Re: [ARSCLIST] was Mass Digitization-now why preserve

[Don Cox <doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 26/05/07, Steven C. Barr(x) wrote:

> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Karl Miller" <karl.miller@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>  So what is the value of our recorded history. How does one place
>> its worth
> within a context of what is valued by our current society?
>> 
> Well, I'll confine my comment to this statement alone...!
> 
> Our current society, having for the most part been raised with a TV
> set as surrogate parent as well as having increasingly discredited
> concepts like morals and ethics as "old-fashioned, useless
> bullroar"...values only things, concrete or intellectual...which can
> be useful in improving their social/ hierarchical position relative to
> other humans. Worse yet, we humans have increasingly become a
> conformist, "fad"-driven species!
> 
> Our younger people (as they probably always have) are entranced by new
> "recorded hits," which they MUST have to prove they are part of the
> (self-appointed) "elite" in their group(s). Our older people are
> primarily interested in re-living their youth (when they were young,
> attractive [as they think they recall] and didn't need any little blue
> pills...) through the medium of sound recordings that were part of
> that past era. When classical music gains any reputation, it is
> because it is perceived as the "chosen music of the social elite"...!

The ClassicFM radio station in the UK claims six million listeners.
Admittedly this station concentrates on the more popular classical
music, but those listeners can't all be in a social elite. 

I think most people start with the currently popular music when they are
young, and gradually broaden their tastes with time. That can lead them
into almost any style or period, depending largely on the accident of
happening to hear something.

> 
> Given all that, I personally view "...a context of what is valued by
> our current society" to do nothing more than more-than-adequately
> demonstrate the dead-end "race to the bottom" that defines the XXI
> Jahrhundert!
> 
> To me, "history" on any level...family (aka genealogy), local, state/
> provincial, national, international or ANY subset of any of those has
> an important function! It tells us where we WERE...where we ARE...how
> we got from the former to the latter...and what can be extrapolated
> therefrom as far as possible futures!
> 
> Further, as an Asperger's-Syndrome sufferer, and thus somewhat
> obsessive-compulsive...I am enthusiastic and fascinated by collecting
> data, entering it into some sort of digital database, and seeing if I
> can see any recognizable trends...in fact, im something exists in more
> than one form, I immediately set out to find all the examples and
> compare them, to see if anything is proven or disproven!
> 
> IMHO, we are fortunate that there still exist a few folks like
> myself... who evaluate objects and phenomena on something other than
> "How will this help *ME* to become richer, more famous, or otherwise
> socially/usw, superior to all those other clots...?!?!)
> 
> Remember that folks like myself achieve maximum satisfaction through
> finally finding a copy of Acme 123, which enables us to fill in that
> annoying blank space between our data records (or sorted phonorecords)
> that separated Acme-122 and Acme-124!
> 
> This is as close as I can come to a coherent explanation (but I figure
> that my quest for Acme 123, or data thereon, is significantly less
> dangerous to our collective future than the chap down the block's
> quest for the biggest, fastest and loudest SUV in his neghbourhood
> might be...!
> 
> Steven C. Barr
> 
Regards
-- 
Don Cox
doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx