here and now

Everybody is, indeed, here now - but should everyone be here? Does the rise of the amateur lead to an unnecessary devaluation of the professional? Do collective online activities promote a new form of participatory democracy and the development of new and accurate folksonomies, or rather to they lead people to overestimate the value of their unconsidered posts and opinions? Do representative democracy, academic disciplines and other seemingly elitist artifacts fall by the wayside?


Alexis Tocqueville in his comprehensive study on american culture Democracy in America, asserted that one thing was certain of american culture; american art will always be mediocre. His basis for this was that where europe had a rich patronage system to further artistic movements, without an aristocracy America could never achieve this. America has since revealed that not all great art movements require great monetary benefit to become regarded as fine art. The finest movements in American art history have been exemplified in the art of Andy Warhol, Jackson Polock, and Frank Lloyd Wright. These artists were not motivated by what people were willing to pay them for, their concern was always in the creation, the reinvention of their medium, and often the fame that came with starting a revolution. It is through these concepts which I have an acceptance for the current trends in society. 


To the question should everyone be here the answer is no. While the internet allows for universal participation only the few truly excel. I would like to show this through two youtube videos which are both without a doubt of the mediocre genre. David after Dentist is a youtube video which has received over 65,000,000 hits and is by far one of the most memorable videos of the youtube generation. This however is all that can be said for the poster of this video they have posted many other videos but they all are about the same as the original or simply referential to the original. The second video I would like to make note of is Charlie the Unicorn which was created by a user named SecretAgentBob. Charlie the Unicorn was the seventh post made by this user and the fifth animated short posted by him. SecretAgentBob is a true example of why it is okay that everyone has this opportunity. he created a tremendously successful video and has a huge cult following of the video he posts. Youtube is brilliant in that it has captured the very idea which Tocqueville thought would never be successful and that is media which everyone has access to. Some will thrive and some will flounder but gems are always being found amongst the rubble.


There will always be those who consider themselves in the cultural aristocracy and will bash things such as youtube for all their lives. Personally I can appreciate the finer things in art but no man can be immune to the occasional guilty pleasure. 


I'm going to call this the halfway point but I'd like to get some time to re-edit the first half too.