Joe Moody’s Web Adventures

(note this is a work in progress)

Postmodernism relishes in the world’s confusion, the lack of any mainstream, just many streams depositing into the same ocean.

Each stream represents an idea, a way to live, a philosophy. Each idea flows along its own course, seemingly independent and unique, all pouring into the same vast sea of world-thought.

To understand the streams, we must grasp the zeitgeist — the spirit of each age — that shapes world-thought. Like storm clouds pregnant with rain, the mood of the times pour down and form the stream of ideas, our consciousness.

Before postmodernism walked onto the stage, there were two other major characters in this play of philosophy: traditionalism and modernism.

Traditionalism meant old-school: discipline, patience, work, faith in a better afterlife, religion instead of aimlessness.

Modernism came when humankind became technically enlightened: science ahead of religion, abstraction ahead of concrete truth, Utopia on earth is possible and through earthly labors we will achieve it.

Postmodernism came like an wild horse escaping the confines of the modernist barn. It arrived when the world realized technology may not save the world after all, in fact men like Hitler and inventions like the atom bomb proved technology could end civilization as we know it.

The world had not become better off by casting away tradition. Tradition was not the final answer, more like a ghost speaking from the past.

But by definition postmodernism offers no final answer either. Answers are subjective realities, different for different individuals. Postmodernism says there is no universal truth, so why try?

To think modern is to understand the chaos of the universe, the loss of individuality in a mass produced society, and to feel a sense of loss for the “good old days.”

Postmodern thought is similar, yet here we accept and embrace the loss of old traditions. The universe is chaotic and meaningless, so why be sad about it? Let us dance in the rubble of old ideas and knowledge, scattered beneath our feet like pieces of a puzzle.

Here we find all our patriotic heroes and even God Himself have hosts of academics who’ve found “holes” in their logic, history, and even existence.

One of postmodernism’s tenets is that all beliefs and systems are only valid to the various groups employing them.

Postmodernism is also just another belief, it is one of many ways we can choose to live, but not an inevitable condition of the universe.

So we must first break down where postmodernism came from, to understand what is next.

JFK’s death ushered in Post Modernism

A perfect day in Texas could not have been more inspiring with the president of the United States and his glamorous wife cruising in the open air under trusting sun: the American dream glistening with the charm of King Arthur’s Camelot. Maybe this man, this embodiment of idealism in action for the betterment of society, of modernism in all it’s high-hopes, would bring us closer to the utopia modernism promises.

Then in a flash it ends, the bullets ends not only the life of a man but of an era of hope in the modern world. On that day the American psyche shifted on its axis and gave up: The world is imperfect and meaningless so why keep trying. Postmodernism is born.

Before Kennedy’s assassination everyone knew of the world’s evil tendencies. Hitler used modern media and technology not for the betterment of humanity but to conquer, kill and enslave. The American psyche wasn’t naive to evil, but we still believed evil could be overcome through virtue and perseverance.

Kennedy personified for many the “good” that could fight the world’s evil, so to see him taken down so suddenly, followed by his brother, broke America’s heart.

The postmodern reality: anything goes, hard work and good beliefs don’t matter unless they benefit you in the moment. In fact, all that mattered became the moment. The McConsciouness was Born.

So now what?

Post-Post Modernism – or Post Modern Realism

Now that every pillar of tradition is toppled, like Humpty Dumpty never to be put together again, where do we go from here?

Postmodern Realism (PR) understands there may be logical holes in religion, but embrace faith anyway because living life based on pure logic is also questionable. Even more, PR does not like the lack of direction, lack of fulfillment and negative consequences experienced by living without any higher consciousness.

Our existence will continue to become more symbolic and representational as digital creations become more liquid and organic: more like us. There will always be a fight between good and evil, personal Armageddons.

Tradition will gain even more value as it appears to be more threatened by technology. It is human nature to protect the past virtues within ourselves as well as the institutions, or pillars, that uplift them. A struggle between change and stability is part of yen and yang that energizes the universe.

Humans are like computers. Our religions are the software installed within the computers. Either they are time-tested and secure or open to piracy, viruses and worms.

Post-modernism will die as an inevitable end, and become a victim of its own relativity.

