Since the “Bono is an Idiot”-post caused a bit of an infection (for the record, I don’t REALLY think that Bono is a idiot, though he did act like one in this case), let me add a slightly more serious perspective to the debate.
In the climate debate we sometimes forget that it’s not Earth that has the problem. Earth just reacts to whatever happens to it. Carbon is released from earth into the atmosphere? Fine. Earth gets warmer. Big deal, Earth says.
Humans and several other species on the other hand DO have a problem with this. Why? Because there is too little time for us to physically adapt to the rapid changes in the climate caused, ironically in this case, by ourselves. Something will have to give, and it will not be Earth. If we sit around with our heads in the sand, waiting for Earth to change, we will not do so well. For us to survive WE will have to change and innovate. Painful but true, and an eternal truth.
Likewise, creativity does NOT have a problem. It’s a force of nature. It will keep reacting to whatever happens to it and just keep going. It will take a hell of a lot more than change in technical distribution to make it disappear (though we DID have a similar anxiety attack when radio came along and changed distribution last time around). Creativity will just shrug its shoulders and say – distribution changed, big deal.
Record companies however, DO have a problem because they don’t react quickly enough to changes in the environment. Something will have to give, and it will not be creativity. Businesses sitting around with their heads in the sand waiting for innovation to stop will not do so well. Instead, they will have to change and innovate. Painful but true, and an eternal truth. Too.
Technically speaking, one has to be clear on which are the variables and which are the constants. When introducing a disturbance to any stable system, something will have to change for the system to reach a new stable state. Let’s make sure we focus on changing the changeable variables and not the eternal constants of nature, because THAT can prove quite costly in both cases.
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