Neal Stephenson Quote

The franchise and the virus work on the same principle: what thrives in oneplace will thrive in another. You just have to find a sufficiently virulentbusiness plan, condense it into a three-ring binder -- its DNA -- Xerox(tm) it,and embed it in the fertile lining of a well-traveled highway, preferably onewith a left-turn lane. Then the growth will expand until it runs up against itsproperty lines.In olden times, you'd wander down to Mom's Cafe for a bite to eat and a cup ofjoe, and you would feel right at home. It worked just fine if you never leftyour hometown. But if you went to the next town over, everyone would look upand stare at you when you came in the door, and the Blue Plate Special would besomething you didn't recognize. If you did enough traveling, you'd never feelat home anywhere.But when a businessman from New Jersey goes to Dubuque, he knows he can walkinto a McDonald's and no one will stare at him. He can order without having tolook at the menu, and the food will always taste the same. McDonald's is Home,condensed into a three-ring binder and xeroxed. No surprises is the motto ofthe franchise ghetto, its Good Housekeeping seal, subliminally blazoned on everysign and logo that make up the curves and grids of light that outline the Basin.The people of America, who live in the world's most surprising and terriblecountry, take comfort in that motto. Follow the loglo outward, to where thegrowth is enfolded into the valleys and the canyons, and you find the land ofthe refugees. They have fled from the true America, the America of atomicbombs, scalpings, hip-hop, chaos theory, cement overshoes, snake handlers, spreekillers, space walks, buffalo jumps, drive-bys, cruise missiles, Sherman'sMarch, gridlock, motorcycle gangs, and bun-gee jumping. They have parallelparkedtheir bimbo boxes in identical computer-designed Burbclave streetpatterns and secreted themselves in symmetrical sheetrock shitholes with vinylfloors and ill-fitting woodwork and no sidewalks, vast house farms out in theloglo wilderness, a culture medium for a medium culture.The only ones left in the city are street people, feeding off debris;immigrants, thrown out like shrapnel from the destruction of the Asian powers;young bohos; and the technomedia priesthood of Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong.Young smart people like Da5id and Hiro, who take the risk of living in the citybecause they like stimulation and they know they can handle it.