Postmodernism believes good and evil is relative, but a Postmodern Realism sees the renouncing of belief as just another belief, to be judged by its fruits like all beliefs.

Postmodern Realism saw the poisoned fruits of postmodernism: the rise of random violence, a dramatic increase in abortion, divorce, suicide and cases of depression.

Post-modernism will be trumped by Postmodern Realism, as it becomes another philosophy from which to gain insight, not end-all enlightened perception of existence.

Minds like Einstein realized that the more advanced we are, the more we prove the existence of God, the original author.

And like Socrates could have predicted: the more we learn, the greated the void of our knowledge is revealed.

Of course there will be many who gain arrogance instead of wisdom when bestowed with new powers that will arrive further down the digital trail.

Advanced societies will breed new forms of vices and viruses as the old forms are finally eradicated.

But after the furthest limits of our digital creations have been reached, there will be more scientific exploration of the fourth dimension, the “spiritual world.”

At best, we could reach a state of enlightenment and understanding that Christians, Jews and Muslims share a common ancestor in Abraham.

Imagine Abraham calling all his ancestors to dinner. It would be quite a family gathering, even if dysfunctional, a great reality show.

Two months shy of its 150th birthday, the Rocky Mountain News breathes its last.

Soon after, Seattle’s oldest newspaper stops the presses and is reborn digitally.

The state of Minnesota uses precious tax money to retrain newspaper staff for an online audience.

Before the World Wide Web, I was one of those journalists in training. As fate would have it, the year I graduated in 1993, an invention called the web browser would soon change everything.

While starting my career as a journalist, my brother emails me something that blows my mind. It’s called Netscape Navigator and allows people to share graphical “web pages” with anyone anywhere instantly.

Always the entrepreneur, from my first lemonade stand to selling programs at football games, I immediately see a new world of virgin soil, not yet spoiled by the corporate hands of Wall Street or the homogeny of mainstream media.

I stake my claim on a “plot of land” as soon as I can think of a domain name, which is the online address starting with www.

My father isn’t thrilled with the prospect of his son leaving the brick-and-mortar foundation of journalism to set sail on chaotic and untested waters — this new “Wild West.”

I can take only my writing skills and education with me. I set out to navigate the wild seas.

I find a part-time job at a university, where the task is to create “web pages” for departments using HTML, the language of the Web.

Completing my preparation, I move to San Francisco, the new digital hub. I launch an Internet services company that helps clients transform old business models to function in the world of new media.

I’m one of the first to surf a new site called Google, buy a book on Amazon (when it was still just a bookstore) and have a garage sale on Ebay.

San Francisco is a striking city by the bay, but wasteful to the pocketbook, and I miss the drama of the Midwestern seasons. I relocate to a town near Lake Michigan, about an hour from Chicago. After all, this new type of online business can function anywhere.

My frugality pays off as I survive the dot-com bust, and watch as the pipe dreams of the dot-com boom are realized, like wireless high-speed Internet and YouTube.

Rupert Murdoch, an elder of the old media, declares the Internet is the end of “media barons,” comparing Internet pioneers to the discoverers of the New World like Columbus.

As the digital media sweeps the land, I hear news from old friends in journalism undergoing sudden career changes. Even seasoned editors and writers are getting laid off due to shrinking circulations.

Most people know the obvious advantages of online media: disseminating news faster, adding video to a story, reader interaction, instant updates.

But the change in media is bigger than technology. It’s also a generational shift. The realm of new media is the quiet revolution of Generation X.

It’s a true People’s Revolution, granting the power of information to the general masses.

In the old days, a small group of editors and publishers decided what everyone read. To be a provider of content meant jumping on the corporate assembly line of mass production. News was melted down and poured in a mold of uniformity.

The Web broke the mold, allowing each user to customize their own reality, their own news sources, subscribe to their favorite blogs, Youtube channels, Facebook groups.

The Internet decentralized mass media, freeing it from the control of a few and turning it over to the masses.

Suddenly a blogger with vision and a laptop in Central Park can hold as much sway as the editorial board perched high in the New York Times’ building.

To the youth, newspapers are relics of the past. My son’s school news is online. The teacher emails parents and colleagues from her desk. Students meet with authors via web-cam. School events are rebroadcast online at SchoolTube.

