Segarini – A Facebook Thread Bereft of Trolls and Hate
A conversation on Facebook can be a wonderful way to exchange ideas and share stories and experiences, or a field of quicksand littered with negative statements couched more in attention getting than contribution. While many of us wish to learn more about ourselves and the world around us, just as many are here on social media to argue, hate, spread rumours, be divisive, and generally either rain on your parade, or shit in your punch bowl. Like Wedding Crashers sent by a furious spurned lover to wreak havoc on a civil discussion by making it an argument. replacing discourse with shaming, bullying, schoolyard name calling, and mean-spirited opinions with no basis in fact.
Today, I share with you an actual FB thread that proves good conversation exists on social media sites, and that, frankly, you never know where they will go when the people having them take the thread in a different, but equally engaging direction. We start with the growing bigotry toward older people, and end up in the art department….
*The Thread….
*I have removed the last names of the participants, and all the FB windows, time signatures, reply buttons, etc…but this is the actual conversation as it was shared. I also added some pictures….
The single biggest reason why my peers and I can not only not get work, but are marginalized by being stereotyped as “old, out of touch, and without creative juice”.
Well…Bullshit.
I wish I could be around long enough to watch these judgmental puppies be lucky enough to grow older and experience the sadness and horror of being disrespected and denied the use of whatever experience and/or wisdom they could bring to the table.
Some of us stayed awake, never got off the train, and still have a passion and understanding of the future as well as the past.
Greg – …and of course none of us ever thought that our youth meant we had more to offer did we?
Glenn – Never trust anybody over 30 morphs into never trust anybody born before 1964.
Jette – Never trust anyone born after 1964. You stand corrected!
Don – I’m 67, still working and plan to for two or three more years. I may not be pulling down the big bucks anymore but I still live in the world and claim my old age right to bitch like hell about it…lol
Bob – It’s not about the money…it’s the ASSUMPTION that experience will cost more. Why try to achieve greatness when mediocrity will suffice in today’s world? No one seems to care about anything except their paycheque anymore.
Don – Agreed. I work to stay out in the world. Hopefully my retirement will be the day I die.
Bob – I will continue to create and care until I no longer am able. Thank God the Internet allows me to do what i do without having to have someone let me do it.
Bob – Not the first time I have addressed this problem…. Segarini: The Long Run
Don – I just play drums.
Lise – I’m not even old enough to be a boomer, but with a resume that stretches back to the 80’s, a degree, a diploma in programming, an accounting certificate and a ton of entrepreneurial experience, I’ve been able to send out almost 500 resumes (I have four levels for different types of jobs, playing up different strengths) stripped of all reference to dates, I’ve only had three interviews. At one of these, my interviewer visibly blanched upon seeing I was over 40.
Pete – and not one of those sleek quick velocoraptors, reeking predation on slower, younger hipster dinos; one of those lumbersome, oversized, grass eating brontosaurus that fred made burgers out of … yeah, well i double-bag all my groceries … we’ll see who laughs last … (actually, they will, but they’ll be surrounded by no-frills bags)
Jerry – I’m 59, working full-time, in a second marriage with a 5-year-old son, playing in a metal band and having a great time!
Rick – I thought I would give up performing when I turned 40 because I thought I would be too old. We’ll….I’m 66 now and I’ll give it up when they pry the guitar from my cold dead hands. My options are very limited because to many people I AM too old. But although I own a small company and only play part time, in my heart I will always be a musician first.
James – I’d give you an, “Amen”… but I’m too frail.
Katherine – Even in retail, the ageism is there and not always subtle either. Experience is not respected.
Pete – experience requires commitment and passion, beyond walking around like techno zombies chasing what …and for why … ‘what does one need to be called an artist?one must travel around the world three times and live 80 years.’
Marlene – Everyone is an artist. Everyone has something to say albeit some more profoundly so.
Pete – then why bother?
Marlene – it’s all about choice, commitment and priorities…in my opinion.
Pete – i chose poorly.
Marlene – oh my if you are referring to your work, I most definitely beg to differ, Mr.
Bob – …at least you get to choose…I seem to be unable to control my own trajectory.
Marlene – awww.
Pete – if everyone is an ‘artist’, i’m wasting my time …
Pete – “art is what the artist says it is” ….this art is valued in today’s ‘everybody is an artist’ marketplace in excess of 100,000 usd / and there are more than one can….
Bob – Hey Pete!…still the best definition I have ever heard, “Art is whatever you can get away with”.
Marlene – Peter, if that is the attitude you choose to take…
Pete – the problem is that the ability to change your ‘trajectory’ diminishes as you get older … for instance, i wish i learned to play pedal steel when you suggested it, when i had the time to be as good as i’d need to be… too late now.
Bob – Pete IS an actual Artist…and it is never too late to pick up a new skill. I didn’t start learning how to write/edit/engage in layout, or any of what I do now, until I was into my 60s.
Pete – i paint for me! i told a friend to burn them when i die 😊
Peter IS an Artist…This is just a small example of his Art
Pete – you’ve always written … the discipline is the same as songwriting … without the chords.
Pete – and you’ve got … and this is key, something to say …
Bob – I write both prose and music to entertain myself as well. When other people like it, I am pleased, but unless I LOVE what I do, I see no reason to do it. The minute you compromise your ‘art’ to please an audience, you are no longer an artist. You are a commissioned craftsman. at least you HOPE to be paid for your ‘work’. That is why most of what you hear that are commercial successes are not necessarily great or artistic. Most financially successful ‘art’ leans more to mediocrity than it does to greatness…that is one of the reasons why it appeals to the mainstream audience. When you consciously create something that appeals to the majority, it is merchandise, marketable manufactured goods aimed at reaching the most people. If I were smart, I would play the game…I just can’t bring myself to do it. We follow our muses, Peter…and suffer the consequences.
Pete – …it would be more financially rewarding to follow the pack artistically … it would have been even more financially rewarding and less soul sucking, to be a lawyer … as i said, i’m resigned to a ‘fuck you’ relationship with the popular consensus when it comes to what art is … on a positive note, the more bad artists, the lower my cost of materials … see, even i can appreciate the silver lining….
Pete – over the past few years, several well established art critics have retired because of the lack of skill, craft and vision in the current ‘everything is art’ factory….
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Segarini’s regular columns appear here whenever someone buys a personalized bowling ball
Contact us at dbawis@rogers.com
Bob “The Iceman” Segarini was in the bands The Family Tree, Roxy, The Wackers, The Dudes, and The Segarini Band and nominated for a Juno for production in 1978. He also hosted “Late Great Movies” on CITY TV, was a producer of Much Music, and an on-air personality on CHUM FM, Q107, SIRIUS Sat/Rad’s Iceberg 95, (now 85), and now publishes, edits, and writes for DBAWIS, continues to write music, make music, and record.
Segarini: Don't Believe a Word I Say 
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