The Future Is Awesome.
If there was gonna be a subtitle to "Let's Make Politics!", that'd be it.
I know I said it 'gives me the shits', but... if I absolutely had to do the 'tv pitch line' for "Let's Make Politics!" it'd be; "Real Time With Bill Maher" meets "The 'awesome-ness' of the future". (I know the second bit's not a show... yet.... that's the point. ;)
A couple months back, Google had its best and brightest legal minds argue against Canada's 'web blocking and throttling' (basically, letting government dicks and service providers apply 'old media' rules to 'dick-tate' what you can and can't access on-line)... and, Google's argument was that no regulation is 'the best way to keep the internet awesome.'
(This Search Engine | CBC Radio | Does CanCon have a digital future? podcast... and, all its archived episodes.. was an insight into the future of the internet in Canada.... made all the more fascinating by the fact that it was on CBC, paid for by those same govt dicks and, ultimately, killed by the CBC.... before eventually finding a new home, under-the-radar, on TVO; Search Engine. :)
Well... all this policy shite aside... this is important to you because, it's gonna determine what you get to see and hear in the future.
The Google guys chose the word 'awesome', not just 'cause it's a "Googly thing to say" but, because 'awesome' speaks to the present and future; the exciting, 'awesome-ness' of what's out there now, and the wonder and 'awe' of what will be.
For a little more future perspective, I turn again to Kevin Kelly; YouTube - Kevin Kelly - "Web 3.0" (... see my previous post on "True Fans" for more Kelly)... and, remind all of you web fanatics that... we ain't seen nothin yet.
That 'near future' of the net, never fails to set my imagination alight.
To me, the future is exciting and hopeful.
It is gonna be... 'awesome'!
And, it's this 'awesome' future we should be discussing, designing and planning for...
"Let's Make Politics!" (the show, the website, the podcast.... eventually, the matching lunch box and thermos)... is all about the world just over the horizon.
As I've mentioned... I got asked, months ago by the tv execs, to come up with a 'Canadian Daily Show'.
Now, I understood.... and, hoped they did too.... that they wanted that audience, not that show.
(as I've discussed, we already get "The Daily Show" here in Canada. We don't need a pale imitation.... I wouldn't watch that. Sorry, "This Hour Has 22 Minutes" but, if I have access to the original, and so much more, why would I watch you?)
The Canadian tv execs want the coveted 'youth demo'. (And, the 'youth demo' isn't even turning on their tv's. I know, I don't much anymore.)
Someone told me the other day that today's 'youth' (kids in school, or in their parents basements) are, more frequently than any previous generation, experiencing panic and/or anxiety attacks.
They see these pictures and stories, tv and films on the state of the economy, the state of the planet.... the crowding and the competition... plus, you've got your various global holy wars and the looming "Day After Tomorrow" weather apocalypse.
It's a shit show... there's no denying.
It can get so daunting that... if you let it.... it'll freak you the fuck out.
(By the way.... every kid in school is now made to watch these global warming crisis docs, and make no mistake, you can't just bury your head in the sand with this stuff, I think people should see "An Inconvenient Truth"..... but, as you watch your world fall apart around you... that's not 'hope' it's filling your pants with, y'know.
"Alright kids, that's the bell.... we'll pick up from right where the planet was visibly dying, next class... now, head on down to 'home ec'. Mr. Chirelli's gonna teach you how to hollow out a grapefruit... 'cause, god knows we might not have them for much longer."
... when my junior high teacher didn't feel like talking to us... mornings after a particularly bad bender, say.... she'd just wheel in the tv/vcr and pop in a copy of "Wildcats" with Goldie Hawn or, maybe "The Outsiders" [presumably to teach us about teen heart-throbs, leather jackets and 'dreaminess'?]... then, she'd lean back in her chair; "Watch the goddamn movie, don't talk to each other or pull any shit. And if you need me, I'll be just underneath this cold, damp cloth.")
When I was growing up.... whenever people talked about the future it was always the 'long lens' view... the distant future.
"Dude... fuckin' rocket shoes!", my buddy would say to me, reading some 'World of Tomorrow' magazine, "Everybody's gonna have rocket shoes. Personal spaceships. Maybe a laser sword or laser gun. And, lots of sex with hologram ladies..... and, those chicks won't say 'no' to anything"... he'd grin... not having heard about, let alone experienced, most of these unspeakably dirty 'things'.
"Usually, we'd have to go to Eastern Europe to try a 'Mexican Sticky Bun' (... a nearly self-explanatory sex act, he'd just made up....) The future is gonna be awesome!"; we agreed.
And, even if we didn't know what that meant... we knew we were right.
Now, as a 'grown-up' (... playin' pretty fast and loose with that term)... what gets me excited?
Well.... since the 'Mexican Sticky Bun' is off the table... this is what gets me going....
and, this...
and, this...
(... I could, and probably will, do a whole fuckin' aria on Ray Kurzweil.... but, if you can wade through some of the 'egg-head speak'... I promise, this will set your mind on fire!)
I got some e-mail feedback recently, saying; "... if you want more followers, you should think about dumbing this down."
Well, first off.... I don't want followers.... nearly, as much as I want contributors and collaborators.
Second.... the future is 'up'. (not the pixar movie.... 'cause, animated miscarriages aren't exactly hopeful, no matter how many colorful balloons you tie to them.)
The future is 'smartening up', so to speak..... that's where the awesome is.
It's 'lightning and hope in a bottle'.... that'll snap you out of a tailspin of depression.
In my second post for this thing, I made fun of the kind of people who are so upset over a new Transformers movie.... or, how the George Lucas's of the biz keep pissing all over their previously beloved franchises.... the 'raping my childhood' moaners.
They prattle on about how they'd 'throttle' Michael Bay if they saw him on the street... or, run up and punch George Lucas square in the face.
(BlizzCon 2008: Patton Oswalt's closing ceremony; says it better than I possibly could.)
Those big blockbusters are always 'dumbed down'.... but, they don't make me upset. They're designed to let you switch your head off.... to make the world go away for two to three hours. (Have you noticed? They're getting longer, as they're getting shittier..)
But, then you walk out of the summer blockbuster... and the world's hot, shitty reality is the one to run up and kick you square in the nuts.
I'll be the first to admit that some of these 'imagination sparking' inventors, thinkers and futurists aren't always captivating speakers..... maybe, they spent the better part of their lives in a lab or a library.... those kinda folks aren't built to be on-stage, nor on-camera.
But.... what they lack in computer-generated fire ants and robot cock-fights..... they more than make up for in... leaving you with an idea that's hopeful.
An idea, or a concept, that'll set your imagination abuzz for days... nay, weeks.... with its possibilities.
A vision of a future that will be better.... that can't help but... be better.
A future where we might someday have our rocket shoes.... our personal spaceships, and.... assuming both parties are consenting adults.... 'Mexican Sticky Buns' for all!!
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