Friday, March 23, 2012

The Age of Ballyhoo-2012 edition

H. L. Mencken called it "ballyhoo". Today we call it hype. The Hunger Games. Etch-A-Sketch. Mega-Million. In today's world we move from one hype to the next without a thought. And that is the key. The era known as the Enlightenment emphasized the mind and thought. In reaction we had the Romantic movement which emphasized the heart and feeling. It results in the dichotomy between heart and mind, I think versus I feel. But the mind has to be educated in order to function. If it is not educated, not trained, we fall back on instinct. We are a more instinctual society today. Is that a good thing? Basing our responses on emotion and instinct, the public consciousness suffers from Attention Deficit Disorder. Instinct directs us to the here and now, there is no past and thus no future. We are prey to those who can take advantage of the moment, like advertisers, who are trained for this. Warhol was right, it is the future and everyone is famous for fifteen minutes.

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