Where do I begin?

I started The Daily Dirge as a companion blog to Cliff is Dead. It became apparent that a literary column such as CID required too much planning and forethought to be a frequent outlet. As such, the Daily Dirge was designed to be your typical ad hoc outlet for the day's events. In the case of The Daily Dirge, the focus will be on the sad march that we as Americans embark on each day as we race into commuter traffic, with a mobile phone shoved in one ear, talk radio barking in the other, a breakfast burrito in our face, a venti latté in one hand and the other hand tending to the menial task of driving our gas-guzzling SUVs.

It's about the stories we hear on the way. The office politics that great us at the door. The media that invades us at every turn. The ramifications of pop culture on an increasingly generic landscape. And the consequences of human beings becoming little more than consumers with credit cards.

Sounds like a funeral procession to me!
Well, it should. But not for the sake of living in apathy or greeting the day with a jaded grin. In fact, the objective is quite opposite -- take back the world, start a revolution, bask in enlightenment and prosper in a world that we, the people, control. After all, we've been hearing it for years -- the customer is king (or queen). So, if our destiny is to become de-humanized consumers, then let's at least call the shots. Unfortunately, we as individuals are quickly becoming commoditized by marketers and media, thanks primarily to our consumption of 21st-century commodities, which include everything from big box stores, chain restaurants, MTV, corporate radio, 24-hour 'news' channels, product pimps and magic-pill mentality.

So is this a call to arms?
Idealism might drive innovation, but rallying the troops merely begets special interests which beget special-interest propaganda and rhetoric. By shining as objective of a spotlight as possible on the elements that purport to undermine our character and integrity, the hope is that we make the decision to vote with our dollars, shift our perspective and take our society to another level. But in the end, it's all about the individual, the strength of that person's resolve, and the unspoken influence (s)he has on the collective whole.

Where do you want to begin?
Hell, it's an election year, so the possibilities are endless. But politics tend to be of the "he said, she said" ilk ... so focusing much attention on it really isn't going to further the charter of The Daily Dirge. We already know that mainstream media has a tendency to lean left because 90 percent (not a real number) of journalism/communications graduates are liberal to begin with. And we know that Fox News is anything but 'fair and balanced' because of the aforementioned mainstream media's natural limp to the left. So, it's ground that has been covered and is actually one of those topics that is self-perpetuating in a negative, pointless way.

Instead of even messing with the political agenda of the donkeys and elephants, let's wait until Monday to see what happens (although I reserve the right to have a little fun with how the media and citizens go ballistic over the Nov. 2 event). In the meantime:

Keep the peace.
Do the right thing.
Be true to your school.
Brush twice.
Eat your veggies.
Please be kind and rewind.
2+2=5
Judge not, before you judge yourself.
Do it for Johnny, man!

PX,
DS

PS Don't mind the miscellaneous pic of me skating. It was the only way to get a profile pic. :)