The people don't like totalitarianism.
That's why the sanctity of elections is so important.
I don't know if this is news on the east coast. Maybe you went to bed before this story broke. But they're revolting in China, over the zero-Covid policy, as a result of the ten people who died in a fire as a consequence thereof and...
You don't protest in a totalitarian state anymore, BECAUSE THERE ARE CAMERAS EVERYWHERE!
Donald Trump may have skated, at least so far, but all those people who participated in 1/6? They've gone up the river, and they certainly don't have a paddle. There's endless footage, people have been identified, they've been brought to trial. And if they believe elected officials have their backs, the same ones pledging fealty to Trump, who only cares about himself, who will sacrifice anybody to maintain power, they've got another think coming.
I mean how bad must it be for you to put yourself at risk this way?
Or how much must you resent the regime in order to take action.
Example #1 here is Navalny. Poisoned, flown to Germany for treatment, he returns to Russia to go to prison! We don't have these people in America, the people prosecuted for 1/6 aren't standing on their beliefs, they're trying to weasel their way out, say they were misinformed, tricked, they'll say anything to avoid jail time.
But these people in China?
In Iran?
In Hungary?
For years we've been told about creeping authoritarianism, as if it was inevitable. About the anger of white nationalists. If you've lived long enough, it appears to be a horror show, as if the earth spun off its access and everything you counted on, believed in, has disappeared. Where is that kid in the Netherlands with his finger in the dike when you need him?
Now thirty plus years ago, there was a phenomenal track by Jesus Jones entitled "Right Here, Right Now." It was promoted by Charles Koppelman's team. And if you're scoring at home, you know that Charles just passed. Truly the end of an era. Of braggadocio, of believing self-confidence will take you anywhere you want to go.
And if you lived through that era, you can't believe it's over. If Charles can die, did die, that means...YOU'RE NEXT!
Not that anybody under thirty cares.
That old turn of the century saw about protecting the record industry... That record industry has disappeared. Along with the moguls. Along with their ability to steer culture. Charles' second breakthrough at SBK, after Technotronic, i.e. Vanilla Ice, has more impact, more staying power, more of a footprint than anybody on the hit parade today. Think about that. That's the world we live in.
One in which the prognosticators are aged and clueless.
"Right here, right now
There is no other place I'd rather be
Right here, right now
Watching the world wake up from history"
That was about the fall of the Soviet Union. Thirty years ago. Who knew Putin was in the wings.
And boomers are on the downhill slide, believing they've seen everything. And now they're revolting in China?
China is the bogeyman. Hell, there's a best seller about it, Celeste Ng's "Our Missing Hearts," I'm reading it right now.
China is the enemy. Even Apple is starting to move production, not only to India, but back here in the States. Everybody's freaked out.
It started with Jack Ma. Yes, you see Alibaba was just too big and powerful, never mind Mr. Ma himself. So what did Xi do? He crippled him, crippled all the techies, broke up the companies, brought them in-house. The screw was tightening. Everybody was supposed to be afraid, very afraid. And then the rank and file revolt?
Or as Bob Dylan sang, "When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose."
Then again, Dylan's tarnished his rep by the weasel move of having an autopen sign his new book. Forget his excuses, at first the publisher stonewalled. You're supposed to have respect for your fans, not rip them off. (Can you hear me Taylor Swift?)
But everything is grist for the mill these days. Nothing sticks, nothing lasts, you feel powerless.
But the power of one single person to change the world...
Like the overeducated fruit vendor who started the Arab Spring.
Ultimately that didn't work out so well, but that does not mean the sentiment went away.
So you watch video of these Chinese people protesting and the first thing that crosses your mind is...they're anything but backward. Yes, we've been told China is no match for America, how different it is. But the video tells us otherwise.
And they're not drones.
