The amateur's world

This is a book: The Cult Of The Amateur, by Andrew Keen.

Who is Andrew Keen?

(From Andrew Keen's blog) Born circa 1960, he is a British-American entrepreneur and author best known as a critic of Web 2.0. In the mid Nineties, he was a member of the pioneering generation of Silicon Valley visionaries who first “got” the Internet. He founded Audiocafe.com in 1995, and, securing significant investment from Intel and SAP, established it as one of the most highly trafficked websites of the late Nineties. As the Chief Executive of Audiocafe.com, Andrew became a Silicon Valley celebrity.n 2000, Andrew produced “MB5: The Festival for New Media Visionaries,” a futurist show featuring some of Silicon Valley’s leading pundits. Andrew’s erudition, his entrepreneurial experience, and his writing and public speaking skills have established his voice today as both the most controversial and incisive in Silicon Valley.

Is He a Semi-Ludd?

The Luddites were member of organized groups of early 19th-century English craftsmen who surreptitiously destroyed the textile machinery that was replacing them, during the Industrial Revolution. The movement began in Nottingham in 1811 and spread to other areas in 1812. The Luddites, or “Ludds,” were named after a probably mythical leader, Ned Ludd. They operated at night and often enjoyed local support. Harsh repressive measures by the government included a mass trial at York in 1813 that resulted in many hangings and banishments. The term Luddite was later used to describe anyone opposed to technological change.

Knee says that the democratized media is a ill. Self-made music (not Bob Dylan or Bach), self-made books (not Dante or Borges), self-made videos (not Bergman or Hitchcock) and self-made news (not necessary real), self-made intellectual material (not Adorno, Spinoza, Nietzsche...). A cacophony, in his words. A mix of Wikipedia, MySpace and YouTube. A world of amateurs desperately trying to express themselves. Better, desperately trying to show themselves, because there's nothing wrong in express yourself, in their proper dimension and extension.

In other words, nobody should read/listen/watch to the internet material without a huge dosis of criteria, because democratization also means banalisation.

Homo sapiens, deus quod propago

(human beings, god and propaganda)

"Quo iure? Quo animo?"
(By what law? With what spirit?)

Listening to John Coltrane - The Night Has A Thousand Eyes - I started to wonder about the human beings and their dogmas.

Today is the 25th aniversary of the Mein Kampf - Adolph Hitler's masterpiece. I immediately thought about Nietzsche.

Despite the fact that Hitler's book was all based on Nietzsche's philosophy, it gives us a good example on how distortion of a such original, exceptional and radical thought (nietzscheian), could drive things to an opposite direction (hitlerism).

The clever use of quotations extracted from the context are frequently used as a good way of directing the spirits. Hitler knew how to use words of wisdom (?) to persuade people - from a farmer to an intellectual, althought the intellectuals were far harder to convince, as he had to level his speech to the lowest ones, as he taught in the Mein Kampf, through this maxim:

"All propaganda must be popular and its intellectual level must be adjusted to the most limited intelligence among those it is addressed to. Consequently, the greater the mass it is intended to reach, the lower its purely intellectual level will have to be."

While Nietzsche's Superman is heroic, a being totaly free from the Christian dogmas whom preach the mercy, the humility, and the socratic-alexandrine principles of the occidental culture's decay, Hitler's Superman is cruel and oppressing, enslaved of the propagandistic alienation, as he is in constant guilt and auto-persecution.

For those whom say to make things on behalf of the democracy, aiming specially - or only - economic interests, through bloody wars that cause the destruction of countries and the death of millions of human beings in the world.

And to finalise - I want to quote too, or the rude ones also quote! But if you excuse me, I'll do it in Latin...

Quot homines, tot sententiae
(As many men, so as many opinions)

As you can see, it is easy to quote. Hard is to be authentic...