I am a Weapon of Mass Consumption

and it's not my fault it's how I'm programmed to function

Taylor Swift is Time Magazine’s Person of the Year. There’s something about the power and omnipotence of Taylor Swift that’s unsettling. I don’t listen to her, but I know about her, I’m aware. I’ve heard a few Taylor Swift songs, they’re inescapable unless you’re off the grid, which I am not hardcore enough to be. That’s the nature of pop music, sure it’s short for popular, but to me it’s like soda pop, the addiction is in the sugar. Do you really like it that much or does it have a hold over you?

So yeah, Taylor Swift is not my cup of tea, but I became more interested in her when I found out she re-recorded her earlier records for licensing purposes. I respect this, the mainstream music industry is just a bunch of thieves. I’m sure you know about this deal, but here are some details.

‘The whole process began, though, back in 2019. That’s when the news broke that Swift’s old record label — Big Machine Records, which she left in 2018 — had been sold to music megamanager Scooter Braun. The sale gave Braun the rights to all the master recordings for Swift’s old music, meaning that anyone who wanted to license one of Swift’s old songs to play in a TV show or movie or an ad would have to ask for Braun’s permission and pay him a licensing fee. And given that Braun used to work with sworn Taylor Swift enemy Kanye West, Swift was devastated. In an emotional Tumblr post, she called the news “my worst case scenario.”’ (Constance Grady, Vox)

Swift also gave the people working on her Eras tour bonuses. This is from a Forbes articles from August 4, 2023:

‘The multi-award-winning entertainer clearly recognizes that she couldn't have done it on her own. Swift reportedly gave bonuses totaling more than $55 million to those working on her show. That money was distributed to her dancers, riggers, sound technicians, catering—and truckers. Multiple sources reported that Swift gave $100,000 bonuses to each of the 50 truck drivers of her tour before the Saturday night (July 29) show in Santa Clara, California—those amounts alone total more than $5 million.

Mike Scherkenbach, founder and CEO of Denver, Colorado-based Shomotion trucking company, has worked on several Swift tours. He referred to the money as “unbelievable,” “generous,” and “life-changing.”’

That kind of money is life-changing, and we obviously live in a time when people with wealth feel no imperative to extend to their teams. But

But…

I’ve wondered why Swift is so big, like the actual phenomenon of her, of all of it. She’s talented, so please, don’t @me, Swifties. The question is what are the mechanisms we live with, and under, for such power? There is a very consuming way we have access all the time to music and images, with no effort. The only effort is on the Congolese men, women and children who mine the cobalt necessary for the batteries in our phonies, electric cars and this very laptop I type on.

We have no barriers to consumption. I think this constant access is a big factor in Swift’s massive success. The frenzy of white women losing their minds, arena after arena after arena, that frenzy feels like a mob. It makes me uncomfortable, honestly it freaks me out. I’m suspicious when white women carte blanche love someone or something intensely. For the record, I am a white woman. We are a problem. We have proximity to power, but it is only for few, and the price to pay for it is high. Our level of protection because of this proximity is substantial, especially compared to other, more marginalized people. But man, when we need it, we will use our status as women to any and all advantage, and conversely, use our status as white to any and all advantage.

This isn’t as much about Swift as it is about Time Magazine. Entertainment and economy, that’s what Time chose for 2023. Most of us don’t read Time, maybe it will die off with the Boomers, but we pay attention to it. And what I’ve found, as the world becomes more brutal (we’re not even in the real election season yet wtf), is that we have limited mental and emotional resources. Maybe I shouldn’t be using my own to pay attention to this, except this is complex, all of it. We need to break through our binary tendencies to look at the nuanced ways of the world, its complexities, and how they are manipulated and presented to us as easy choices, either good or bad.

According to the Campaign to Protect Journalists, as of December 10, 2023, at least 63 journalists and media workers have been killed since October 7th, along with 17,000 Palestinians in the Gaza and West Bank. UN workers have been killed, health care workers have been killed, babies are killed, children are killed, women are killed, men are killed. No one is safe. People have to look up a QR codes dropped from the sky to see if they are in the right section of the ever-shrinking ‘safe’ Gaza. Mosques are bombed along with hospitals, human records erased, pasts obliterated, storytellers murdered. Real people, journalists and doctors, all of them targets without humanitarian consideration because there is no such thing, keep going, keep working, keep sacrificing and providing their humanity and care in a place where they are offered none. I’m not alone when I say these people are the people of the year.

Today, Monday, December 11th, 2023, is a global strike for the people of Palestine. No school. No work. No shopping. Do what you can, it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Despair is a luxury Gaza cannot afford. If you miss today, there will be more actions.

“Solidarity is the answer. The more of us there are, the more of us there are.”

Nan Goldin