Jim Jones

Shoko Asahara

Pjotr Kuznetsov

Get it? Scary stuff.

Today, like yesterday, I was locked away all day on jury duty. And in bunkers, the mind gets preoccupied with silly things (sensory deprivation is the biggest threat to sanity, it’s the fastest, cheapest and most certain method of brainwashing).

Like matching yet two words. Today: rumination and constipation.

Like infections, constipation is a fairly common theme after (but not before) christmas. What probably springs most easily to mind is the explanation that people get problems with their bowel movements because of all the christmas food and binging.

I’m not saying over-eating has nothing to do with the christmas constipation epidemic. But maybe the eating is not the whole truth? After all, we binge around easter and midsummer as well, name two examples. And not that many people seem to suffer constipation around those times?

Rumination, running scenarios from the past in one’s mind (which would be more common just after christmas), has been found to make you a lesser tennisplayer, volleyball player, basically perform worse in any kind of sports, and ruminating people tend to be less optimistic overall. Not being able to perform and not thinking future efforts worth the while – could that not be symptoms of rumipation?

“Reflection” rhymes with “infection”, ever thought about that? Probably not, that’s something only a professor with an inclination to over-think things does.

When I was sick out of my mind, suffering from a stomach infection the last few weeks, I thought about the linguistic similarity between “reflection” and “infection”. They could easily be merged into one word, “inflection”. Which would not necessarily be a coincidence. They share semantics as well.

I was infected not long after I engaged in reflection for the first time since summer. Right after the christmas rush, and before the new year had kick-started, I stopped and reflected on what I had done and what had happened in the past half year. And -wham! – down I went.

Talking to people around me, I realized that I was not the only one who was down and out after christmas. Come to think of it, a lot of us have been sick around that time over the years. And around that time, a lot of us have paused and looked back.

Could the reason why so many of us get sick and infected have to do with reflection rather than the cold climate at the time or some kind of virus cycle? One argument in favor of this is that the number of infections seem to be far greater immediately after than immediately before christmas – two points in time sharing the same climate and virus prevalence, but divided by a “looking and racing forward” /”stopping and reflecting” dichotomy.

A second argument in favor of “inflections” is that while anticipation is an active, high-energy state, reflection is a passive, low-energy state – which would make us less resistant toward and less able to fight off viruses.

I, for one, will keep my eye on the horizon from now on…

Last week, I wrote about facebook-offs.  Before the week was over, two celebrities got to taste this wonderful world of any treat:

Amy Winehouse was dumped by her troublemaking husband Blake Fielder-Civil. Just of out jail, and finally in reach of an internet connection, he logged on to facebook and gave Amy the boot in favor of German model Sophie.

England’s prince Harry got news by way of the press that South African sweetheart Chelsy Davy had changed her facebook social status to “single”.

In the world of any, not even have-it-all, well-connected celebrities can escape, anyone can be facebook-offed.

At the same time, anyone, anywhere can find out about the facebook-off immediately, even before the dumpee. And with all the RSS:ing, pinging and virtual cueing, anybody can stand in line to take the ex:es place. Just imagine the opening lines:

“Hey, Amy, wanna go on a date with me?” “Not really, I’m with Blake, you know?” No you’re not, didn’t you know?”

Just like we categorize ourselves as IBL (Involved But Looking) on dating services, the rest of the world will view us as ITFN (Involved Til Further Notice), subscribing to updates on our social statuses, ready to call first dibs when there’s an opening. 

My guess is, Generation-In-Charge will prefer a more proactive stance to the risk of being dumped. Before long, facebook accounts will probably be filled with IBC statuses (Involved But Casting), where suitors can form a line just in case.

Tomorrow, Bruce Springsteen’s new album “Working on a dream” will be released. Or rather, tomorrow it will be officially released by his record company (here’s some food for thought – how long will record companies be called record companies? It’s starting to be like calling car manufacturers “carriage manufacturers”, since once upon a time they made carriages, which eventually translated into cars. Today, record companies manufacture and sell less and less music in the form of actual records, soon they won’t at all. What should be their new name?)

No surprise in a new millennium with 2,920 times more impatient consumers, the album has been out for more than two weeks. Just browse some of the millions of “working on a dream bruce springsteen” google hits, you’ll find all the information and sounds there is.

Has Bruce lost sleep over this? Probably not. Quickly adjusting to the new business rules in the Expectations society, the Boss and his crew bank our impatience in a number of ways. First, long before the songs were leaked, anyone, anywhere could pre-order them anytime on brucespringsteen.net.  Just ask radiohead (or read the Nextopia book) how much money that’s worth. Second, last Saturday, anyone could download the title track for free on iTunes (certainly a benefit iTunes consider worth money). Third, the story is not all yet. Next, there are the anticipated Guitar Hero tracks…

We’ve gone through a number of examples here previously on how facebook can cause a lot of trouble for blogarazzi – that is, our tendency to spill the beans on everything private to us without really realizing that in the world of any, anyone, anywhere can eavesdrop anytime (go back to the fall’s blogarazzi-bummer-week posts for some fun, or scary, reading).