The dawn of hand-held devices like the Blackberry and iPhone mean people can now take the Internet anywhere.

The Web, once mislabeled a fad, is now the very fabric of modern life.

Newspapers, once the bedrock of American society, struggle to stay relevant.

The answer for brick-and-mortar papers is obvious: Become less brick-and-mortar.

Newspapers must make their websites as interesting as the Drudge Report or the Huffington Post, or even Digg.com where a community of users help each other track the most interesting stories of the day.

Some newspapers are already creating blogs for their writers to connect with readers and expound on their reporting — today’s news junkies expect nothing less.

Websites are not bound by spatial or cost limitations of print media, so reporters aren’t limited to just skimming the surface of a story.

The online world allows newspapers to conduct live polls, email breaking-news and weather alerts.

Newspapers can link their stories to other relevant articles, allowing the reader to delve more into a topic’s background.

Print magazines and books still retain value in a digital world because they can decorate a coffee table for days. But newspapers are about today’s news, timeliness. And by the time the editors agree on what stories to run, the presses roll and the trucks hit the streets; today’s newspaper is often yesterday’s news.

The guardians of mass-media conformity must now conform to the new set of rules online, as current trends indicate the Baby Boom generation will be the last large block of print news subscribers.

Online news sites are starting to gain more ad revenue, and while newspapers will remain alive for the foreseeable future, some of the best journalists are already migrating to digital ventures.

The morning coffee and paper are now the morning coffee and laptop, people get ready.

Remember Grandpa telling his “Back in my day,” stories. Like “… I walked a mile for a block of ice…”

Well Generation X is already compiling their own unique list. Here’s a few that come to mind:

Back in my day, music came in cassette tapes — now it flows through the air via wifi.

Back in my day, one of the best video games was a ping-pong ball eating up small balls while being chased by ghosts — and we loved it, damnit.

Back in my day, we had only a handful of TV channels — and played movies on 2 competing platforms: VHS and Beta.

Back in my day, we could roam around the house with a cordless phone and that was a big deal — and there were no roaming charges.

Back in my day, only the digital elite could go online through mainframe supercomputers, now two-year-olds surf the ‘net

Back in my day, cars had not yet become computers with pistons and wheels.

Back in my day, Casey Casum told everybody what the biggest hits were. Now nobody has a clue.

stay tuned when i find time for more…

Wow, that’s news. Every Gen X’er remembers Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 charting out the course of mainstream pop music in the 80s. After the digital revolution of the following 2 decades, I didn’t even know AT40 still existed.

With iTunes, internet and satellite radio offering countless choices of musical genres, there no longer is a playlist of mainstream music recognizable by the general masses as there was in the 1980s.

AT40 and MTV kept the nation humming the same songs (whether they liked it or not).

Everyone remembers when Madonna’s Material Girl came out, or Michael Jackson’s Beat It.

Turns out Ryan Seacrest is hosting the new AT40, of course he’s also the host of the closest thing there is to a pop mainstream in the 21st century: American Idol.

There’s one big difference between American Idol and AT40, and it sheds light on the nature of Gen X and Gen Y. Idol is like the internet: it’s interactive and it places everyone (contestants) on a level playing field. Of course it’s usually the 13-year-old-girl demographic who votes most frequently to determine the winners.

Wonder if Kasey ever surfs AT40.com…

A couple thought-provoking comments to my last column got me thinking where I stand as to the birth years of Generation X.

Some say X begins in 1961, some say 1966.

There’s no better example of a person born during this time than our own President Obama.

Is he Generation X?

Gut reaction: There are as many similarities as differences, so for me the jury is still out.

While he has the technical savvy of Gen X, he has the idealism of a Boomer.

Obama believes that government is the answer to many of the problems in the world, while Xers believe that they change the world by transforming themselves.

However Gen X much more easily identifies with Obama than a true Boomer like Hillary Clinton. Obama knows YouTube, he’s looking for similarities more than differences and he was a kid in the 70s.

Some say Obama is part of a mini-generation between Boomers and Xers called Generation Jones that runs until 1965.

It may take awhile for a consensus to form.

Here’s a brand new online poll where you can see how others are voting on the definitino of Gen X.

This all brings up a larger question: Are generations more defined by time, ie 20-year spans, or by the personality traits of people within them?