Digital vs analog, smooth vs coarse: human vs non.

After the night's rain showers the day breaks on Memorial Day, the Monday of the 3-day holiday weekend late in May. Rather than wait for the annual neighborhood waste collection (and electronic waste) day, somebody on this street has left the unwanted equipment at the curb as a signal that anybody can claim this, whether it is functioning or not. On sunny days it bakes, on rainy days it feels the wet.

This computer monitor is a pinnacle of human ingenuity, built from generations of high-level mathematics, materials engineering, design expertise, manufacturing and supply chains, along with the electrical engineering prowess. But seeing it juxtaposed by millennia of grass biology, rooted in its terrain and following the rhythm of the surrounding season prompts reflections about the contrast of digital thinking (all/nothing, on/off, zero/one, black/white; context mostly ignored) to the earlier and coexisting analog way (all parts connected by layers of webs; context is the foundation).

Consonant with the idea of hubris, of human overconfidence in one's own skill or the invincibility of technological solutions to any obstacle or threat, this image poses the question: will human economic activity extract life and value from the rest of the planet until, finally, human society disappears; or, instead, will humans find the ways to limit harm and impulses of advancing personal advantage at the expense of fellow humans and to the habitats of air, land, and sea where other living things exist. Excesses of extraction from natural resources, excesses of production and price reductions, and excesses of consumption (use then discard) lead to scenes like this photo: unwanted or superseded possessions littering the edge of one's property for others to claim for reuse, repair, recycling, or repurposing before the things or its leftover parts finally arrive at the final resting place (solid-waste landfill).

In the first generation of personal computers, the equipment was relatively rare, expensive, and well-cared for. Now entering the third generation of new PC users, the computing power, memory cost, and purposes that software can be applied to is much different. Universities and other knowledge-intensive sites of human activity have established 4 or 5-year rotation cycles to replace perfectly functional old equipment with new editions, so quickly do the advances eclipse the older models, much as predicted by Moore's Law. For early adopter's of home computing to see a sleek LCD monitor discarded casually like this would be astounding. By imagining a time 25 years from now with all the PC advances that go along with the passing years, perhaps even more astounding sights at the edge of streets will greet the viewer. 

Unneighborly verbal altercation - leaf blower sends grass cuttings onto parked car

 

Past the yellow fire hydrant two city police leave defendant to speak with plaintiff at nearby house

A little before 10 a.m. on Friday the lawn mowing service had mown the client's grass, cut the edges, and was just about finished with the noisy, gas-powered leaf blower to dissipate the cuttings off the client's sidewalk and driveway. That is when the adjacent homeowner came striding with purpose to confront the man with the blower to express his offense at cuttings blown onto his car and driveway. The confrontation began at full volume: both the decibels and the choice of fighting words, rather than less accusatory word choice and tone of voice. So the worker being verbally attacked replied in kind, adding lewd gestures and posturing to amplify his replies. Back and forth the temperature of the verbal wrestling proceeded until the nextdoor man pulled out his cellphone to video record the worker and his vehicle before then warning him that the police would soon arrive, presumably to adjudicate the plaintiff point of view and perceived injury by lack of respect from the worker that he was aggravating verbally by assault.

This photo shows the two officers after hearing the worker's perspective. They already heard the plaintiff in his phone call to the dispatcher. It took perhaps 10 or 15 minutes from first threat from the plaintiff about bringing the police into the matter until the car arrived. First one uniform approached the worker slowly, in case the situation was explosive. Since the man was relatively calm, the second officer joined the first to listen to the account from the worker's point of view. What happened next is the two policemen went to the house of the plaintiff for further discussion. After a total of maybe 10 minutes they left the scene, the worker in his truck and trailer departing before that, having been told there was no more for the moment and therefore that he could leave for the next client's lawn.

Since the verbal bout could be heard at a distance, the experience as a spectator was worrisome. Since so many people have applied for "concealed carrying" of pistols, it is not impossible for one or both men to have been trigger happy. Nothing did happen with guns, although verbally there was gun banter. The whole episode illustrates something about city living, leaving aside its paperwork, communication snafus, and any additional procedural consequences. 

In villages there are layers of family-to-family history, interrelationship, and shared stake holding. So conflict resolution by individuals or representatives for each side can typically come to some arrangement involving apology and restorative justice so that the offender makes whole the injured party or parties. But in larger urban settings the social fabric is held together by rules and ordinances and is enforced by professional law-keepers. Since most person-to-person intersections involve strangers, these formal systems and infrastructure is how problems are solved.

In the history of societies and their civilizations and languages, new words and rituals and titles and rights/responsibilities are created. In urban environments since the density of ambitions, greed, and dependence is much higher than in villages or tribes, there is a concentration of boundaries, differing opinions, and levels of experience in handling difficult topics and injuries - verbal or physical or financial. In the case featured above, one middle-aged or elder man felt injured when his property (car) was affected by the grass cuttings landing on his side of the property line. Due to this offence, he felt entitled to shout abuse at the one blowing the cuttings. Since the verbal attack was unaccustomed and unexpected, the worker's hackles were raised and he replied in mirror image by heaping abuse on the offended homeowner and then amplifying the venom for good measure. The next step escalated to requesting the services of the armed police. How the matter ultimately ended is not obvious, except that the police did indeed arrive in a timely manner and speak respectfully in word and by nonverbal communication (posture, eye contact, tone of voice and so on). Then the worker was released from waiting and the police drove away.

