Centralization vs Decentralization. How to Celebrate A Graduating Class?
Entering the Future with an Attitude. What will it be?
Humanity is questioning its underlying assumptions. We could go back and start at the beginning of civilization- but that would require at least a quantum computer and/or an evolutionary transcendent human being. I am neither but the metric options of a long view articulate one of the underlying assumptions that we are fed through streaming informational channels. You have probably encountered the notion that one day AI will do everything and anything better than humans. That conclusion is based on a projection about the development of AI but does not include a counter projection of humanity as a developing species, currently said to use only 10% of our brain.
My point of departure is the Industrial Revolution, which is an era that doubled down the assumption that large corporate development and the centralization of both public and private resources is the way to go. Bigger is better. This assumption was set to auto until an unanticipated movement swelled up from the sea of consciousness disconnecting auto functions and saying it’s time to consider other options.
Bigger is better led to centralization and now centralization has become toxic, but that doesn’t mean we should unilaterally throw it all out, such an act in and of itself is a centralized response.
But today there is a universally awakening consciousness that too much centralization compromises our freedoms and destructively permeates our social relationships.
In my community, the future of centralization is represented by those promoting the fifty million dollar school to train the targeted professional classes, the workforce housing to serve the targeted professional classes, and qualified tenant advertisements on a Facebook site called Apartments and Home Rentals of Midcoast Maine, featuring beautiful young people either of the approved professional classes or with a young family, consistent with the target demographics identified by the Boothbay Region Housing Trust, despite what its non-profit mission says about serving the needs of all Maine people.
The developer community of Boothbay supports the influencer culture of beautiful perfect people brands, a cultural influence reflected in images of high school students, considered to be the most successful, posted high up on street light pedestals that decorate the newly developed center of Boothbay.
In my day, there was a concern over 12-year-old fashion models unduly influencing the self-image of the impressionable in a self-deprecating way. Today, everyone must present a glamorized brand of themselves to the world, to some rather humorous backlash. Some of it is artificial, and some positively capture human individuality, but the latter can only be seen from a close-up view, not hanging high above our heads on a lamp post.
At the pinnacle of the Center is the roundabout disrupting the traffic traveling to and from Boothbay Harbor and connecting the cultivated landscapes of the Boothbay Country Club and the Botanical Gardens, perpetually featured in economic development talking points as the primary assets of the future urbanized Peninsula
The influencer imagery of graduating high school students repeats the dysfunctionality embedded in the new infrastructure that greets the motorist as they enter our region, images posted on pedestals so high, that the motorist cannot observe them unless they are sitting in a traffic jam and otherwise serving as an external distraction categorically similar to texting.
Why was this location chosen rather than downtown Boothbay Harbor where there is pedestrian traffic? Or around the stretch of road surrounding the high school where traffic is slowed down at certain times of the day? Was it a pedantic power play over which area is the cultural center of the Boothbay Peninsula?
The influencer-styled glorification that the latest installation around the new infrastructure at the Boothbay Center selects a few to be raised so high that necks must be strained to view them. This is how the culture of centralization works. The chosen ones are the future cream of the crop, future leaders, the one percent, and the overlords.
And, strangely, a roundabout, and a dysfunctional one, is the new citadel of the centralized development cult. Everything takes place around the — NO NOT THE MAY POLE! — around the around about, so regally decorated with wreaths of repetitive plantings and photography showings! It’s the new cultural center of the Boothbay Peninsula and it’s just a stretch of a road!
Conceptualized Decentralized Homage to the Graduating Class
The decentralized approach to honoring the graduating class is a gallery presentation of photographic portraits of the entire graduating class as each one’s personal reinforcing branding image, displayed at eye-level view.
Branding images are supposed to positively reinforce their subject. Young people need to see themselves in a positive light and even to have someone else to show it to them.
A show of the entire graduating class done as branding images would be fascinating and a valuable gift to each and every graduating student. In today’s world, everyone needs a branding image. Send every student out into the world with at least one that they can use or not.
A show of all the students would encourage mutual appreciation for each one’s individual traits. It would be a challenge for photographers and an opportunity for photographers to display their talents.
Originally published at https://mackenzieandersen.substack.com on May 19, 2022. sign up for a free or paid subscription here
Mackenzie Andersen is an independent researcher and narrator.
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