatively. IS there one?
I brought up Netflix and Instagram. As probably the best indicators of what the current zeitgeist of the times is…. At least they’re search lights. In the book We Are the Revolution, back in ’06, where I talk about the coming Age of Personal Expression, I predict this mass rush toward fame and being seen and heard just to be seen and heard that would be coming. Instagram and Facebook and Twitter pretty much enabled and encouraged that. To the point now where it’s cooler to not be a part of it than be a part of it. (I’ve been calling that “The Rush To Privacy” in the past few years… Saw it coming…) But it’s not like we’ve transitioned out of the PErsonal Expression Age yet. WE’re still knee deep in it if you ask me. More than ever. And yeah I do believe we still have a chance of creating some real revolutions from it — as opposed to just creating a bunch of dopey followers and trolls and wannabe pseudo-influencers from it. I know that’s what it appears like at the moment… But there’s still time for real revolution. I sincerely believe that.
Perhaps what we saw in the Donald Trump movement — that did by the way totally demolish and revolutionize the republican party — was real revolution. For some it was at least. If you were on that side of the spectrum. It did have all the markers of it. And perhaps what we’re currently seeing in the democratic party now, with Hilary being ousted for more radical unknown lefties is another form of real revolution. Hope so. More than anything I just hope it leads to real changes. Measurable changes. Positive changes. Lasting changes. That’s what’s important. Revolution for the sheer sake of it is Leninism. It leads to nothing but death and destruction. With no helping. Cuba.
