Design is the last bullet print media has in its revolver

Design is the last bullet print media has in its revolver. Magazine and newspaper as an affordable piece of mass art — that’s their chance at survival. Either that or perish like cassette tapes.

On second thought, I guess even cassette tapes or records can be salvaged by a few aesthetic snobs with a flair for the old and vintage. This means the medium of paper therefore has a real chance at surviving in a meaningful way (and not just as an alternative for the technologically tardy), because a lot of people still want to curl up with a tangible thing that can give you a painful paper cut. People still want to physically leaf through stuff they are reading.

My suggestion is to exploit that nostalgia. Become beautiful (hire real graphic designers, not some guy who lays stuff out), interactive (origami, anyone?), and worth having (become an attitude/intellectual status symbol). Do things web pages can’t, like being tangible and “there”. Make sure that the paper everything is printed on looks fantastic, smells nice, feels great, and screams environmentally friendly — that’s probably the only real defense against the crushing tyranny of Internet. Make it easier and more fun than searching online for good and relevant content.

On that note, a random idea for a magazine:

Custom designed magazine.

Have a large selection of articles/essays/interviews/roundtables/etc. that belong in many different sections (i.e. science, technology, design, art, humour, pop culture, literature, politics, religion, cultural reporting, etc.) and put them up online. The content is very important, but the editorial design that accompanies the content will have to be particularly varied and phenomenal. The subscribers can then go online once a month (this means the articles can’t be terribly time sensitive), choose the articles (based on excerpts and accompanying design) they want in their magazines (have them pay per article or give them a page limit). They can then add sudoku puzzles, crosswords, riddles, horoscopes, and other embellishments that are usually included in magazines. The subscribers’ requests will then be received and printed accordingly. Each magazine printed will be different and the subscriber’s name should be placed at a prominent location (“property of _______”).

Potential benefits.

Having chosen the articles they decided were relevant to them, people would be more likely to read/use every page of the magazine (something we rarely do ordinarily), which means trees will not have died in vain and little in general goes to waste – and this would also mean that the magazine will be jam-packed with content individuals want and consequently more meaningful to them personally.

Feedback?

Comments regarding this? Suggestions? Criticisms? Other benefits? Ways to improve the idea if it’s not too insane? Massive flaws I am overseeing? I am aware of the probable expensiveness of printing custom magazines, the ridiculously large workforce this project would require, and questions like “what would happen if the subscriber doesn’t have the time to choose the articles?” (maybe they should have default choices, based on pre-chosen keywords and/or previous selections – kind of like Google ads). Speak up! I’d love to hear what you all think.

On a rather unrelated note, I am incredibly excited about this endeavour!

ETA: Apparently a magazine sort of like it exists (existed)! http://www.slate.com/id/2219063/ Thanks Cooper, for letting me know. I should’ve done more research, probably.

Hatred be stilled by hatred

Take a look at the KKK website (http://www.kkk.com/) - but only if you are not white. Of course, it’s truly unfair that I can browse the website out of academic interest in the middle of the library (avoiding my stats exam) without being accused by anyone of white supremacist beliefs, while a caucasian would not dare. It’s unfortunate, because I know well that you only would do so out of curiosity and disgust. Still, it probably would not be a good idea to visit the site if you are white, because a) if you are in public space, people will accuse you of being a white supremacist, which you may have a difficult time refuting, if only because denying racism is rarely convincing – and b) if you are alone in your room, I guarantee you that you will feel disgusting and violated afterwards. So don’t visit the site if you are white -the satisfaction of your curiosity is not worth it in this case.

They are suffering from unusually high traffic (in the light of the recent election, some people must be realizing their own bigotry and checking out the infamous group – or maybe some are made curious like me) so it does not direct you right away to the main site. Although I have checked out the group on wikipedia before, I never even thought of checking its website out! I didn’t think they would have such an active community online, but I am clearly mistaken. It seemed too much like a thing of the past, no longer relevant in our times. 

There are reportedly about 5,000 to 8,000 members of ”the Klan” among an estimated 179 chapters today. Certainly, it is a huge decrease from its peak in 1924 at 4,000,000 members. The site sell T-shirts, buttons, books, and stickers. It streams a white supremacist television show. You can print out a legal form from the site to ensure that in the case of your death, you children will be adopted by a heterosexual, white, and Christian couple. The site also claims that KKK’s doctrines are about love, not hate. It’s not about hate, but about God, America, and white fraternity against those that threaten them with their homosexuality and darker skin.

So a few questions: are they innocuous as long as they do not lynch anyone? Can we condemn them for just believing these things, although they do not quite act on it (yet)? Although Winston’s thoughtcrime was one of freedom and love, a KKK member’s “thoughtcrime” is a hateful and disturbing one – but does that distinction allow us to punish them for their “thoughtcrime”? It’s a slippery slope! The website is a shameless outlet of their hatred, but can we punish them for a website? After all: freedom of opinion! And especially on internet, where anonymity is possible.  

Although they are a minority, I do not know how comfortable I feel about a single one of them remaining in our society like a “benign” tumour. I would like them off the streets (does that make me prejudiced and fascist?), if we can’t reform them (which we realistically cannot) - but direct and overt oppression has never worked before when dealing with a fanatical minority group. They’ll be martyred and elevated as the “victims” of the society (e.g. Christian movement in Ancient Rome), which is dangerous - which I guess is why the government takes no real action against these local and relatively/arguably powerless groups.

Should we just wait until the organization starts acting on its impulses? Or is it in the process of dying, made obscure as a defunct ancient cult? Or should we just let it be? Freedom of opinion?