(2003-05-02) Cultural Democracy

Paul Schmelzer interviews Siva Vaidhyanathan on Intellectual Property. Both Democracy and Creative Culture share this notion that they work best when the raw materials are cheap and easy and easily distributed. You can look at any cultural development that's made a difference in the world - reggae, blues, crocheting - you can look at any of these and say, y'know, it's really about communities sharing. It's about communities moving ideas between and among people, revision, theme and variation, and ultimately a sort of consensus about what is good and what should stay around. We recognize that's how culture grows. In the last 25 to 30 years, the USA government made a very overt choice. The United States government decided that the commercial interests of a handful of companies--we can name them as the NewsCorp, Dis Ney, Aol Time Warner, Vivendi--these sorts of corporations were selling products that could gain some sort of trade advantage for Americans. Therefore all policy has shifted in their favor... (Big Media).

This sort of creative circle--the drum circle or the blues-singing circle--is simply the most vivid image we have of these sort of creative communities. These creative communities are all over the place. Anyplace artists gather, any place musicians just jam for the fun of it... I think that this is a powerful form and a powerful habit. It's also an important part of being human. It's the essence of being cultural. We're not missing those communities; we're just not investing in them and celebrating them like we should.