Passing fancy

My life as a Vessel

Is half full of memories and design,
it stands full of the moments which have
scratched or scared the glass.

The other half is empty,
containing the passing phrases
and turning glances,
the bait and switch of surviving
a fatal existence that is mundane
and forgetable.

Its only the horrible and
honorable that pass
into being
and are saved
as beautiful.  

Ayn Rand Shrugged

   Capitalism is considered synonymic with the United States and lies at the heart of the American Dream. Capitalism is heralded as the bringer of technology, innovation, entrepreneurship and people functioning under the capitalistic system have produced great feats of progress. But the wheel was given to us freely from the dark pages of history.
   99%'ers or 1%'ers they are both chasing the same pie-in-the-sky. If every dollar was compiled the distribution would be 1% of the wealth to 99% of the population and vice versa. However the argument of the 99% hinges on the idea that the same amount of money should be distributed in a more equal manner. There hasn't been an uprising against capitalism, we think the system works, there has been an uprising against the accumulation of wealth. The philosophy of the rebellion is flawed in attempting to maintain the established system while removing the reward system which perpetuates the economy.
   Enter Ayn Rand with her diabolical hyper-capitalism and fair-trade ideology. Within the philosophy of Atlas Shrugged is the direct relationship between the national economy and capitalism. The relationship seems direct in a cause/affect way but there are multiple side effects to the collaboration. Recent examples of corporations excluding the 99% include Ing, Fanny Mae and Bernie Madoff. By focusing solely on the good of the individual, and corporations are considered individuals, these companies created the housing bubble, a legendary ponzi scheme and the toxic assets.
   The large examples are easy to point a finger at, their cause and full affect might not yet be understood but they are known and identified. It is the little decisions that expose companies for their overly self serving tendencies.
   My petty example is the iphone5. Apple enjoyed influencing the economy and sister technological development. With the advent of ipods the headphone companies were compelled to individualize an
d customize their product, a perfect example of symbiotic growth. Likewise multiple companies developed ipod players based around the 35 prong outlet, with the iphone5 though Apple decided to neglect the established system of plugging phones in for one based on auxiliary cords. In one swoop Apple has tried to create a new vein of consumability through the replacement of goods purchased for now "obsolete" technology.
    Apple is not the Hank Rearden or Dagny Taggart of the modern age despite their wanting to be viewed in such a heroic light. Likewise the individuals that are disappearing are not going to a capitalistic utopia they are going to jail.
    The truth about Ayn Rand and her vision of our purely economic based society is that Atlas doesn't shrug, he tilts the world to increase the sale of safety devices.

Hello World

The only proper way to start a blog would be to lay out my aims, aspirations and quandaries about blogging as a medium.

Gorrell Inc. is a moral and sometimes outrageous company to work for: the level of contradictions and assumptions given to work with are sometimes laughable and erroneous but the commitment to honesty, integrity and responsibility creates a foundation sturdy enough to hold any crumbling walls. 

With that in mind I pledge to strive for biased, half factual, entertaining posts. Now, I'm not The Onion, I'm clever but not to that fastidious. I will try to make you laugh, I'll fill up the pages with ramblings, and I will get lost in mid sentence, hopefully all to the enjoyment of an unsuspecting public.

The number one definition of an audience is: the assembled spectators or listeners at a public event. It isn't until the third and fourth definition of audience that it can be applied to a dispersed group of interested parties. The previous uses of the word imply a directness, a physical space in time that is communally shared and inaccessible to those not present. 

With the spreading of the technologies such as the internet, digital media and open platform interfaces the ties that bind the global community together have strengthened and the reachable audience has grown.

To operate a blog in this atmosphere is both intimidating and intriguing. With the spread of internet marketing and online publications the print industry has been revolutionized, or at least it will be. Physical publications are closing across the nation, the loss of one print magazine is mirrored by the opening of three emagazines. 

There is sweet poison in this trend, as readers are offered more choices and cheaper prices but jobs are disappearing and offices are left vacant. The loss might not be the physical magazine, do 82 sheets of paper have inherent worth? Beyond the promise to become something greater, no, 82 sheets just means 2 more trees were cut down. The loss is contained in the physicalness of the industry, granted 90% of magazines received will be read and either discarded or stored, quickly loosing relevancy and impact. 

But the promise of those blank sheets of paper is still there: by design the paper begs for purpose. Writing is changing, maybe it started with the first keyboard, an immediate compartmentalization of letters being separate and words being built instead of flowing. First cursive and now pencils, what are we losing? 

I accept my Digital Citizenship but with a heavy heart and hands that are not built for fragile things.