Clowns Inc.

"A man of parts is happy in a company of fools (i.e. clowns- VK). But a man who is whole is sufficient onto himself."-- Confucius

Over the past couple of months, people, including some old friends have suggested that I join MySpace, Linked In, and/or Facebook. I succumbed to Linked In for career reasons but I think I may withdraw myself from there. I find that most to all of these social networking sites to be very gauche, very middle class. Everybody's on them. It reminds me of Yogi Berra's comment, "that place is so popular that no one goes there anymore." It's akin to popular clubs in Manhattan where the bridge and tunnel masses bump into eachother and sink to the lowest level of existence...the abyss. I admit that I used to hang out at these places and I do from time to time still and still will if a hot exclusive place opens up. Just to check it out and make sure that I haven't lost "access" to wherever I wish to go. But in a nutshell, these places (clubs, sites) where the masses congregate is not my cup of tea. One can not have a decent conversation nor civilized environment where one can feel civilized. It's a zoo. I feel the same way about MySpace, Facebook, etc. and in fact, I poo poo it and the people in it. It's just a different level of consciousness and I'm not jazzed about that level.

The other aspect that I do not like about these types of places/sites is that it shows how many people are connected to you or know. It infers that more people you have connected means that you are THAT cool and you're obviously all that. Street credit, bling, bling... bullshit. I prefer quality over quantity. Who doesn't say that? Everyone says, I prefer quality too. My answer... go fuck yourself. Everyone has an opinion (and an ass hole too) to go with it. I am not bitter about it, just disgusted by the lip service. If you're quality than what's with the social network bigger than Verizon (commercial). I prefer people with less than 10 friends vs. one with a whole lot of clowns. That to me is some (not sole) indicator of a quality person.

Incidentally, some people are very selective about wines, books, places, food, clothes, etc. and for good reason... we have limited time and we want things to be most worthwhile during that time. So, one would think then, shouldn't friends and relationships be selected most rigorously?

McDonald's... billions served. Clowns Inc. Hey, "Food, folks, and murder! It's fun! Come check out our dollar menu too! Afterall, billions served. That's good!" Ohh puhleeez me nigga, wake me up when it's over-- VK

An anecdote, perhaps appropo for this theme. In the late 80's there was a very high end boutique in Manhattan called Charivaris. It was a chain of 3 small boutiques only in Manhattan. They ONLY carried Gaultier, Matsuda, Comme des Garcons, Issey Miyake, Yamamoto, few $1,000 silk print Versace shirts, and pocket cameras. They went bankrupt. But they had an advertising campaign one year where appx. 80% of the Manhattan public phone stations were covered with their black and white text ads (no pix... just letters centered on white background) that said, "Charivaris, never coming to a mall near you." No lipservice and billions NOT served. Amen.