This is more exciting than any record, than any movie, even any streaming TV show. You see the creators are afraid, of pissing someone off, of leaving some money on the table, so they've sacrificed their backbones. Keep your political opinions to yourself. But the reason music was so powerful back in the sixties was because the artists were just the opposite, they wanted to make a statement, which they owned, and if it pissed people off, that was just fine.
In the endless hype for his new album, and it's starting to bother me, he's everywhere, Neil Young has been going on about climate change. Saying to tune out the gotcha for profit news the outlets are feeding you. To come together and address the problem. As for those who aren't with you, forget it. This is the sixties spirit. Although Young is depicting a dire situation, his ultimate message is one of optimism.
And Neil reached me, he got me to think. Which is the opposite of today's wanker musicians who just want to get you to buy.
And then there's the Twitter story... Having fired so many people, Elon Musk doesn't have enough staff to counter the spam from China, trying to take the focus off and hold back the news of the protests.
"Twitter grapples with Chinese spam obscuring news of protests - For hours, links to adult content overwhelmed other posts from cities where dramatic rallies escalated":
wapo.st/3U7nwdD Isn't this what the naysayers have been saying for weeks?
Everything's groovy until there's a crisis. Detroit and its just-in-time manufacturing blueprint...didn't work during Covid, i.e the supply chain crisis. Yes, we can't have excess inventory, it'll affect our numbers, the Street won't like it. Well, the Street REALLY doesn't like it when you can't make cars!
Nobody thinks there's a tomorrow anymore. This is what drives everybody wild about the government, it doesn't DO ANYTHING! Yes, I'm looking at you, Republicans. If you think this is satiating the public, you're completely wrong. If you go to work and do nothing...YOU LOSE YOUR JOB! (Well, maybe, it's really hard to fire people these days.)
It turns out you can only push people so far. Isn't this the point re Trump and the last election? The people without megaphones didn't like 1/6, didn't like authoritarianism, thought Biden was elected fair and square, and they voted and ergo the result. As for you fans of Trump... I'm doing you a favor, the sooner you get off the Trump train the sooner you can get back to victory. I'm not saying DeSantis can win, I'm just saying Trump cannot.
You see the people had too much.
The people can surprise you.
Like all the people not going to the movie theatre anymore. Why? It's a bad proposition economically and time-wise. Do movie theatres really have to exist?
But that's anathema in Hollywood. David Zaslav is so retro he's destroying the enterprise. If you make the trains run on time... You end up with a railroad. Great, but what about airplanes, automobiles? To quote the bard with clay feet once again, "He not busy being born is busy dying." All that crap about returning to the past... I want you to tell me when it's succeeded?
I rest my case.
But that's not my point. My point is we're at an inflection point in society. That is seemingly incomprehensible. There's a war in Ukraine and we might read about it, but we can't feel it. People are dying, there's no electricity, and we'd be shocked if the internet went down here, which it never does anymore. However, your power may go out if it gets hot or cold enough. Didn't that used to be a given, that the power stayed on?
Nobody in the media predicted these protests in China. They all talked about the power of Xi, his total control. But ultimately you can't control the people, there are just too many of them. And when you push them to the wall... Let's be clear, it's after the zero-Covid policy went on for years that people ultimately revolted, but they're not revolting only against that, but everything else that has them under Xi's thumb.
They're asking for him to go. They say they want democracy.
Really, just watch this, it will blow your mind:
"Footage Shows Protests Across China Over Covid Restrictions":
nyti.ms/3Vbwkk3 Don't think this doesn't affect you. Rust never sleeps. Anger doesn't dissipate. And it can't only happen in China.
Wow.
"I was alive and I waited, waited
I was alive and I waited for this
Right here, right now
There is no other place I want to be
Right here, right now
Watching the world wake up from history"
Spotify:
spoti.fi/3gMDJHj YouTube:
bit.ly/2A3cK24--
Visit the archive:
lefsetz.com/wordpress/ --
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart:
ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj -Apple:
apple.co/2ndmpvp --
www.twitter.com/lefsetz --
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1 If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters,
Unsubscribe To change your email address
this link 