Look Closely, Or You'll Miss It...

Just as the Industrial Revolution changed much of our lives over a century ago, this new millennium's Technological Revolution seems even to surpass that, if only for sheer lunacy.

Nestled back several pages in the "business" section of yesterday's paper was a relatively small article regarding the BLU-RAY DVD format.

Warner Brothers announced it will soon produce ONLY this high definition format for all of it's DVDs. Other players that will follow suit include Sony Pictures Corporation, M-G-M, 20th Century Fox, and Walt Disney Co. Yeah...that about covers ALL the ones making damn near ALL the DVDs out there. Hollywood studios have been split as to which format (BLU-RAY or HD-DVD) to back.

Cripes, if this isn't the BETA vs VHS gig ALL over again, I don't know what is. BOTH formats of DVDs deliver crisp, clear picture and sound, BUT...there's one "slight" hitch; Neither format is compatible with the other. Sound just a tad familiar NOW?

Says WB chairman, Barry Meyer: "The window of opportunity for hi-def DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger" (boo-frigging-hoo). He goes on to say that "We believe that exclusively distributing the BLU-RAY will further the potential for market success and ultimately benefit retailers, producers, and most importantly...the consumers".

Gee, Barry, nice to include US in that mix (at the end). Guess YOU'LL be the MAJOR "beneficiary" of this format. I would however like for you to explain to me (fully) as to "why" I NEED THIS format over ANY freaking other, OK? I like what I see now just fine, however "low-def" it happens to be. I don't need to play "count the pores" on every damn face on my TV. I also like my BETA over my VHS, but you jerks managed to screw that up nicely in the late 1980s, thank you very much.

This is what I harp on all the time; this incessant intrusion into our lives by the technocratic, marketing juggernaut, FORCING us into buying whatever "new thing" comes along, whether it truly benefits us or not, or whether the "old" technology continues to serve us well (which it usually did...and quite well).

In most every case, it's only lining the pockets of the CEOs, and we're stuck with a house full of "technocrapic" (from Bob's Lexicon) paperweights that are rendered obsolete within a decade (if they even manage to LAST that long). Apparently these marketers must think (as does our governments, both federal and local) that OUR money grows on trees out back (wish to heck it did), and that we have so many jobs available to enlarge our purchasing power here...now.

Wonder what the hell THEY'RE smoking, because it just HAS to be illegal.

With taxes out the wazoo, rising costs for everything ESSENTIAL in our lives, these people are so damn smug in their knowledge of what we "need" and so cock-sure of themselves, that they fail to see things for what they truly are.

But I suppose an entertained populace will forget about things like EATING...or having a roof over their heads. Better to live in some minivan next to an urban bonfire consisting of old TV sets and cassette players, like the post apocalyptic world of Mad Max, while we all stare blankly up at some huge, corporate owned Jumbotron on the nearest building proclaiming what we will "need" next.

These people have got us SO trained that we offer up the Pavlovian response whenever something "innovative" comes along.

We can't wait to get it (until the NEXT item comes down the pike), and then we start all over again, with no end in sight. And since we can't take it all with us, that renders the whole point pretty much moot. If all this crap wasn't made in CHINA (the new "land of recalls"), I "might" be cajoled into becoming a "true believer" (eventually), and get on this technology bandwagon, but that just isn't going to happen. We're not going to be making ANY of this stuff here....those days are LONG gone. So excuse me for not wanting to "play" with you people.

We already have too many kids that can't FIND entire nations on a model of the globe, people that can't even READ a roadmap to get from A to B, and MIT professors that can't PROGRAM their LCD TVs for God's sake!

This constant changing of the technocratic guard is getting real old...real fast. And the regular Joes and Janes of the world just might not be able to keep up with all this "progress". They might want to pay some bills...or send the kids to college...or even (horrors) save for retirement.

Sorry, I just can't see any light at the end of THIS tunnel, and even if I could...would it be analog or digital? Looks like it would probably be...BLU-RAY.

To all you people that are buying (way) into all this...happy spending and good luck with the future.

I, like many others, will find some way to navigate through this "perfect storm" of technology.

It's what "we" do.