National flag variations on a theme - speculatively

 

What looks black in this flag*could* be political expression, or maybe is simply a very new flag 5/2024

Without talking to the owner of this house and looking closely at the fabric, it is hard to be sure if the dark field for the 50 stars that represent the 50 states (though not territories or Washington, DC) is regulation navy blue, or instead is specially created with inky black to make some sort of statement about light-pollution and a love of skygazing, for example. For the purpose of essaying the many meanings and uses (and abuses) of the national flag, though, let us speculate with the assumption that, yes, this flag is made in red, white, and black. What are some of the possible meanings the homeowner wishes to show publicly?

From the October 7, 2023 terror assault from Gaza and continuing more than seven months to today, there is the plight of the Palestinian civilians (about 35,000 killed by Israel Defense Force activity, mainly women and children). Since college campuses in many parts of the U.S. have student demonstrations against USA contributions of weapons and intelligence and money to the I.D.F. there are also private property owners who express solidarity for (or against) Palestinian abuses in Gaza. Then there are also USA flag variations ever since the Coivd-19 lockdowns early in 2020: the monochrome flag with just one band of blue through the other white stripes to signify support and importance of (armed) police to the overall social stability. Another version swaps the blue line for a red one to signify firefighters and paramedics responding to emergencies. Once in a while a porch flies a 13-star, colonial era flag (stars in a circle, Betsy Ross design) to signify "getting back to purest, original principles of the Declaration of Independence, article of confederation and the U.S. Constitution" (implying that 2024 conditions and amendments and legal wrangling, federal budget size, etc are wrong). Much rarer are the "don't tread on me" yellow flag with the serpent made of 13 segments to show the power of the united colonies against outside forces. Also rare: flying the USA modern flag upside down as a signal of distress - not of the householder, but that person's interpretation of international headlines and domestic events. 

Looking at the photo in this case, though, it is very likely to be a particularly dark fabric dye for navy blue; not a political statement or outburst of barbaric yawp that paints a dark picture against which the stars shine especially brightly. Playing with colors and symbols makes possible multiple interpretations; more than one meaning at the same time, depending on the standpoint of the viewer. This flag's condition could mean a range of figurative or symbolic meanings and also be nothing more than the buyer seeking out the deepest blue they could find for no other reason than to withstand fading of the sun in summer and winter, day after day. Still, there is some use in speculating untethered from the house owner's perspective. That is because the ocean of Internet, print, and broadcast information and entertainment intersects with education and personal reflection in any given moment's particular Public Discourse; a sea of meanings that exist simultaneously in the eyes of those expressing the matter and those reading or responding to the matter. By probing the many kinds of possible meaning, not just confined to the specific case of the particular person, the larger pool of images and words also can be joined.

Strange cult of (false) power - gunshot sounds

 

bullet-looking private listening to block out the world

Even though most people seem to move about on rubber tires in 2 or 3,000 pound vehicles of glass and steel, a few can be seen on foot. That is the pace that allows one to gather up recycling litter and other debris like this pair of earbuds that seem to have a damaged wire. Many listeners have switched to bluetooth, wireless earbuds, prone to falling out of the ear. But others continue to use plug-in miniature speakers like these. However, most designs are sleek and futuristic; not shaped like things seen elsewhere around the society like the bullet shaped (and sized) design in the above photo.

Leaving aside the audio specifications and listening experience contained in this electronic gear, the fact that listeners would pay for this design; and that manufacturers (and retailers) would see a market to pitch to brings several thoughts to mind. One is about the attraction of gun references in popular culture: on lunch boxes, bumper stickers and T-shirts, car window decals, social media #meme art, and so on. How can it be that something causing so much harm by accident, self-harm, and used in the commission of property and personal crime also is so prominent, seemingly normal and even desirable. Perhaps there is allure in the old idea that by holding something just a trigger-pull away from murder, there comes projected threat and power in one's own control, despite the statistics that show the one pulling the trigger many times is the one wounded or worse. 

Since this pair of earbuds was discarded near a combined high school and middle school a few weeks before the school year ends, maybe the already uncertain nature of rapid social change in-person and online is compounded through the lens of individual change of puberty and high-stakes social status and personhood that comes in the hallways, classrooms, cafeterias and locker rooms of teenage school years. In other words (leaving aside the subset of pressures for gangs and territory and violence), when the society leaves a person feeling disempowered and the music or podcast listener also is in a life phase of low-agency (parents, teachers, bosses, police and judges dictating the rules), then the symbolism of wearing bullet-shaped earbuds says something like, "keep your hands and your rules and your scrutiny off me" or else I'll resort to bullets.

Second, the plastic body to which the black silicon earpieces are attached has been shaped and colored in facsimile to .45 caliber bullets, short and fat. In this case the dimple where the firing pin hits the primer to fire the projectile indicates the shot has been fired. Is that detail meant to amplify the authentic look; or is it part of product narrative - as if the old brass has been repurposed to hold electronics, making a kind of pun: now powerful sound comes from the brass where there once came a powerful kinetic blast.

Third, maybe there is a baked-in ambivalence expressed in visual, non-verbal communication. By showing others you are not afraid of bullets and that you routinely handle them, in a kind of (anti) halo effect, you insinuate yourself with an aura of danger and of skirting the law in willful exertion of individual, ego-centered celebration of self: unfettered by polite (civil) society, trust, courtesy, and rules of status quo that seem only to support and extend the life chances of people with knowledge, (inherited wealth) money, authority and power.

Probably there are still more standpoints to take when interpreting the attraction of accessories to wear for others to see, while also functioning as musical and spoken word devices. But the fields of meaning that are connected to imagined power to affect the attitudes and actions of others, in the context of social changes and uncertainties of status, and the weekly news events of gun violence at mass or at personal scale, does indeed shed light on why such designs are manufactured, retailed, and are then purchased by (young) people in 2024 in the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan.