AMERICAN IDIOT: Lil Wayne

Some video footage of recently incarcerated rapper Lil Wayne has cropped up on the web, where we witness Wayne answering deposition questions in a civil suit he's filed against producer Quincy Jones. Contained in the video is some of the best recorded footage of the juxtaposition between [for lack of better terminology] street 'attitude'/vernacular and traditional or common English. I just read the previous sentence back to myself and I have apparently aged 40 years more than I was aware.

My sudden outbreak of old-ness aside, there's something inherently infuriating that comes with watching a millionaire entertainer act out like a 5 year old, whilst attempting to retain the rough and tumble attitude and broken english that we've come to associate with the high crime, inner city population. Wayne, at one point, lays his head in his hands and refuses to answer the line of questioning that Jones's attorney presents, only answering with reductive mumbles of "I don't recall" and "I can't remember". Later in the video, when asked what image he is presenting to the media- Wayne again shoots down the question, is told by the presiding judge that he must answer, and decides to inform the attorney that "he [the judge] can't save you in the real world". One can extrapolate that Wayne saw the judge's support of the line of questioning as backing up /siding with the attorney and wanted to remind him that rational debate has no place in his world and violence would reign supreme if the joust were happening in a different context. It's really just an embarrassing 6-minute display of the apathetic and anti-intellectual approach that is "cool" to a substantial block of young people. It's par for the course for Lil Wayne, we've seen this and much worse from him before....but god damn is it frustrating to see him thrive while there are tens of thousands of infinitely more talented (and better adjusted) artists that aren't able to scrape by.

"Virtual Crack" or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Web

I might need to change the theme of my (seldomly updated) blog from my thoughts on atheism in America to some sort of "why the internet is the best shit ever (and i mean ever, ever) and how we've already taken it for granted...less than 20 years into mainstream adoption" soapbox where I tell you that anyone with the ability to read this has witnessed a modern miracle. Honestly, I don't think many people would disagree with the overall sentiment there and most just haven't taken the time to, or aren't reflective enough to put it into that sort of context. It may be the case that a similar cultural reaction followed the printing press in 15th century Europe, but I'd contest that it is important to consciously recognize what an impressive and useful concept we've discovered. I think we're hindering potential progress by allowing technology to become a mundane, almost burdening staple of our lives that is more of an expectation than an exciting portal into another "world" (ANOTHER WORLD, MAAAAAAANNN!)

Recently, I've discovered that I need to "sync" my online presence with my tangible meat-body. It's been therapeutic to abandon the shame of spending hundreds of hours each week I spend learning by watching documentaries, reading news articles/opinion/book excerpts, and engaging in meaningful and impassioned debate with others online. The time I spend online is accelerating the speed at which I am able to consume information, and I've chosen to spend a substantial chunk of this time doing things which I think will help me grow and evolve. Sure I've watched the past 2 years worth of the "FailArmy" YouTube weekly series, and I have a stage-4 terminal hook on every TV sitcom, but I honestly enjoy the time I spend accomplishing the objectives that primary school and college led me to believe was, indeed, learning. Wikipedia is well on the way to making learning "cool", and there's nothing we need more in the world right now than anything we can get that resembles a learning Renaissance. What I'm referring to is a redefinition of traditional learning, but couldn't that be just another really, really good side effect of a connected planet?

So why is it that we already feel entitled to modern tech, and every mouth-breather Tea Bag rally participant and strikingly dull/apathetic teenager feels tech-savvy enough to complain about their iPhone? Silicon Valley can't completely thwart responsibility, as their marketing campaigns were/are based on their tech being a lifeline, rather than a better-than-the-last-one magic wand that waves you in to a different dimension. Their strategy is vulnerable to the reality that any slip-up creates immediate animosity, which eventually leads to (apparently) a weird arrogance that obscures the larger picture benefit of possessing the tech at all. But we also need to consider that the public at large has gone all-in on a concept that it seems to reject at some fundamental level. If you can fix a computer, you're still a geek. If you've got a World of Warcraft character that's higher than level 50, you still probably live in your parents basement. These notions are the remains of a foregone era and contribute to the level contempt that many have to their precious technology. It's better to yell at or slam your phone than it is to put on your thinking cap and work through the problem (consequently learning the software in the process.) We want to take our stuff out of the box, turn it on, and GO. No assembly required; nonexistent learning curve. As we move forward, I'd like to see more necessity for manual processes and a deeper understanding of the tools we're all now using. Who knows, maybe when we reach Singularity, we will have been able to deselect the dull, uninspired masses. Oh god, I think I just advocated eugenics.....uh, nothing to see here, move along!

I know, I know, I'm preaching in a vacuum here.. and even if there was some directive I could offer to set us on a better course...it's far too grandiose and unrealistic of a mission to even consider. We've got more urgent matters to attend to. I can only hope that as time passes, we begin to recognize the game changer we witnessed as the cables were laid and the world became, for the first time, connected.