Hours after my last barely coherent attempt at a rambling, Jon Katz goes and posts an article which basically hits the same issues with his usual well written, if verbose for some, prose.

So... the thing of it is, I seem to go through several fairly predictable phases when it comes to activism about such things. Last night (or this morning), reading all those articles about the evils of the music industry, I had an epiphony similar in effect (although less in magnitude) to the one I had years ago when I read Big Boy's big ole document about why we should all boycott Microsoft. (This was waaay back in the BBS days, when we got our content by dialing directly into the other machines' modems, if anyone can remember that far.)

Up until that point, I had thought of Microsoft as a basically good company. As far as I was concerned, they were the ones who produced DOS, as well as some of the other software I used regularly. Sure, it had its technical short comings, but it was what we had, it was accessible to a not-so-rich teenager such as myself, and I was generally happy to be using it over the alternative -- nothing (or, God forbid, one of those hideously black box-ish Macintoshes).

Naturally, my initial reaction to Big Boy's tyrade against Bill Gates and the corporate empire he had built up, was disbelief. But, still fascinated, I read on, and gradually became convinced that there was at least some merit to the criticisms against the world's largest software company.

I decided it would be a good idea to generally avoid buying products from the Redmond Beast, and told my friends of this, to which their initial reactions were similar to my own. I then referred them to the documents I had read, and many became similarly convinced that a boycott was in order.

As time passes, the weight of such convictions seems to fade. The initial revelations become a dim memory. Maybe they aren't all that bad. It really would be a pain to try to go through life without such an essential thing as OS software that everybody else is using (in recent times, s/software/(music|movies)/). Besides, in order to avoid contributing to the monster, one must be continually vigilant. Unfortunately, it seems that often with stuff like this, vigilance = negativism. And keeping a negative mindframe for extended periods of time not only makes life less fun, it's unhealthy.

So forget about all that bad stuff. Live life and enjoy it. Don't worry about things like principles, conscientious objection to tyranny that doesn't (yet) affect me directly. Don't worry about where the money I spend is going, or that it might eventually fund the destruction of everything I hold dear. Buy a shiny new copy of Windows 95. It's the direction the whole world is going anyway. We're all going to need to upgrade sooner or later. (Oh yes, I bought the FUD propaganda hook, line, and sinker.)

So now, here it is again. This time with a new face. Many faces, really.

When I find myself faced with the choice.

Option 1: Go along with it all. Discreetly ignore or rationalize away all the nasty things organizations I support by spending money on are perpetrating. Try to enjoy it all the best I can. After all, no matter what we do, there is going to be evil in the world. Why waste life by getting all our panties in a bunch? Look the other way. Focus on the positive. There's FUN to be had down there.

Option 2: Be the activist. Be like RMS. Insist on a strict personal adherence to principles, and refuse to support, in any way, anyone who does anything to violate them. This can mean a lot of sacrifice.

Usually, for better or for worse, I find myself taking option 1; until some alternative presents itself. Until Linux came onto my radar screen as something practical for me, I used Windows. I still get most of my music from the corporate cartels, but with mp3.com and other distribution channels who treat both artists and consumers with some degree of respect becoming available, I find myself considering them more often (although it's harder when one is limited to modem bandwidth).

With movies, it's still a bit more difficult. I suppose finding more of the theaters which show independent films would be a start. I'm sure there must be some in Boulder (being the type of city that it is) that just don't get marketed as much as the big chains. I've tried watching alternative films over RealVideo, some of which have actually had pretty interesting content. Seeing it in a viewing area not much larger than a postage stamp isn't really my idea of an aesthetic experience.

Oh well. Here's to another stream of musings puzzling over the whole mess.