Spoon vs Shovel. It's been a marketing thing and a manufacturing thing. Since nearly the beginning of our industrialization, the makers of products drove the market like sheep. "We made this here handy Model A. It comes in black, black, or black. You need it. Buy now." The products expanded but until recently our options were still dictated to us by the production lines. We had three TV networks because three companies decided to go into broadcasting. We had short skirts when the manufacturers chose to make them, and long skirts when they decided they wanted to sell us something different. They all pretended they were trying to follow the trends, but were in fact setting them. The point of their manipulation was to keep changing the big picture so we'd have to refocus and buy... more, different, better.

This... is changing. We're no longer content to let corporations feed us with a shovel. Just because they make it, does not mean we need it. Just because they made a new model, doesn't mean we can't stick with the one we have, thankyouverymuch. We're moving from macro to micro. Just look at the proliferation of micro-breweries, not only for beer, but for bottled water and soft drinks too. Producers don't have to find the drink the world needs, just a drink with a market niche that's sufficient to keep them in business.

Indie films are another example. Blockbusters still come along now and then, but not necessarily from the big studios. They can no longer accurately guess what we want, not that they ever really did. We just chose from the limited offerings. Now, we can go to the multi-plex and pick from among umpteen films to satisfy our more individual entertainment desires. We have 150 or so channels to chose from on cable or satellite, including movies, so we don't even have to leave home.

It's quite an interesting twist really. Seems that we started the whole industrial revolution because necessity was the mother of invention. Then for a while, invention was the mother of necessity. (We make it. You gotta have it.) Now we, as individuals, are beginning to say... "You know, I think I'd like to have...." and searching for someone who makes it or does it. Even better, many creative folks are starting to say... "You know, I'd like to make or do..." and as soon as they begin, a market may appear. If we don't like what the brick and mortar stores are selling or can't find what we're looking for, we can surely find a supplier online.

And that's what it comes down to, I think, communication. We had narrow channels of communication, often bound by limited geographic reach. The reach expanded with radio, then TV, then broadened with cable and satellite. All of that helped connect the world, but when the internet was born, it helped connect individuals across the globe.

We started at the bottom, grassroots ideas growing into big manufacturing and top-heavy bureacracies. Now the upper echelons, too far removed from the fray and trying to chase (or dictate) the will of the masses, may be disintegrating. The masses are becoming more like the individuals they truly are. They're exerting their preferences and distributing their power and influence. We're getting back to grassroots. We're making and demanding change from the bottom up and we're no longer willing to support the superstructures. Now that we can deal more directly with each other, we don't need them and don't appreciate how they have tried to rule us.

We become the superstructure. We are the net. We can build, make, do, be... as individuals... within the larger framework that is Us.

I'm not saying it's all going to be an easy transition. Restructuring rarely is. But, I think it's progress and I'm glad we're growing up.