One thing that hit me as I was watching it, and this may be a sign of my as yet undestroyed socialist/cyber Marxist tendencies: the bit about 42% of americans saying they'd pay for ad free tv scares the crap out of me. 

And not because I'm in advertising, but because without a strong goverrnment support of the commons, and an equally strong cultural commitment, we're a bunch of pigs suckling at the mugwumps waiting for the next purple ass baboon for motorcyclists to be coordinated. (you might want to google some of that last bit. I think I just went off the rails) 

I mean, not that ''Mad Men" or "dance your a** off" constitute great cultural treasures but we're losing the commons. But if everything must be increasingly directly commoditized - which means you get an even larger degree of class distinction and cultural tension as what was once pretty much free (broadcast tv, access to sesame street and news; the newspaper picked up on the train, radio) is pretty much scarce. 

What happens then? When you have to pay for EVERYTHING directly.

Nothing that I'm saying is new, and I haven't really thought it out, but I think somehow it just really clicked home how trully, clearly different tomorrow looks. I'll be reading PKDick and Gibson to prepare myself. Probably some Doctrow (Cory) too. Syllabus to follow under separate cover.