kidmercury

Below are assumptions I'm making. The conclusion I've come to is that celebrity pop culture is what gets us out of this economic crisis.

1. The Internet will be the primary means of media distribution.

2. Because the Internet reduces cost of production and distribution increasingly to zero (though we are not there yet with bandwidth costs, especially with video), the ability to charge for media will fall to zero as well. If you took any microeconomics courses, you may be familiar with the notion that price will eventually equal marginal cost (the cost of producing an additional unit, which the Internet reduces to near zero).

3. The way to make money in this world is to use the media to earn trust, and to build a brand. For instance, on my trading site, we publish media -- videos, blog posts, interaction with the community -- that creates our brand, which is meant to be associated with learning. I tend to think a company's mission statement can do quite a bit to clarify what the brand is.

4. In addition to building a brand, free media needs to be used to build a community. Or rather, in the next phase of the Internet, brand-building and community-building are a bit synonymous.

5. How to make money? Sell products/services that reflect the brand to the community. Create them yourself, resell them, or both.

6. This is where I think things get interesting, as in many media niches, specifically those that are not function-oriented but rather are art (i.e. music, film, photography, etc), there will be an opportunity to sell a lifestyle. One person I always think is well-positioned to do this is Jason Mraz (see our song for Jason). Through his music, blog, YouTube, and Twitter, Jason does a great job of creating and selling a modern "hippy" brand: he promotes organic food, the beach life, phony "sacrifice yourself in everyway for mother nature" environmentalism (which is all meant to advance the global government agenda -- see our archive on global warming), and of course, gay rights and women's rights. Those two are my favorites, that is like "you say this stuff you get free points for being a good guy." Hahahaha. Jason's a smart guy. But girls have nothing to complain about, especially when girl-vs-girl cattiness is as epidemic as it is. And isn't domestic partnership practically the same as marriage, there are barely any differences, this is the most overhyped thing ever.

7. Essentially, what we have here are full-blown civilizations: a culture (the brand), an economy (that reflects the culture), and people. The wild card, as we discuss regularly, is the economic crisis, which in reality is a currency crisis. And so, these niche economies will need their own currencies, which paves the way for their own government to manage monetary policy. All the while, the American empire, the foundation of the global political system, is collapsing under its own greed.

So what's left? A world in which the nation-state is replaced by niche culture communities. In the not too distant future, loyalty and patriotism won't be feelings you associate with the United States of America (hopefully you're not a sorry sap and dropped those feelings long ago, definitely after you found out 9/11 was an inside job). Instead, you'll associate those feelings with the art and culture that reflects who you are. This is how art changes the world!

Because this post is about how we're on the brink of a whole new world, the song for the post is "A Whole New World." Check out this guy's cover. In particular, note the intro, in which he encourages people to interact and respond to the song. He gets the future!