Some of the critics of those of us who believe in creators’ rights sometimes argue we believe that title, and occasionally, when I’m really frustrated with the incredible arrogance and hypocrisy of some of those critics, I might even think that myself. But before you light up the comments field, I am not seriously positing that theory.

The apocalypse as a result of media piracy was one of dozens of end-of-the-world scenarios proposed in a fun game created by Slate in an article titled “How is America Going to End?”

If you choose this scenario in the game you get this statement:

The American film and music industries go bankrupt as piracy becomes universal. The United States ceases to be the world’s leading exporter of culture, and the country declines in influence as images of America no longer proliferate worldwide.

Actually, that scenario, perhaps less dramatically, is a very real one, although obviously it would not be likely to usher in the Four Horsemen, not even for the U.S. Many if not most of the scenarios posited are clearly tongue-in-cheek; my favorite of those is Laziness, depicted by an iPod, and stating this:

“Endlessly gaming, chatting, and chilling with their iPods, the next generation already has a more tenuous connection to ‘Western civilization’ than most parents appreciate,” historian Niall Ferguson writes. While everyone in France continues to take vacation in July and August, the next generation of Americans refuses to work except in July and August.

That is certainly evocative of the old-man gripes I have levied on my kids, who don’t hear me over the explosions in Wii Star Wars (the 10-year-old boy) and Pink jamming through ear buds (the 14-year-old girl).

Some theories are pretty credible, however, such as positing that the Chinese will unload its massive portfolio of U.S. Treasury securities. As a lifelong deficit hawk that scenario actually keeps me up at night. (Where is Paul Tsongas when we need him?)

I was disappointed that my own U.S. Doomsday scenario was not on there. Declining U.S. education standards, driven by low teacher pay and grade inflation, coupled with the devolution of our language through texting and Twitter (and yes, blogging), as well as the absence of solid journalism due to the erosion of business models to fund it, put us on a glide path to stupidity and lack of intellectual curiosity (perhaps even believing President Obama wasn’t born in the U.S.?), until we’re giving the Dark Ages a run for their money (but we’re too stupid to realize it because we no longer know world history).

Anyway, have a great day!

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 at 10:38 am by Patrick Ross and is filed under blogging, copyright opponents, creators, culture, economy, education, Obama, piracy, web 2.0. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.