preemption, one better: pop music's inanity and world peace

This post is not about Leona Lewis. It's really about the legions of young people we deploy across the globe, armed with beauty, talent, and inane love songs, and their crucial role in cultural mediation.

It also suggests the opposite: that every self-absorbed, hedonistic, nihilistic, drug addicted angst-monger we elect to that same role does incalculable damage to our nation and global peace.

In an attempt to stay remotely in touch with national culture, I was flipping through the 'top artist' pages on myspace and I ran across this girl that looked pretty seriously produced & promoted that I had never seen before. She looks and sounds completely American - "looks" in that she's green eyed, toffee skinned & dark blondish, "sounds" as in she's got a gorgeous voice singing the usual piano/synthesizer pop love song type stuff.

Turns out she's British, and it seems the British music industry lately is more integrated with our own, and at least on this level, British culture is largely indistinguishable from ours, basically it's the same culture.

Pop musicians represent the values of our nation's (-s'?) future decision makers; they idealize what we respect and admire. Leona Lewis's face, seemingly derived from almost every race on the planet, is a declaration by the teen hearts of Brittan that they are a modern nation, open and enlightened. Her messages are innocuous but largely constructive, moral. Her celebrity and sophistication broadcasts that British culture is the vehicle for achieving this, this girl that's got it all - beautiful, rich, good. The inanity of her music is actually an asset; only the strictest nationalistic cultures will be able to keep her out. Young girls in every culture with families rich enough for internet access will identify with her; she is one of our strongest ambassadors.

The reverse is true: pop music reinforces negative stereotypes too, fosters anger, justifies anti-westernism from both sides. It would be interesting to track US world popularity against pop-culture ideology: I wouldn't be surprised to see anti-Americanism rise globally with musicians' pseudo-intellectualism starting in the 60s and 70s. While pop lays the foundation for cultural cooperation and unity, gangsta rap, punk, and all the bastardizations of rock & roll lay the foundations for violence, anger, confusion, and ultimately war.

As we become more and more in the spotlight globally, we need to be conscious of these possible effects of our decisions, and we collectively must support constructive ideologies.

thoughts on the corporate problem: revoking coprorate charters

"It has no body to kick and no soul to damn."^[citation]

Lord Edward Thurlow, re: the corporation

Thinking back to my intro business classes, I remember learning that corporations operate under some kind of license from the people; the privileges of incorporation granted on the condition that the corporation act vaguely in the public interest (there are many permutations of corporations but I am referring to the common, public, Mircosoft/Enron type). How can that be quantified? The answer was to maximize shareholder value, which means doing anything that is legal (or, implicitly, will not incur legal costs greater than the revenue it generates) to deliver value to shareholders. It seems ideal, the corporation has a clear-cut mandate and the free shareholders make decisions on how to regulate the company through the democratic process and on how to morally distribute the proceeds of corporate activity.

We all know it doesn't work as well as it should. We have also been convinced that corporations can do whatever they want, and we can't stop them any more than we can issue commands to our neighbors.

But corporations are not our neighbors, they are not "natural persons". They come into being through a charter representing our collective blessing. Should we not be able to revoke that charter at our will?

The cost of corporate dissolution, and possibly the risk of assigning personal liability to the governing board & executives of corporations, would be enough to enable the inherent morality of these "natural persons" to overwhelm the psychopathy of the corporate entity. The stain of being kicked out of even one state would be enough; this could be a 'big stick' for the soft-spoken people of America, and may even be adopted internationally.

The format would be chosen by each state with the goal being a pure referendum, each vote counting.

this is a simplification of our system, a step toward a more raw democracy, where everyone's thoughts are counted, where injustice can't hide in pretensions of subtlety, and would serve to educate the public on corporate structure and behavior.

This would also empower states and highlight the ability of a federal system to act as a political incubator.

anyway I could probably bloviate on this issue for pages, but this is a blog so I'll stop now...