From The Safety Of The Sofa

Today I saw an ad on my blogosphere extolling the virtues of 'improving your personal  brand '.
So I'm a fcking brand apparently. I mean, we all are. How nice.
 I suppose that's the price we pay for maintaining an online presence courtesy of our paymasters Google & Co.
I think I ranted on Farcebook sometime back about the fact that by taking part, we become a part of the business model itself - we are the product, effectively.
Of course, this manifests in annoying little ways, whereby algorithms tell us what we might like to buy (and are thankfully, often wrong ).
On the subject of algorithms don't they realise that I may take a perverse pleasure in reading / listening to occasional nonsense, and it doesn't mean I live or die by that thing ?
Or I might buy a relative a crochet set, but I don't want to see endless ads for knitting patterns.

-Rant over -

Last night , following the collapse of a bookshelf and its contents being strewn around, I came across an article which I completely forgot I'd written back in 1993.
 It was a piece about the cartoonist Robert Crumb, and whilst not being an especially memorable piece, it really made me aware how much times have changed.
I mean really - 1993 wasn't that long ago - (for an old git like me), but in real terms there was no Google, Faceblog, Tweeter - infact the WWW as we know it was just making its first foray out of Cern and the mind of Tim Berners - Lee.
It was a different world.
I remember buying floppy disks (from the old computer fairs ) containing a wealth of strange and wonderful esoterica, and how I was overwhelmed and amazed by how much information was available on this new fangled media - floppy disks could hold an amazing 1 megabyte of stuff !


Anyway, back to the article on Robert Crumb* - I remember being flattered to provide a two page article on a cartoonist I considered important and vastly talented, only to feel embarassed with the final piece in print : the illustrations used had been chosen by someone else on the editorial team, possibly to create controversy and boost sales, but I was unhappy and it was too late , so for a long time, I sulked ( believing myself sabotaged by the Film people).  Still -

In the manner of today , I shall scan it and post here as a curio. It's still a bit 'edgy', I suppose.
I'm not defending Mr Crumb - he admits that he is sexist, and I suspect, was more than happy to invoke the ire of feminists of the time (all publicity is good publicity, and all that ).

I think that part of the problem is that everyone is so afraid to offend now - it's gone beyond the
' Politically Correct ' issue - anyone now offending the mass sensibility can become the target of sizable online crowds of angry pitchfork wielding lynch - mobs.
Twitter is notorious for its mob mentality , but in this always - on world, most forms of social media have the potential to become flash mobs championing a cause, whether right or wrong.

The peculiar thing is that these same voices often preach tolerance and equality.
It's just that if you say something they don't like, then woe betide you.

The recent Charlie Hebdo massacre / situation brought many of these types to the fore - whilst encouraging debate about the problems of 'secular' life, it transpired that many felt that religion generally was the crux of the problem , and has perverted our reality down through the ages : the logical answer was to ban religion in all its forms...

The irony I find is that those who rant most vehemently against it are as guilty of  proselytising as those they seek to condemn.

image from L'etre Lieu

Ipso Facto :
Richard Dawkins Is Not God.

And therein lies the rub, to coin a vaguely Shakespearan phrase.
After all, if everyone in the world thought the same way, then wouldn't we all be guilty of intolerance ?
Worse still - we'd be guilty of demanding conformity.
And down that road lies the master race...

Footnote:

I just re - read what I wrote : 'The recent Charlie Hebdo massacre / situation brought many of these types to the fore'

'these types'

You see - I'm guilty of generalising, too ! I'm as judgemental as the rest of 'em !
Get my pitchfork, Matilda - we're gonna hang us a noob.
But Honey, that's you!
Dayum ! Gotta lynch mah damn self!




* Robert Crumb left the U.S.A. for France in 1991 and his most recent cartoon was in sympathy with Charlie Hebdo.