The only time I ever blog is when I’ve something else to do – and don’t want to do it.

Hmmm, I wonder why I don’t blog more often then?

Anyway, I am in the college computer lab with a three hour deadline for some assignment so here I am – putting my time to good use as usual 😛

Let’s see, what facet of my fascinating life can I inundate you with now?

umm…uhh…err……

Damn it, I DO have a fascinating life; I am just so modest that I can’t see it 😀

Oh well… I still don’t want to get back to my assignment, what to do?

So let me tell you something which fired up my hardy little soul recently (hope I don’t get sued for this…)

According to my features lecturer, Readers Digest edits all its articles 28 times before publishing! um… errr… Is that supposed to be a good thing? Seems to me that the original freshness of the article would be thoroughly killed by that thorough an editing.

Standardization is becoming the rule everywhere. Maybe it works at a certain level as KFC and Pizza Hut seem to prove but the creativity, the art form inherent in the work would go for a toss.

Too many cooks literally do spoil the broth, no matter how good they are. I don’t fancy an article of mine going though 28 editings and rewritings to be shaped into a standardized house style. Writing, especially feature writing is a creative art form and to edit it so much would kill all its freshness and spirit.

When and where exactly did we start worshipping the demigod of standardization anyway? Most of the time, all it does is make a poentially very good product being created by a very creative producer – substandard.

And that applies to anything whether it be the food industry, garment industry or writing industry.

uh oh – I just read back that last sentence. Don’t inundate me with theories of economies of scale, mass production etc – I don’t want to hear it 😛

I know I am taking a rather one sided view on it and perhaps I am not really qualified to comment on how standardization works in other industries but at least in the journalistic profession – especially feature writing, I just can’t see the advantage.

My lecturer was all for this standardization; when I drew a dissenting voice, she brushed it aside and said Readers Digest was a very popular magazine so obviously, the policy works.

Huh – Well I dunno, they just lost a potentially great writer on their staff 😛

Anyway, my lecturer wouldn’t let me air any of my objections further and I am still broiling mad so I am venting it on you instead 🙂

I thought dissenting voices were supposed to be encouraged? Oh – but not in a standardized world; there is only one correct way to do things and no other, therefore there can only be one opinion.

Beware people, if you don’t rise up and act soon, you will soon live in a Big Brother world and have even your physical features standardized 😛