Inventors, artists, philosophers and writers come and go, but buzz is forever...

For too long I've put up with Ph.Ds within all realms of academia parroting one-another without having read the primary sources: this is called intellectual laziness, but also a byproduct of the hustle and bustle of our era. Only a couple here and there would say, "I don't know anything about that subject... I need to learn more." Another historian I studied under (he studied at the mighty U of Wisconsin, Madison) always repeated, "No matter what you hear mft, always revisit the sources yourself: they will not disappoint." This has proven the case time and time again.

Here's a neat little piece by David Brooks, about how those Pseudo-Intellectuals need to keep up with their game -- it's important for picking up chicks. Get more technology is the key.

...there have been three epochs of intellectual affectation. The first, lasting from approximately 1400 to 1965, was the great age of snobbery. Cultural artifacts existed in a hierarchy, with opera and fine art at the top, and stripping at the bottom. The social climbing pseud merely had to familiarize himself with the forms at the top of the hierarchy and febrile acolytes would perch at his feet...

This code died sometime in the late 1960s and was replaced by the code of the Higher Eclectica. The old hierarchy of the arts was dismissed as hopelessly reactionary. Instead, any cultural artifact produced by a member of a colonially oppressed out-group was deemed artistically and intellectually superior.

During this period, status rewards went to the ostentatious cultural omnivores — those who could publicly savor an infinite range of historically hegemonized cultural products. It was necessary to have a record collection that contained “a little bit of everything” (except heavy metal): bluegrass, rap, world music, salsa and Gregorian chant [not to mention Tuvan/Mongolian throat-singing]....

But on or about June 29, 2007, human character changed. That, of course, was the release date of the first iPhone.

On that date, media displaced culture. As commenters on The American Scene blog have pointed out, the means of transmission replaced the content of culture as the center of historical excitement and as the marker of social status.