Pandemonium

Is DeviantArt a community…?

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dafella

tardis_by_homemadezombieit’s flashback time! I originally posted this editorial on DeviantArt.Com, on November 21, 2006.

Deviant Art is NOT a community.

There has been a lot of talk recently, especially around the recent anniversary, of weather or not DA is a “community.” I’ve been on the Internet since it was still called Bitnet, NREN, and some other names I can no longer recall. The 1990’s were a very difficult period in my life, so with regards to the Internet and what it holds, I’m probably jaded and bitter. But in my opinion, the Internet doesn’t have communities. It never did.

My experience with online groups started out well enough, but it really went south during my “dark time.” I found that a very large proportion of the people on the Internet tended to lie and deceive at every turn. I also found many net denizens to be hopelessly immature, or just emotionally messed up. Sometimes both. Given my own emotional state at the time, constantly talking with such people was at best, a questionable practice, but I did it anyway. To my ultimate regret.

During my periodic fits of loneliness or boredom, I would go on-line looking for some human interaction. While I was able to conduct conversations with people, via newsgroups or chat rooms, I was never satisfied. After a while I found that I would log off feeling worse than when I logged on! When on-line, you think you’re socializing, when really you aren’t. The bait-switch nature of this online “socializing” felt very cruel. I was better off moping at home than getting on line. At least if I was moping around my apartment, I was being honest in my feelings.

Some people can still see a “community” in Internet-based groups. But for me, if I don’t know a person at least via telephone, then I don’t consider them a friend. A positive acquaintance, yes. A potential friend, certainly. But until I meet them in person, I won’t call them a real friend. It takes at least two friends to make a community, in my opinion, so if friends aren’t possible over the Internet, then neither are communities.

As for DA, for me, it’s simply an art gallery. It was never anything else. I look at the pictures, read the prose, post comments or critiques from time to time, and I’ve even put up a few items. But I don’t think of it as a community. I went into DA thinking “art gallery,” not community. The Internet is not where I go to socialize. It’s a commodity or an appliance that I use when I need something else.

The Internet somehow seems fake. I know that it’s supposed to bring people together, to exchange ideas and stuff. I remember when I first went online in 1992, the Internet (or NREN) was still an idealized forum for scholars and artisans. Within two years it became the loneliest, more alienating place on Earth. Instead of growing into utopian forum for ideas and creativity, it became an electronic version of east Las Vegas, where people would lie about who and what they are, and where various forms of deception were the norm instead of the rule. It was a virtual “red light” district, devoid of any real human interaction.

I guess I’m one of those who requires the “human touch.” I may well be in the minority in this regard. If you’re one of those people who can still enjoy the Internet as a social forum, and see Deviant Art and similar places as actual communities, then by all means, continue to enjoy it. But I’ve found the real, unplugged world, with all of it’s ugly flaws, to be far more satisfying.

The ultimate personal irony is the network handle I used when I started: Cyberbard. I’ve become about as un-Cyber as a man can get. If someone had told me in 1993 that Cyberbard would eventually turn into a borderline Luddite, I would have told them they were crazy.

Crazy is as crazy does.

I did receive some comments on this one, contesting my view. I will give credit to the creators of DeviantArt for trying to make it an online community. I think they did the best they could. I don’t think a true community is possible in an online environment, so try as they might, they were destined to fail. Sorry, guys.

An Incident on Minnesota Avenue

May, 1999

incidentmap
The stage for this little drama.

Since the debacle in Ferguson, Missouri, racial tensions have returned to public prominence, and many stories have come to light. This is one such story.

It was May of 1999. I was driving on Minnesota Avenue, in the northeast quadrant of Washington, DC. My ultimate destination was a business on East Capitol Street SE: a local business that sold vintage and refurbished stereo equipment (among other things). Those of you who are familiar with the District know that Minnesota Avenue and East Capital Street (later Central Avenue) go through some high crime areas. When I started out, I wasn’t thinking about that. After all, I was going to be in a moving car for most of my trip, my goal was a well-lit and busy commercial area, and it was in the middle of the day.

Since it’s been well over ten years, I’m probably blurring some details. But this is how I remember the situation.

