Nutrional Yeast Infections

What kind of fucked up world do we live in where Google and Wikipedia take the lead on freedom of expression, on personal rights? That used to be the domain of the artist. Today, Internet companies changed the world. It used to be artists.

But people love Google more than Top Ten bands. They rely on Wikipedia more. Because they’re pure. They don’t compromise their vision or values for instant remuneration. They give back. Hey, you’re using an Android phone, do you know the operating system is free? And sure, Google will make money off of Android ads, but is this any different from selling concert tickets and merch after people hear your music for free?

And speaking of starting off for free…

That’s what Google did. They launched it first and then developed a business model. And it’s still got a freemium model. I’ve been using Google for years and have clicked on exactly one ad. But Google is rolling in dough. Just because you give away your main product for free does not mean you can’t make money. We live in an attention economy, your biggest chore is getting people to listen, not to pay for your music.

And the entire music industry is rotten to the core, riddled with egocentric businesspeople putting themselves first and responding not to music, but money. Don’t listen to a word they say, it’s like asking a child to deny he wants candy, it’s useless.

Now, imagine you have a job you can’t get time off from, or kids. Are you going to risk that precious job security, or the safety of your children, to go protest in an event that may—if you’re really lucky—get some dismissive coverage in the New York Times?

There was a time when individuals cast aside those fears because they had union-protected jobs, and unions organized events with tens of thousands of confidence-inspiring fellow members in attendance. While those events do still occur, they’re a rarity these days as union membership dwindles, the privatization of the country continues and the establishment media still don’t grant them fair coverage when they do occur. Not one of the young people I spoke to at the Occupy Wall Street protest said they were union members. Bellafante is right in the sense that they are scattered, lost and leaderless, but she never explores why that’s the case.

While the left loses the valuable organizational mechanism of unions, the right has gained corporate masters like the Koch brothers to disseminate millions of dollars into astroturfing campaigns to organize and destroy on their behalf. While the left makes signs, the right has already deployed troupes to scream at town hall events.

These are the kinds of massive oppositional forces activists find themselves facing these days: an incredibly oppressive police state and a corporate cash monster bearing down on them from the right. Meanwhile, their union support army is either in retreat or preoccupied fighting other battles on other fronts in Wisconsin or Ohio, or one of the other forty-eight states where anti-union legislation was introduced this year courtesy of ALEC, a front group that serves as proxy for corporate interests.

Instead of bemoaning the fact that protesters haven’t arrived in matching uniforms with a coherent PowerPoint presentation, these are the issues we should be addressing. Of course the majority of Zuccotti Park occupiers are young, brash and lost. They’d have to be to do something like this, and risk getting hypothermia for the chance to be ignored and belittled by the media. Young people are always the first ones willing to risk comfort and security for the romantic vision of a better tomorrow.