Maybe sometimes its good to scream. there is a slice of silence that listens. that treats and attracts, that begs curiosity. It might not answer immediately, but there is listening…
you wanna pick a fight? drop the gloves and go a few rounds? How about using the power of voice and not the power of punch. or intellectual terror-morose-ism. with the thought that everything you say or write or video is a reflection of some sort of blueprint of creation a fragment of the cosmic equation or science-fiction scale delusion. Still, what has to be expressed cannot be considered as random or chance. And that any public expression is an energy to engage is a form of activism, of shining a light to vanquish darkness and send the roaches scurrying for a shadow. The creator in us, wants to situate themself, to find that opening to engage where they feel they can create a story, even if the work can be considered incompllete, an in progress effort that had a vague, misty origin and lacking a big bang of an end, a kind of running autobiography of lives, a medley of many matters.
Ben Parr self described “expert on attention.” captivology is like a guide for the perplexed within the context of Edgar Bernays. Neo-Freudian whips lighting up torches of freedom at a collective mass of the unconscious.
“it’s about capturing attention for the great ideas, the great art, the great projects that you have. Everybody has some passion more people should see or notice.” ( Ben Parr, Forbes Interview) well, a little light improves sight except what is the norm, the standards by which, and forget “great” think acceptable, passable,tepid, vaguely worth attention. As Bob Dylan said in an interview, ” For every man, woman and child on earth, they could be sent, probably, each of them, a hundred records, and never be repeated. There’s enough songs. Unless someone’s gonna come along with a pure heart and has something to say. That’s a different story.” But I don’t think ole’ Ben is referring to pure hearts, just craft and tools and plug-ins and hacking your way to attention and maybe a little design and flip and Seth Godinites ( as in midianites and days) shnozzez stuck in a garburator of discombobulated proportions where losers booted out of tribes become celebrity scribes.
public hysteria and graven images don’t ya lov it. clouds of glory my ass.
Not totally out of it was Walter Benjamin on mass media as spectacle: “Its self-alienation has reached the point where it can experience its annihilation as a supreme aesthetic pleasure. Such is the aestheticizing of politics as practiced by…. he was hung up on “Fascism. Communism replies by politicizing art” its the underpinning of trade surpluses, FX reserves and market economies of which “social media” as such is in the main, part of entertainment complex of this vast tangle.
Most of these guys n’ gals, or more edoocated Damon Runyan Guys n’ Dolls just gab and grab onto any idea idea floating around and spin a business on it. like Alan Greenspan, Or Annie get your bun Rand they get caught up in some nonsense and make a career out of it, become iconic and are heroically quoted in posterity even as living dead. There is a certain chutzpah in being an egoist, an obscure even occultish ambience since they are not scared, they just do it, synthetic angry birds, mechanically flapping wings n’ things and chirping at almost anything that captures attention as long as a few grapes fall into their beak.
“The first thing is to violate people’s expectations. You want to have people turn their eyes up a little bit more. Wear something different. Pick up a new hobby. Surprise your friend with a gift or an idea. We’re attuned to surprises and we have a pleasant experience with positive surprises.( Steve Parr, Forbes)” People that read too much of this stuff become nihilists or messianic in a desire for the apocalypse, any apocalypse, this week’s flavour of the mouth apocalypse. Let yourself go, be a Captivology, find a wormhole in a curtain and leap into the science of retention. A lot of these books encourage you to find that spark within, your own pet purple cow burning on a spit, your own personal sacrifice: yourself!
Books that are in effect, empty media that encourage you to trash routine and install “passion” It’s a no-brainer. to them. Passion is a “duty” and calculation. And it makes you look good. WTF means reading extracts of is like listening to the complete Noam Chomsky on 72 cd’s to put you to sleep and turn your lawn into dancing weeds as such soothing prose comes from a space of 100% assurance- or your digital wallet money back that you never owned in the first place. Remember its all in the marketing. What you just read from talking head “x” is “vulnerable dangeous and challenging” ( to 100 monkeys stinging at a keyboard living the life of Riley) If writing doesn’t come from a spot of vulnerability then it should just be left to marinate or be thrown out. or used as a substitute for cow poop fertilizer. Imagine we’re only Wednesday.
COMMENTS