I was driving south on Minnesota Avenue, having just gotten off Kenilworth Avenue. The interchange between Minnesota Avenue and East Capitol Street is a type of clover-leaf, as these can both be very busy streets at different times of the week. I stopped at a traffic light, about a block short of the clover leaf. Minnesota Avenue turns into a two-lane boulevard near this point, like many major District streets do, and the resulting islands are common locations for Metrobus stops.

I was next to one of these bus platforms, waiting for the light to change, when from out of nowhere, there was a very loud tap on my car window. Startled, I looked to my left, to see what I can only describe as a very dangerous-looking young man glaring at me. I must point out that his appearance put me on the defensive. He was wearing a black leather jacket, a black knit cap, and sporting a goatee. He was also African-American. A group of three or four similar young men were a short distance away, and they were giving me similar glares. I opened my window just a crack and asked, as innocently as I could, “Can I help you?”

His response was alarming: “What are you doing here, honkie?”

I was suddenly very frightened.

“I’m simply passing through,” I answered carefully.

“Well, get the hell out!” he shouted. “You’re not wanted!”

This is where, I suspect, I messed up. I hadn’t been looking for trouble; I was looking for a local address, and still had a few blocks to go. The look on this man’s face, and those of his companions a few yards away, put me in what I can only describe as mortal terror.

“I’ll leave when the light changes,” I managed.

“Good!” he snapped.

The light turned green, and my tires made a screech worthy of a Hollywood car chase as I sped away. Instead of turning onto East Capitol and resuming my mission, I made my way to the nearest on-ramp for the local expressway, and started back home as quickly as the speed limit allowed.

By the time I got to my apartment my pulse had returned to normal. I had wanted to see the store in person. I was curious about what other products they might have had, and I could have found something else of interest. But I never made it there. Still, I called the store and inquired about the stereo component I was looking for. As it turns out they didn’t have it. I said “thanks anyway,” then informed the gentleman about what had happened just a few blocks from his place of business.

He was furious. He asked me if I could describe the kids in question, which I did as best I could. He then said he would speak with some other businesses in his block to see what could be done. I can’t imagine any business owner would be happy if a group of kids were scaring away potential customers.

I guess I did the understandable thing, but did I do the right thing? What could I have done instead? Should I have told the man at the bus stop that I was looking to patronize a local business, and didn’t want any trouble? Should I have shrugged, ignored his threat, and continued on my way?

People have told me that what I did could be considered self-defense, or self-preservation, and that no one can blame me for that. But at the same time, I can’t help but think that by allowing myself to be frightened away like that, and by paying more attention to “profiling” (remember how the men were dressed), I ended up aiding and abetting the problem of inter-racial tension, and help to perpetuate the existing cycle of violence.

I, perhaps unwittingly, became part of the problem.

What would you, gentle readers, have done in my place?

Some months later I mail-ordered something form the stereo vendor, so I did ultimately give them some business. But I never visited the store in person. In fact, I avoided that part of the District from that point on.

By 2005, that store had closed. I understand the owner retired.

New Year’s Memories

MtPony-1119-sunset

I’ve talked about Thanksgiving, and I’ve talked about Christmas. What can I say about New Year’s Day? That’s a tough call. Of the three holidays in the triumvirate we call the “Holiday Season,” New Year’s Day is the one that has the least meaning for me. I don’t dislike it, but I also don’t have many fond, lasting memories associated with it.

Over the years I’ve attended some great New Year’s parties. When I was growing up in Upstate New York, one of my father’s colleagues used to throw a huge party on New Year’s Day that lasted the whole day. It was a fairly formal affair for the adults, but all the kids would gather in the basement play area and have a great time. When I moved to Washington, DC, I attended a few First Night celebrations, which were great fun. And the Catholic Alumni Club managed to pull off a good party or two, when the conditions were right. And other years I would just hang out with friends and stuff myself with more junk food than you can imagine. But all of that has been fleeting.

