All Circuits Are Down (Thankfully)
While reading a review of a small, quiet new film called Ida, I stumbled across an intriguing quote from the Polish writer and director, Pawel Pawlikowski. He said, “I find myself escaping more and more in life, away from noise and fake energy and from too much information.” Too bad Pawel won’t be checking out this blog. I totally get where he’s coming from.
Noise (everywhere). Fake energy (so much to do). Too much information (where do I begin?). I don’t think a day goes by when I don’t have a conversation with someone about the frantic nature of their work or personal life, given all of the above. Small wonder so many people are looking for the escape hatch.
I’m a promoter by trade. Much as I hate to admit it, my line of business is a big part of the problem. We get paid to make a lot of noise for our clients, to talk louder than the competition (if dog whistles would do the trick, we’d use them). You have to fight noise with noise, whatever pitch necessary.
(Apparently there’s no noise ordinance on the books when it comes to marketing).
And what about “fake energy?” That one really bothers me. It sounds inefficient. Pointless. But I know I’m guilty of creating that, too. So much to do this week. Can’t say “no.” Let’s double our efforts. Send it out within the hour. Call the whole list. Take the meeting. Volunteer to serve on that committee. Join them for dinner after our plane lands. Why waste your time when I can do it so much faster?
(My grandmother always said it’s not good to be “too capable”).
And Pawel and I aren’t the only ones who are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information that is waiting for us every hour of the day to be read, seen, heard, repurposed, regurgitated, and annotated.
And then there’s this:
We were born to create. To share our own voice, our opinions. So I’m writing a blog and Pawel’s writing a screenplay (and so is everyone else). We’ve all turned into “content creators.” Our livelihoods and reputations depend on it so we toil away, creating content that can be read, seen, heard, repurposed, regurgitated, and annotated.
Whatever happened to all things in moderation? Easier said, than done, right?
I remember feeling a sense of accomplishment after combing through daily newspapers, weekly news magazines, and monthly business publications. You could physically dispose of them when you were finished. It was like putting a line through a task on a TO DO list.
But today the information cycle never ends, so there’s nothing to discard. The hits just keep on coming (and coming…).
If you’ve been to a movie theatre lately, I don’t have to tell you anything about “noise.” After 20 minutes of Previews (and stealth commercials), the Planet of the Apes is looking like a distinct possibility going forward.
Mayhem seems to be the order of the day. Fake energy, the fuel that propels us (to where, I wonder?).
So thanks to Pawel for reminding us that we all need to escape to that Who-What-Where place of refuge that provides the clarity and (real) energy we need to rejoin the human (rat) race.
Anita Alvare (bio)/Alvare Associates/610-520-6140
Comments (2)
07.23.2014
Donna Miller
As always, your blog is a welcome respite. Thought you might enjoy knowing that John Wesley, in writing down the General Rules for the new Methodist Prayer Society in 1739 included this admonition against:
“Fighting, quarreling, brawling, brother going to law with brother; returning evil for evil, or railing for railing; the using many words in buying or selling.”
I love it that marketing gets lumped with brawling.
07.23.2014
Bill Clark
Anita, your observations resonate with many of my own.
Part of the art of living life is to tune to the right frequency. There is a story that the Budda found enlightenment when he overhead a musician teach a student to tighten a string. “Too tight and it will break; too loose and it will not play.”