Fun_People Archive
22 Aug
Just when you thought it was safe...

Date: Tue, 22 Aug 95 12:02:09 -0700
From: Peter Langston <psl>
To: Fun_People
Subject: Just when you thought it was safe...

Forwarded-by: joev@halcyon.com
From: http://virtumall.com/zines/8track/

Why 8-Tracks?

Eight-track collectors are the archivists of a unique and glorious
technology. We embrace a machine that has ceased to exist in the present,
one which Madison Avenue has, arbitrarily, made synonymous with "last year's
model," obsolescence and backwardness (they scream, "You don't have a
cellular phone yet? You probably still listen to 8-tracks..."). We are a
group that refuses to believe it when corporate America insists that the
new technology sounds better; a group whose members understand implicitly
the relevance of looking back in history in order to see forward.

When you say yes to 8-track you're generally saying no to the accepted
wisdom of our hallowed consumer culture, decrying this religion of
consumption as the worship of hollow, deceptive idols.  The format is not
so important as the information within it, so the plan of corporations to
make you re-buy the same music over and over again on different formats is,
as one tracker puts it, "backwards thinking." Commit an act of consumer
disobedience with us and reject the unjust laws of a marketplace ruled by
greed. Follow the way of the 8-track and reap the spiritual rewards that
come with renewing and recycling instead of stepping in line with the cattle
so captivated with the consumerist culture that ultimately benefits only
landfill brokers.
			(source: 8-Track Mind)

[YOW!  I sympathize with the content-over-format sentiment... but 8-track?!   
Hmmm... Have I sold out to the consumer culture?  -psl]

© 1995 Peter Langston