Unfortunately, when it comes to New Year’s Day, what I remember most clearly are the bad things. Many news programs and services have “year in review” articles that tend to be recaps of whatever bad news transpired during the previous 364 days. Growing up, I remember my father going into a fit of melancholy whenever the bad news was revisited. Perhaps that rubbed off on me. On January first I often find myself thinking back on what I’ve done wrong, could have done better, or failed to do entirely, during the previous year. Even when I was at a party and having a grand time watching that ball drop, some small part of me was always thinking back on the bad that is in the world.

So for me, New Year’s Day has never been a day of big celebration. Thanksgiving and Christmas were the days I think about how wonderful the world is, and how lucky or fortunate I am. New Year’s Day has long been the day I think about the things that are still wrong with this world, how much pain and suffering there is out there, and think about how far we still have to go.

So to everyone reading this, I hope that 2015 brings you good fortune. And let’s all try to make 2015 the year that we solve, or at least alleviate, some of this world’s pain.

At the very least, let’s make 2015 better than 2014.

Wally World

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Blazon of a retail giant, or a sigil of greed and evil?

This past holiday season, I remember seeing a lot of complaints about Walmart. Most of these complaints were about some very understandable concerns. Walmart is notorious for treating their workers like used tissue paper by offering poor wages and little or no health insurance. They are also infamous for stocking unreliable or mediocre products. But I think the biggest thing people dislike about Walmart is that the Walton family is rich beyond the dreams of Avarice, while the people who shop and work at Walmart are frequently at or below the poverty line. There have been many attempts to cut the retail giant down to size, or at least force them to pony up about certain things, but in the end nothing ever happens to them. Personally, I doubt that anything ever will.

For starters, Walmart is very hard to avoid. Those big stores are like fat stones in a garden bed: they just keep turning up. In many areas of the country they are the only viable source of dry goods for miles around. They’ve been known to run other, locally run stores out of business so as to insure that they are the only game in town. (That’s certainly unethical, but the notion of “kill or be killed” is an inherent fact in a free market economy, so it happens.) In my home area, there are a variety of dry good stores, but for certain products it’s either Walmart or nothing. Some have said that in cases like that it’s better to “do without” than patronize Walmart, but is that realistic? I recently needed certain tools and equipment to handle a problem in the yard, and the only source for the equipment I needed was Walmart. Personally, I avoid Walmart whenever possible, but sometimes I have no choice.

Second, and more importantly, are the prices. Around here, Walmart tends to have the lowest prices and the widest selection within a 70 miles radius. One of the reasons Walmart is so successful, and why the Walton’s are so repulsively rich, is because of the generally low prices and huge retail net. However, those prices are kept low largely by limiting employee benefits and stocking cheap, imported products. So the low prices aren’t without penalty. Even so, people around here are well aware of the unethical methods Walmart uses to insure such prices and selection, but that doesn’t stop them from patronizing the stores. Why? Because people have needs, and Walmart can fulfill them at a price that is generally lower than most others. That’s as far as the thinking generally goes, and that’s as far as many people are able to think. When you’re talking about a population base that is struggling to live paycheck to paycheck, going with the lowest price available is almost a necessity. People who are living at or below the poverty are even more restricted, because they may never have the luxury of considering anything other than sticker price.

It’s common knowledge that patronizing of Walmart will allow them to continue to pull their unethical shenanigans. But when you’re talking about people who have to regularly choose between fighting corporate corruption and keeping clothes on their back and diapers on their children, it’s pretty clear which way they are going to go. The battle against Walmart’s corruption will have to be carried out by the people who don’t need to rely on Walmart. Unfortunately, they are greatly outnumbered by the people who do.

That’s probably why all the news stories about Walmart’s lack of ethics have not, and are unlikely to affect them. Walmart knows where they stand in the current economy: they have made themselves indispensable. People the world over would have to completely stop shopping in the stores for several straight months before any boycott or embargo brings results. Given everything that Walmart has done to secure their position in the world of consumer commerce, forcing them to change would be exceedingly difficult, if not impossible to achieve. From a business standpoint, that’s a brilliant position to be in. But for consumers, it stinks like a thousand angry skunks.

As my wife says, the Walton family are modern-day robber barons; throwbacks to the Gilded Age. Truer words would be hard to find. Now if Walmart starts paying their employees in company script, then we’re really in trouble!