You can find examples of the effect that sound-bites have on every part of your culture.
• A film studio will not devote time and money to a movie project unless their marketing department can promote it ‘in a sound-bite’ or fit into a specific genre.
• A political campaign manager will never let his candidate engage the press unless the political platform can be expressed ‘in a sound-bite’.
• Cable news networks need video/sound-bites for the sole purpose of using them out of context to get a politician or the political party’s bull-dog to jump into a defensive posture and be part of a screaming match fighting accusations.
This is not the fault of the media. This is our fault. The media is simply capitalizing on the obvious trend that more and more people are weary of hearing the same old platform. The film studios are capitalizing on the reality that more and more people have no interest in complicated plots and themes in movies and choose escapism instead. Politicians who are clearly out of touch with the complexities of several issues facing their constituencies around the world are using sound-bites to avoid having to explain issues that are too difficult for the masses to understand and too complicated for the politicians themselves to make their inexcusable interventions seem rational – and they never are.
If we allow our minds to get this lazy, then there is clearly no hope. How can we ever hope to face the challenges before us and ahead if we don’t understand the infrastructure mindset that constricts us from expanding beyond our potential?
Willem Dafoe was on BBC’s Hard Talk last night and said something quite remarkable. He said that years ago the director was the top guy, then the actor and today the marketing department is the top guy. Perhaps I would use the term Prime Mover as a more accurate depiction of the decision making apparatus of Hollywood. In his defense he was engaged in a non-scripted and riveting dialogue with BBC’s Zeinab Badawi and it was a hell of an engaging discourse. Regardless, the man is right.
Look at your schedule. Do you truly believe that you do not have the time to learn the key issues defining your life? Health, Liberty, Economics, Diplomacy, etc…
The reader of this blog clearly does not fall into that category. You are reading an obscure blogger’s opinions on all the issues affecting our Liberty, Happiness and Prosperity.
How about those around you? What are they doing right now?
