Kwanzaa: Ujima

 Kwanzaa Day 3: Ujima. Collective work and responsibility. Groups can have standards and responsibilities that hold the line against the tidal wave of capitalism.

From last year's posting...

What better way to engineer food than to create a strawberry that farmers can grow year around that is bigger, redder, and more flavorless with each generation? The same pattern holds true for bananas (bigger and less flavor), tomatoes (bigger and less flavor), and most industrially farmed fruits and vegetables. It's very easy to change tastebuds to the point where nobody knows what a real strawberry taste like, the color of fresh orange juice, how I rose used to smell, or that watermelons had seeds in them. The same is true in art. 

You can mass produce content that is bigger, louder, and with less flavor. The goal isn't to evolve the form but to dull all sense of quality so that more viewers accept the flavorless version. 

The people who remember how a strawberry used to taste or how a movie used to make them feel are snobs. They are elitists. They are joykills who are ruining the great big harvest of flavorless content that is pumped out year around like big, red, empty strawberries. 

Protect your tastebuds. Remember the taste of real tomatoes, the magic that made you fall in love with film, quality music. Don't let them shove bigger, louder flavorless food in front of you and call it cinema. You're not crazy for feeling numb inside. Your tastes determine your perception and your perception determines your quality of life. 

Be a snob. Mediocrity isn't harmless. Flavorless fruit isn't acceptable. Flavorless art isn't mindless fun. It poisons the well of evolution.