The Democratization of Information

photograph by Bryron Rollins (Associated Press)

For good or bad populism is holding sway. Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders both presided over uprisings against the leadership of their respective parties. The same may be said about data. With the advent of  Google (which provides the mechanism by which anyone can become a blogger) and Amazon (where anyone can self publish), Thoreau's "mass of men" no longer need "lead lives of quiet desperation"; information has become like a dam which is in danger of overflowing and flooding the farmlands it was formed to irrigate. Take news for example. There was once a news business presided over by respected entities which represented varying poles of the ideological spectrum. Back in the 50’s a Hearst publication The Journal American represented the right and Dorothy Schiff’s New York Post, the left. In between were The New York Times and The Herald Tribune. You still have major papers, albeit fewer ones, in most areas of the country. But now the populace is no longer ready to defer to Jimmy Olson, the star reporter for The Daily Planet. You join Facebook and suddenly you’re a chronicler of the era. The internet is flooded with all kinds of sites that have been created by self-appointed primary sources. Few are ready to stand down or defer to the authority of those with more experience in the field. If you cross the Turkish border and find a way to keep your head on your shoulders (literally), then suddenly you’re as good as AP or the old UPI. If you take picture you're Magnum. Who’s to stop you? This leveling or democratization of information naturally has its positive side. For instance no recent election has created as much interest as that between these two widely detested candidates. But the downside is that there's no possible way to parse out all the input. The result of everyone having been given a voice is deafening roar.

Citizen Bezos

The Times ran a piece about the acquisition of The Washington Post by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. The price was $250,000,000. “The purchase price of $250 million is a pittance for a man who ranked 19^th on the Forbes Magazine list of billionaires, with an estimated fortune of more than $25 billion (“A Mogul Gets a Landmark in the Capital,” NYT, 8/6/13), the Times noted. Communication makes for strange bedfellows. The Washington Post was once the proud fiefdom of the Graham family, whose prominence like that of the Sulzberger clan derived from the creation of a great journalistic enterprise. Now The Washington Post is a mere plaything for one of the most prominent of the new generation of super magnates who have landed on earth from cyberspace. Star Wars has overtaken the Fourth Estate. Just when everyone is thinking the newspaper business has become moribund, it becomes apparent that the seemingly arcane world of print journalism still catches the eye of modern moguls, who possesse a level of wealth never dreamt of even by Citizen Kane, aka William Randolph Hearst. Warren Buffett is another billionaire who dabbles in newsprint (and in the same price range as Bezos, his holdings valued at approximately $344,000,000 too). On a lesser scale the Han Solos of high finance like Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes have snared small though prestigious catches like The New Republic. How long before The NewYork Times and prestigious Conde Nast publications like The New Yorker become the trophy wives of billionaires?

Death Takes A Holiday

“Americans as mobile in death as in life”  is the phrase Michael T. Luongo  uses in a recent Times Business Section piece (“Even in Death, Mobility,” NYT, 10/24/11). And listen to the ancillary organizations and personnel who have cropped up to service this trend. Muneerah Warner of the Warner Funeral Home in Philadelphia heads up a women’s funeral organization entitled Funeral Divas. Ms. Warner, who has arranged  “South African funerals for clients born there,”  remarks that while she has not traveled in her work, “You would like to go because your work is being finished on them (the cadavers) in another country.” Speaking of finishing, Luongo quotes Rob Matt, “a hairstylist  with salons in West Hollywood and Palm Springs” as saying that “he had traveled to render what he called  ‘hair services for end-of-life care,’  usually to longtime clients, ‘to be there to see how they appear to others when they pass.’” Luongo goes on to describe a division of Delta called Delta Cares which is the largest carrier of “human remains, moving about 25,000 bodies a  year.”  The head of Delta’s North American cargo operation Andy Kirschner remarks, “People are traveling more. They pass away when they vacation or in different areas when they are away from home, and this is why we see an increase.” You can even purchase what is essentially funeral travel insurance in case you die during vacation  and need to have your remains shipped home. Luongo cites Neill O’Connor of the O’Connor Funeral Home in Laguna Beach who offers such coverage for $285. Death is, of course, the ultimate vacation and the trip across the Styx is reputedly more relaxing than the average cruise.