subject: the "staplings" of mediacommunication
time: 8:52am
music: the boy who giggles so sweet - emilliana torini
mood: resolute

space-bound

so earlier this morning it has come to my realization that, for the past few, i have submerged myself far in too deep in frivolous matters. of what do i mutter in small words and tiny breaths so that i do not betray conscience and emotions which are felt so truly and thoroughly that unless we share a united conscience, it is not possible to speak accurately of this conundrum. i am ... thus far, accomplished.

the unbridled spread: what harold innis called the "penetrative powers of the price system" was, in effect, the spread of a uniform price system throughout space so that for the purposes of trade everyone was in the same place. the telegraph was the critical instrument in this spread. in commerce this meant the decontextualization of markets so that prices no longer depended on local factors of supply and demand but responded to national and international forces.

the spread of the price system was part of the attempt to colonize space. the correlative to the penetration of the price system was what the composer igor stravinsky called the "statisticalization of mind": the transformation of the entire mental world into quantity, and the distribution of quantities in space so that the relationship between things and people becomes solely one of numbers. statistics widens the market for everything and makes it more uniform and independent. the telegraph worked this same effect on the practical consciousness of time through the construction of standard time zones.

similarly, the spread of identity and individualized lifestyles of 'youth and alternative culture' no longer exists (assuming that it ever has existed). it has been bastardized by commodification and the statisticalization of the minds, by mass production and distribution/re-distribution. we are in fact living in a world where cultures have indefinitely lost all meaning and any bout of authenticity and individuality that has ever existed have been mired into obscurity; the very thing that jean baudrillard meant in a "world of reflection".

- Harold Innis' "Staples Thesis" & Jean Baudrillard's "The Precession of the Simulacra"