Posted 11:23 AM by Gene

I wish I could be as optimistic as JESUS II's newfound fellow-mogul friend in the regenerative powers of the destruction of traditional show-biz by file sharing. But there's one big reason not to be hopeful: all these burgeoning artistes will have as their only points of reference the "homogenized, crummy stuff" the likes of JACK and the Conspiracy have shoved down their throats for decades. Where will the inspiration come? How can future Gershwins and O'Neills and Griffiths emerge? Genius does not spring full blown out of our cultural ground. And people simply are not as well educated as those who helped make show business a powerhouse in the last century -- in book learning or street smarts. We can only hope for more of the same, to those infernal "niche" audiences. More to the point, so long as The AMERICAN SOCIETY OF WILLFULLY IGNORANT ADVERTISERS remains show-business's sugar daddy, so long as advertising vice-presidents have fiefdoms to protect, so long as there is no internal impetus to stop spending willy-nilly on basest junk, it can continue as profitably as before, ever disdaining the wishes of its audience. Our only hope there is if the PVRs encourage effective commercial avoidance, and even then the temptation to spend the money will be too great.