Well, facebook does not just make for eavesdropping. As the name suggests, it makes you(r face) reachable for anyone who wants to speak their mind, too. Thereby turning the good old face-offs into Martian language. Why suffer a physical face-off when one can arrange a less embarrasing facebook-off instead?

Blogs all over the world are filled with stories about people having been dumped by their now-exes by way of a facebook-off – a simple way to go about for the dumper (but potentially extremely humiliating for the dumpee when done with a wall post, for example). Some dumpers claim it’s the only way – as the dumpee purposely stays out of reach for a face-off (presumably fearing an upcoming break-up).

In the world of any, you can’t hide anywhere.

Related to yesterday’s post, now reports are coming about people being fired by way of facebook-offs as well. Staying home from work or going away on some assignment can’t stop people from being canned as long as anyone can reach them on facebook…

OK, that became rather a low note to end the week on. Expect more positive posts next week!

Next Wednesday (January 28), mastermind Anders Rydell and I will be talking with each other and all the smart people who show up about Nextopia, the future, and other fun stuff that comes to mind.

At O-Baren, Sturehof, in Stockholm, 5.30 pm. Speak your mind, speculate, socialize, see you there!

To see more details and RSVP, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=57343918311

Lay-offs have never ever really been fair. Who’s to say who gets to stay and who has to go? Is one boss or one small management team really the best to judge? Few would probably agree, and Generation In-Charge would not necessarily stay silent in the matter.

Which they didn’t when Belgian advertising advertising agency So Nice announced a few weeks ago that they would have to fire one of their eight employees by January because of the difficult times. Within days, 15,000 Belgians visited the company’s website youchoosewefire.be, browsed through CV:s and personal pleads, and voted for their (least) favorite So Nice-employee.

In the world of any, anyone can be Donald Trump.

Or the Anti-Donald. In the end, all the attention enabled So Nice to generate enough capital to keep all its employees. And facebook groups keep popping up where Generation In-Chargers across the world join forces to fight lay-offs of TV anchors, factory workers, sub teachers…

One fundamental aspect of the world of any is that it is impossible to be unique with anything after you have done it, whether it’s an achievement, a product or what have you. Anyone, anywhere can study your performance, pick it to pieces and reassemble it with a twist, to run faster, jump higher, make a cheaper and more advanced competing product, reaching the world’s attention anytime.

Case in point: Yesterday, Obama went Webama. Today, the government of Kazakhstan is issuing a similar program, where ministers are expected to chat regularly online with the public.

I once received the question, “isn’t this Expectations Society you’re describing just a metropolitan area, big city phenomenon – for example, in Sweden would it really go beyond the three major cities?” Well, it didn’t take long before the leader of the world’s most advanced presidential campaign got copied by a leader of a considerably less advanced campaign. And internet-savvy as Swedes, Finns, Americans and the rest of us may be, the latest statistics I saw suggest that the Iranians are even more blog-intensive than us, with the highest BPC (Blogs Per Capita) in the world. The Expectations society keeps the Iranian people running their next operas,  the American and Kazakhstan governments chatting online, and no doubt Swedish small-town people clicking their way to the Chinese Democracy songlist just like the rest of us…

For some reason, this reminded me of this oldie, with an extra “o”, remember it (if you’re old enough…)?

OK, so last year’s monster expectity is now installed. No longer president-to-be, he is just president. Which will make it a lot harder for him to remain the most powerful man in the world (just ask George W). Obama, of course, realizes this, so I’m sure we will se a lot of efforts to form new expectations and keep the world looking into nextopia.

One way to guarantee that the president stays in the alluring-almost (remember that one from previous posts, meaning that an element of uncertainty, almost knowing, but not for sure, intrigues us the most? Check out the alluring-almost-week and refresh your memory!) is to invite Generation-In-Charge to reign. In the world of any, anyone, anywhere can affect the political landscape at anytime (just ask John Edwars, Eliot Spitzer, Sarah Palin et al). Realizing this, Obama is transforming himself into Webama by announcing that he will publish bills, pending laws and reports on the web for anyone to voice their opinion about, discuss, and suggest improvements on. He intends to publish two speeches a week on youtube for anyone to comment on, and he urges his ministers to regularly engage in online chats with the public. 

Webama is proof of how much the world of any has changed the political landscape, and how Generation In-Charge makes four-year representation terms totally Martian. Why would we settle for voting for a person who is going to make all the decisions for everyone for the next four years? We can all do it. Yes, We(bama) can!