World Trade Centers

Well, like a lightning bolt from Hell, it came to me in the Mitternacht. What happened (already installed and accepted) to education and health care (no basic service, pay as you cough specialist care for those who can) is now - via the agency of the internet (remember, structurally designed to be de-centralized and flexible and free) is now happening to Culture. That is, it's being fragmented and privatized. What used to be ‘out there’ and available, if you cared to catch it, or which filtered in even if you didn’t realize you were actually catching it is now only available on a pay-as-you-consume basis.
This isn’t clear. Too many complex sentence clauses
What it is, is this: Bob Dylan has just released a new, long-awaited (or not) studio album. Go to amazon.com to buy it. But, he’s also released a small run cd called ‘Blues’ which is only available through Barnes & Noble. O.K. if you have a local B&N in town, [NB this is a compilation of previously released songs, which must be a record for recycling - though these are the albums most peope will buy, play and hear] or over the net. But what if you live outside of the US? Well, no extra Bob’s for you. Course, Mr. Zimmerman also plays private corporate events for a fee, which humble non-corp mortals are not invited to (which is the whole point). Not that I’m carping at Dylan, who has certainly given enough, released enough, and still performs enough for any interested person to catch him and his works. The point is, remarkably, once again culture is becoming fragmented and specific, unavailable (?elitist?) and no longer fulfils its function of bonding and drawing together diverse individuals around a common idea or enthusiasm. What inaccessible geography restricted in the past, however, (Tuvan head singing; Aborigine drumming) is now accomplished through the barrier of money. Added value comes from exclusivity. Like Rolexes and Chanel No5. And if you cannot buy into that new club, then you must content yourself with the freely available bundle of channels and products, greatest hits and abridged magazine extracts - or to put it as plain as I can – the crap that is force-fed everyone as ‘mass culture’. WalMart, McD, universal information channels (TV, movies, leisure press) coming from one basic source, deemed as consensus.
The evils of a society are always found in consensus.
Anyway, it’s the 5th anniversary of 9/11 today, and the morphing of a supposedly open and expansive (in the best sense) society into a closed, fearful and conniving society seems to be going very nicely, thank you.
Fly which flag?