I facebook therefore I am

I'm not anti-facebook. In fact it is a great way to keep up with my friends as well as the activities of the Geneva Writers Group, which has added so much to my life and my writing career.

Thinking about it, led me to thinking about culture and it dawned on me much of today's culture isn't as such.

In the old days culture could be shaped by artists, writers, musicians etc. Today it is shaped by corporations.

Think about it. Disney and Barbie show little girls how to princesses and clothing queens. Grown up girls measure their worth by the labels they wear. I'm a better human if I wear something by Chanel rather than Wal-Mart. I'm not a better person with Prada shoes, and my feet might hurt a bit more making me grouchy.

The same with cars. If people appreciate the craftsmanship of a Mercedes that's one thing, but if they drive a Mercedes to impress others...well that's another.

People wait in line to get the newest smartphone. Why when their old one works?

What gets out to the public to embrace has to go through the corporate gate keepers. To a certain degree the internet helps. Writers can kindle their books, although the rare one ever makes it big. The same with singers. Artists need to be popularized. In the old days artists had patrons and today corporations often serve that purpose.

Now much of modern life is great. Given a choice of surrendering my laptop or my daughter, I'll fall back on the old cheapskate Jack Benny line when he was being held up and the robber said, "Your money or your life," he replied "I'm thinking it over." (Just kidding Llara)

My junior year high school English teacher just died. He had carved out an artistic life for himself among other things by writing his own plays and making sure they were acted locally. Remembering his love of the written word, I can only wish I'd seen one.

In my village in Argelès, there are many local organizations that act, sing (including American Gospel which really sounds funny with the French accent but the music is tiptop) paint, run local festivals celebrating their history, etc. The events are corporation free produced locally with internal passion by the participants not set to externally generated concepts.

It would be dumb to rule out everything produced by a corporation. That would tank the world economy. But maybe thinking about what is enriching a life might be a good step. Accepting what is liked because it fits is one thing, but doing it for a label or to impress others, is another.

Forgive me...today I'm a COW--Cranky Old Woman.