ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE FOR BABY BOOMERS!

ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE FOR BABY #BOOMERS!

Kid Rock, in an interview with Piers Morgan on CNN stated, “I shake my finger at “The Boomers;” for the damage they have done.” Today’s headlines produce yet another deliberate defamation of Boomers: “Aging Boomers Strain Cities Built For The Young.” (Who built these cities?!!!)

Given the economic strife and the political turmoil that exist in our nation today, these types of headlines and scare tactics can lead to only one “final solution”...and it didn't turn out so very well the last time. Discriminatory and inflammatory headlines need to be addressed; they cannot be permitted to go unchallenged.

Over the past fifty years, boomers built this nation...they accepted the reigns and the responsibility from their parents who were known as “The Great Generation.” The infrastructure that we have today is a consequence of their blood, sweat and tears.

Boomers were also hustled off to fight for our nation…except that it wasn't by choice and they didn’t get to come home to parades of honor. When being discharged from active duty, we were “advised” to travel home in “civies” since our #servicemen were being spat upon by their own countrymen. And so we remained silent. When we did finally go to college, courtesy of a guilt laden GI Bill that was totally inadequate to the task, we realized that we were different from our classmates. We knew it...our lives had been permanently altered. We did our nation's bidding and our nation bid us adieu.

Now, in our senior years, Boomers and boomer #veterans are still being "figuratively" spat upon by a generation molded out of post revisionist history and selective amnesia. Boomers have permitted their “successors” to remain children well into adulthood and thus they lack the skill set and the accumulated wisdom necessary for benevolent despotism.

Those of us whose working lives are behind us find ourselves sinking in the mire of a wealth redistribution. Boomers continue to “give” all that they have worked their entire lives to secure, while that with which they are left is being taken from them.

Boomers should be known as “The Generous Generation.” Their greatest mistake was their magnanimity of prematurely passing on the reigns to “The Greedy Generation or The Entitled Generation”

(What else didn’t you like about the play Mrs. Lincoln?)

SOPA, CMPS, And Other Bad Ideas

STOP THE "STOP ONLINE PIRACY ACT"
The Dopelor Effect: When stupid ideas come at you really fast and leave really slowly!

There has to be a better way of funding creativity without inhibiting the expansion of new and emerging technologies. It is necessary that intellectual material not only be inspired, but it is meant to be shared. That's why we do it...to share it with as many people as possible and to hopefully receive the accolades. We also hope that the accolades will include more than a pat on the back...finacial reward is certainly one measure of appreciation. The web presents each of us with a means for having our musical or artistic expressions shared. However, the big recording labels have been an obstruction to equal access for our audience. I'm not sure of the answer but one thing of which I am certain: I want to get the middleman out of the way so that each "artist" may have equal or fair access to their audience. PAYOLA still rules! (from the Mario Cuomo days)

Remember Copyright Management Protection System? (CMPS?) It was an effort to deny functionality of new technologies to the mass market. It not only got in the way of current technologies but it often stifled the development of "a new and better widget." We have lost out on so much already...and I haven't even begun to address the inhibitors to research and archival. Just like the monks of the middle ages preserved a great deal of knowledge that had otherwise been lost during the dark ages; the www presents us with the ability to ensure preservation of wisdom or creativity that may have been overlooked by the mainstream. 

The lobbyists in the SOPA bill believe that they should be the sole gatekeepers of intellectual material. How much have we already lost forever because of these "suits." Gordon Goodwin, for instance is brilliant, but I have to admit that I might have been deprived of his brilliance had it not been for the internet. He has been an excellent self promoter and we eagerly look forward to his next release. I would imagine that his demographic audience is among the most honorable in making certain that they pay their fair share towards keeping him artistically, AND FINANCIALLY motivated. I think that SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) might be attempting to address a different demographic. However, the damage that they cause in their shot gun approach negatively impacts each of us in countless ways. 

Personally, I have been on the internet since 1984 when it was CLI. In the 90's I was both excited and angry at the same time when I was able to hear for myself some of the brilliant music that the "suits" had decided wasn't worthy of promoting. 

Our music and our art is meant to be shared. For the sake of art, and the technology that captures and shares it; let's ensure that we can all get the best penetration with the least obstruction to our market. Let's also find a way to ensure that we are each motivated...and capitalized. 

HOW ABOUT THIS? Once the initial public appetite for a musical product has been satisfied, and that genuine efforts for just and fair compensation to artists have achieved near-maximization, that product should then fall into "limited" public domain. That is: Not to be used for commercial enhancement of another product without the artist's consent; nor for contributing to the monetary benefit of anyone other than the artist. Otherwise, to be freely exchanged among "enthusiasts" or for archival purposes.

But..."That's just my opinion...What do you think?"
Here's my own band from the 70's that was squashed like a gnat by Decca.
http://www.griffin-house.com/forceten.html

SOPA Returns