Something very interesting is happening around the world right now. Whereas we have all been united for the last few years in suffering a worldwide almost-Depression, we are now finding ourselves united in another kind of battle – a battle between the old way and the new way.
The Recession as San Andreas Fault
They say that when an earthquake happens of gigantic magnitude, the earth actually gets tilted a bit on its axis, thus altering time by one second. The great recession of the 21st century seems to have had a similar effect. Of course, in the marketing world, this is not breaking news. Before the recession, we were debating whether or not print was dying. Now we are asking if our websites look okay on the iPad. Would this transformation have happened without the great crack of hard times? Probably, but maybe we would have focused on the transition a bit more. We were occupied with tight credit and the actual danger of bank runs.
Well, in the world at large, something similar has happened. There has been a revolution. The shot heard round the world happened at some point, but we all missed it. The battle is not about politics. It’s not about US versus Al Qaeda. It’s not about Israel versus Palestine. Rather, this revolution is about the old ways versus the new ways.
Freedom is the word
What is most striking, to me at least, about events going on in Madison, Wisconsin, my own home state of Ohio, Bahrain, Yemen, Egypt, Algeria, and Libya is that in all places, the word you hear most, or see most visibly, is freedom. In contrast, you see people who are seeing the battle as an attack on the old ways, the proven ways. In Egypt, people were not chanting, “Let’s do what the US wants us to do.” They were celebrating the new-found freedom that they were fighting for to actually make change. Mubarak represented the past. Freedom was the present. As an almost perfect tribute to this battle, relics from ancient Egypt were attacked in the Cairo museum. You can’t celebrate pharoahs when you’re crying for freedom, after all.
In Madison, Wisconsin, where workers’ rights are under attack, the protesters are chanting, “This is what Democracy looks like,” as if we had all forgotten that we have the right to assemble. People protesting the protesters, who often are affiliated with the Tea Party, also affiliate themselves with their interpretation of what America’s founding fathers would have wanted. Old versus new, though of course in the US Democracy is not really new. It just seems we forgot what it meant.
In Bahrain, Libya, Yemen, and Algeria, people are protesting the old ways. They are protesting dictators, oppressive rule from European countries, and a lot more. What’s newer still is that the US is not jumping in. In these countries, the leadership is fighting back without mercy. In Ohio, our governor has suggested that anyone who protests should be fired on the spot.
You can almost hear the words echoing down through the centuries. “Let them eat cake.”
Clinging to the ancient past
And yet, while all of this is going on – while the senior citizens in Prichard, Alabama, who have not received pensions for years are fighting back at council meeting after council meeting while the mayor sits by stone-faced, while the people of Madison, Wisconsin, fight for what they have earned, while the people across the Middle East fight for the freedom they have been yearning for, old ways are thriving in other places. Nothing is more symbolic of the old ways than the fact that invitations were sent out for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
Revolution on one side, royals on the other. And there’s the rift.
The World is Changing
Have you ever watched the development of a little baby? When they’re first born, they kind of are like a really sweet smelling, cuddly raisin. Then one day, they realize that they have fingers. Then they discover their toes. You can almost see the recognition grow in their faces. “Oh, hey, that voice means I get to eat now!” Or, “Wow, no one told me about this rolling over thing. That’s terrific!”
I feel like the world is kind of going through that recognition state right now, in many different places. “Oh, so, I can make a difference in my world, really. Wow. That’s amazing.”
But there are a lot of people who don’t want to see those changes, and they will fight hard to keep what they are used to as the status quo. It’s not really about political parties or ethnicity or religion. It’s about the old versus the new. It’s about print versus web. It’s about the internet versus mobile.
Which side of the great divide are you pinning your hopes to?
image by Richard Simpson. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/nzric
I’m glad I waited to comment. My son is 25. He and I had a conversation yesterday that sparked a lot of things, but mostly about how much power his generation has. He has noticed a significant number of his peers who are “opting out” of the consumer economy. They ask themselves if they really need this thing or that thing and most often, the answer is “no.”
Further on into the conversation, he reveals that he and a friend were talking about how powerful their generation is — not politically — but socially and economically. When a significant number of his generation and those coming after him choose simply not to buy houses, not to get married, not to do all these things that are the life path of the previous generations, they could bring down an economy. We may even see the starting cracks of it as we speak.
Our economy is like a pyramid; it depends on the next generation to be consumers, to fill the treasuries with all sorts of tax revenues like sales tax, property tax, use tax, etc. If we just quit buying, we also need less income and pay less income tax. It doesn’t take a vivid imagination to see what that does to a government machine long-term.
If we add into it a generation that expects the starting price of everything to be free and negotiable down from there, we see the end of companies offering a freemium model. Very soon, we will be unable to pay for things in the currency of our identities, needs and wants. That data would be worthless to merchants who look to advertise to a population who is unwilling to buy anything with money currency, rather expecting to pay for it with data currency. And if the price is money, consumers are no longer interested in owning whatever is being sold.
The shot heard ’round the world for opting out of the consumer market may have already been fired. I know I’ve been there for the past several years.
Wow, that’s a fantastic addition to the conversation.
I have to refer again to that book Ad Women that I read recently. It traced the moment when teenagers became targets of marketing – right around the 1950s, when people were getting really excited about the money Baby Boomers were spending while also realizing that they were having lots of kids who may also want to spend money. For young people at that time, spending money was a symbol of becoming grown up.
Now, though, as you say, free is becoming the expectation, or at least really really cheap. Netflix was the first thing that really drove this home to me. $12 for as many movies as you can watch versus nearly that much to rent one for a couple of days? Shesh.
Thanks for this!
$8.00/month now for streaming only.
This is a wonderful post Ms. Clayman, I enjoyed it, especially the parallels and contrasts you so aptly draw 🙂 I believe there is no question there is a generation awakening around the world. I also believe those rising up around the world had the conviction and the courage. The younger generation in the United States is on another wave length. They are not oppressed, they have the rights and freedoms to do just about anything. However, most choose the easier way and in many cases that’s the way they’ve been brought up – to expect, and that they are ‘owed’ something.
I am a child of the 60’s and 70’s and I have often missed the rebels and protesters of my generation. I guess the young take to the streets in another way – some, and a few, have changed / innovated, the landscape – and in the end when you think about it, have provided a catalyst for change to happen around the world. But those few are far more the exception.
I believe Rufus Dogg also has some excellent points.
Yes, there are revolutions going on around the world. they were inevitable – there was no way aging, corrupt, repressive regimes in the Arab world could have continued – finally, it took one “young” man in Tunisia who did not die in vain.
The real question is what will it take to wake up the revolutionaries in what should be our next great generation?
America is a strange place right now, to be sure. We are going through a hard time, and yet compared to most other places in the world, we still have it so good. And yet – we don’t seem to know it. We also as a society seem genuinely disinterested in preserving the rights of those who aren’t doing as well. That has to have people around the world scratching their heads a bit, I’d imagine.
It’s true that a lot of the revolutionaries are younger, but I’m not sure that’s a prerequisite. A lot of the people I celebrating in Cairo didn’t appear to be teeny-boppers. But it’s a new way of looking at things, which perhaps the younger set bring.
It would be great to have a Martin Luther King around today. I wonder what he would attack first.