The Privatization of Our Culture by Bret Dawson
Here is a convenient thesis statement for you: The discoveries, eureka-moments, fables, characters, songs and jokes that form the only common ground we share as citizens -- the set of ideas collectively known as ‘The West’ -- are now the property of a few multinational corporations. Our entire culture has fallen into private hands, taking with it our right to tell our stories, our right to keep our personal lives personal, even our right to heal our sick. Most of the thoughts passing through your head at any given moment are private property, subject to the whims and desires and litigious controls of the companies that own them. (...)This almost-perfect article is basically the essay I've been writing and rewriting in the back of my head for several years. (via Follow Me Here.)
They can be stopped by large and small acts of civil disobedience, by the willful and deliberate and unauthorized use of those precious trademarks in media large and small -- on your school notebook, on your website, on your TV show. Eventually, they’ll lose their power, becoming as generic and empty and valueless as ‘Kleenex’ and ‘Aspirin’ and ‘Thermos’ have become.
