BRAND RE-BRAND

 Long before the internet, social media and a world where everybody has their own personal "brand," I registered my brand with the State of California. It was called the "pointed cane" brand and my herd consisted of one cow. Those were the days when news and entertainment came by broadcast TV and porn still was contained on the printed page. Something called a VCR had just been invented. These days everybody has a cell phone, FB page, Twitter account and actively promotes the brand of "self." In the span of forty years we have turned from a society of receivers into one of mass transmission. Warhol's egalitarian  declaration of a universal "15 minutes of fame" and Joseph Beuys' prediction of "everyone an artist" have both come true. In this rush to total inclusion, a world where everybody has something to say, where anybody with enough botox can be an "influencer" unintended and unforeseen consequences have eclipsed the benefits. We are locked in an age of look at me. LOOK AT ME!!!!! Affirmation comes in the form of "likes," "friends" and "followers." 

     Yesterday Mark Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook as "Meta," as if this move did anything but seize the news cycle for twenty-four hours. Chicken shit. Chicken salad. As I've mentioned too many times to keep track, my deep dive into family/American history has revealed many parallels and analogies to today's world. One major similarity is how seemingly groundbreaking and positive inventions always have a counterbalancing dark, negative side. Take Ann Osterhout Edison's mother-in-law Minna Miller Edison's father Lewis. Minna was the daughter of Lewis Miller the inventor of the first combine-harvester to put a blade in front of the oxen or horse. With Miller's invention U.S. crop yields exploded, feeding the world. The price of corn and grain plummeted putting thousands of farmhands out of work. The increased soil erosion helped create the dust bowl. The rich girl Minna Miller married Thomas Edison who we all know accellerated the destruction of the planet (both physically and morally) with his Jazz playing phonographs and electric red light districts.  Zuckerberg, Musk, Bessos and all the rest of these well branded and re-branded douche bags are doing exactly the same thing. Who would've argued with "everyone a transmitter" in 1979?

    Meta will now target kids, the primary victims of FB and Insta-neurosis. Don't worry it's "meta." It can't hurt them. It's like vaping, wine coolers or fentanyl....harmless. Phew! Thanks Mark. Maybe it's time to buy another cow.