One Conservative’s Challenge: Starve the President of the Attention He Craves
My recent articles on TGDN were based in a philosophy much deeper than some follow chain built around bad information, or its morally questionable creator. The network was simply a good opportunity to illustrate a mistake we often make as conservatives on new media.
Thankfully, TGDN blew up in its creator’s face, and many saw with their own eyes how cults of personality and manipulation of the ignorant can hurt our movement. Despite this moment of providence, there is still much work to be done.
Leftists, and sadly some in our communities, are bullies. Bullies crave attention. They survive, and often thrive, on the attention we give them. Many in our communities also believe the shameless can be shamed. So we continue tweeting to and about Piers Morgan, MSNBC, and Barack Obama, as if these committed leftists care at all about what the passionate members of the right-wing of new media think of them. In fact, they likely revel in our discomfort, and our constant ranting about them gives them the recognition and power they so desperately crave. In our current culture, the only bad PR is no PR. Sometimes a fire burns so intensely the only way to put it out is to starve it of oxygen.
I’ve said here and elsewhere that I believe culture influences politics, and done my best to argue for supporting those in our ranks that can create content based in our values system that can be mainstreamed into the media consumed by both the left and the right, the political and the nonpolitical. So I’m putting my money where my mouth is.
Tomorrow night, as the President prepares to give the State of the Union, and most in our ranks prepare to shame his every word on Twitter and Facebook, I will be doing something different and I ask you to join me.
I will be playing a free, live, online concert during the State of the Union. My music is good enough to compete in the mainstream marketplace save for the entertainment industry’s bigotry against it. If you’re really enough of a political junkie that you feel you need to ingest every word of the State of the Union, you know a few things: The text will be available before the address; watching it live and commenting about it won’t change a thing; and every political commentator, from Rush Limbaugh all the way down to the “pajamas media” will spend the next three weeks dissecting it. But if you refuse to watch it, and encourage others to do so, you’re starving President Obama of the one thing he craves more than anything in the world: attention.
For my part, I promise to put together a compelling performance that pushes my current resources to their limits, which are admittedly low due to our culture’s obsession with supporting those they hate more than those in their ranks. The purpose here, other than to practice what I preach about culture and the bullies on both sides of the aisle, is to provide a better alternative in the free market, and challenge you to support your values system.
The show will be free, available to anyone who can stream live video on their computer or mobile device, will last the duration of the State of the Union and the opposition responses, and will not be archived or replayed. Somebody has to change the culture. I’m asking you to rise to my challenge and meet me at my website - www.markscudder.com - at 8:45pm EST tomorrow and support one of your own instead of inadvertently supporting President Obama with your undivided attention and your useless shaming.
You can show up early if you’re a first-timer or you want to make sure your computer or device will load and play the stream. There will be a live chat filled with other patriots who I guarantee will become fast friends. And when we’re done, we’ll have done something very important – we’ll have sent a message to President Obama unlike anything we’ve ever done: “You’re so wrong I won’t even reward you with my attention.”
Of course, this idea won’t exactly be popular. People are conditioned that every voice matters, comfortable in their illusion that shaming the shameless makes a difference, and it will be a challenge getting lots of people to make the switch. That’s why I’m also asking for your help before the show. Share this article and the link at my website below, all day today and tomorrow. Make sure you’re at the show, and post the link to my website multiple times during the show. Tweet about it with the hashtag #sotc - “State of the Culture” – and encourage everyone you know to starve the President of attention and conserve the energy they use shaming the shameless. Challenge them to refocus that energy to people in our movement who can make a difference in the culture.
I hope to see all of you tomorrow night, when we make a statement together about culture that I hope will be the first of many.
Before the concert:
Share this link today and tomorrow: http://www.markscudder.com/news/sotc
If you’re on Facebook, RSVP to and share this event: https://www.facebook.com/events/350395931740349
If you’re on Big Dawg Music Mafia, RSVP to and share this event: http://www.bigdawgmusicmafia.com/events/state-of-the-culture-live-online-performance
Tweet about it with the hashtag #sotc
Starting at 8:30pm EST Tuesday night:
Begin sharing this link: http://www.markscudder.com/live
Tweet about it with the hashtag #sotc
About Mark Scudder
Mark Scudder is a singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who happens to be conservative. Not a fan of parodies, praise music, trite flag-waving, or hot country, Mark's poignant lyrics, epic arrangements, and studio-grade production has been largely ignored by conservative new media celebrities. Undaunted, Mark's most recent release, "The Solution is the Problem," was recorded and produced entirely in front of a live camera, streamed for fans and friends on the Internet.
