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| Television Show |
I think as a culture we have a fascination with
revenge. We like the idea of the
bad guy getting their just desserts. It’s a common theme in film, television,
literature, and all forms of media.
Our stories are built on determining who is the good guy and who is the
bad guy. We like being able to
assign blame and fault. We like
being right. And oh we love to see the outcome of such acts. It's this subconscious verification
that the universe does doll out the appropriate payment for certain
actions. Even though we know life
isn't fair we are constantly seeking proof to the contrary. So much so that we ourselves are
willing to do the dirty work if the Universe seems stalled.
The only issue with this is that too often in our daily
lives we can manufacture villains when there are not any. We can seek someone who we feel
deserves revenge when the only faults they truly have are being human.
Being human is a tricky thing and what I feel provides most
of the trouble. We are in truth
simple dumb beasts in a lot of ways.
We just so happen to also be very clever ones. We have encased ourselves
into our environment in a way that makes it easy to forget that. Our ideas are
shaped by our environment and culture.
We are easy to program through media and being constantly plugged in.
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| Brain Processing |
Many studies have proven that being constantly inundated
with specific patterns of thought and ideas has a lasting effect on how we view
and deal with the world. Only with a lot of work can this be altered or even
deterred. Even so, exposure to any
form of media for a long period of time has a lasting effect.
I think of how stories from the Bible have influenced the
creation of our society and developed laws. From the creation of fairytales and
how they have shaped thoughts and ideas about male and female relationships to
how the voyeuristic nature of reality TV has created this subsection with this
social media explosion we are currently in the middle of. We are constantly
being influenced on how to think, what to think, and what to believe.
What terrifies me is how few people understand that in
reality there is a very specific core group of individuals that get to decide
what type of influences we get. Thus they are shaping the world in their
image. Slowly filling all of our
minds with what they want humanity to be. What you see is what they want you to
see, and how they want you to see it. In many ways the explosion of social
media is the only thing that is breaking through the illusion cast by forms of
organized media. However it is through this lens we can sometimes clearly see
the effect of other forms of media on our thinking.
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| Social Media and the Brain |
There are fascinating bodies of work being built based on
social media sites and the things people feel comfortable expressing on
them. Clearly we see our culture
and its concerns with discrimination, equality, and finance. We live in a world where by a
chance of bonding in a statement that is only 144 characters long a nobody can
speak to a media icon. A world where 1000s of miles can vanish and you can have
a face-to-face conversation through a machine. With our innovations however our
basic make-up and what we need in a story or a plotline has not changed, just
the way we deploy it.
But isn't this really the problem. A lot of who we are as humans has not changed. And now we can see ourselves
clearly. And even more impressive
future generations will be able to catalogue some of our lives in intimate
detail because we have become intimate with our communication methods and
devices. We have not actually grown into our technology, it has grown despite
us. And I believe it will inevitable force us to grow as we are creating a
symbiotic union with technology.
Previous versions of humanity never had what we now have, a
true reflection of the soul. It
began millennia ago with art, the need to create. It wobbled its first steps
with the development of religion, absolute truths that we made ourselves
believe so that we could learn to think. It matured in government, policy, and
the creation of a ruling class. It manifest in social groupings, nationalities,
our ability to separate used to extreme discretion. Its focus narrows in
communities, chosen professions, supply and demand systems to fulfill our own
wants and needs. And it completes the circle coming back to one and the
reflection is finally clear, each moment documented and preserved by a system
that unlike us will not forget our history. Finally forcing us to not do the same.
I know what you're thinking, revenge is the topic. True but
we can't delve into revenge until we understand perspective. This plays a crucial role in
determining what actions deserve to be avenged. Everyone has a point of no
return action that takes mild mannered you and replaces it with bug ass nuts
Batman. For most people it involves any hurt coming to loved ones whether on
purpose or not.
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| The Question |
The issue is that almost everything negates the thought that
accidents are blame free. It negates that sometimes $#!& happens. While
there are cases of obvious negligence, sometimes accidents just happen and yet
we need to find fault. If not there wouldn't need to be so many lawyers on TV
advertising their services for accidents. Clearly they can afford advertising
it's a profitable business. But why? The need to assign blame, fault, and
ultimately gain revenge. The just
desserts of the bad guy. Because
for humans bad things can't just happen. Someone has to make them happen. And in a decent amount of cases this is
true. But not all of the time.
Sometimes things are inexplicable and we should be damned glad that they are.
What is really gained?
A sense of satisfaction for setting right a wrong? What validation is
the revenge seeker getting? Well
clearly how our society views this is at work. We are social creatures, and the smug sense of knowing that
you did 'the right thing' by the standards of others is sometimes too hard to
resist, and is usually a good thing.
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| The Crow |
But the concept of revenge has usually been the deed of a
villain not a hero. However our society has developed the anti-hero. The concept that the bad guy can now be
the good guy. I believe this is a
reflection of humanity coming to terms with itself. Now that our mirrors are so
clear we can't be coerced to forget, and the little slips in history can't be
covered like it was hundreds of years ago. We have only been told noble stories of noble past
deeds. The truth is most likely
closer to what we can now see.
The truth is, no one can be all good all of the time. We all fall, we all are capable and
sometimes unknowingly wrong someone.
But in a world where even accidents can be blamed on someone, you no
longer have good guys. You just
have people making mistakes so tales of atonement become pressingly more
popular. We can't be perfect, but the world still has to be fair. You must pay your dues and gain
atonement. Black and white is torn asunder and you are left with multi-tonal
gray.
Gray feels messy, unbalanced. Shocking when the world used to be so stark. It confuses you, it makes you
uncomfortable. The lines before
were so very clear and now not at all. Eventually you realize black and white
was too binding, gray is an excellent color.
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| And Always |
Gray accounts for mistakes, accidents, and well-intentioned
mishaps. It opens the door to no
one being denied forgiveness or salvation. In gray is all of our hopes and
dreams, true acceptance among each other.
Gray doesn't really need revenge. Revenge is a residual
response from those black and white days. Gray just needs solutions to existing
problems. You aren't being held
accountable for anything but your own actions. And even those can be
managed. Give time a shot at it,
amazing things happen in time. Because somewhere along the way of our journey
to what we are now, time somehow managed to show us that.
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| Glorious Shades of Gray |
And Always courtesy of http://www.leadliaison.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/use-marketing-automation-to-avoid-human-error.jpg
Brain Processing courtesy of http://www.disruptionmanifesto.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Slide7.jpg
Social Media and the Brain courtesy of http://johnbell.typepad.com/weblog/images/2008/09/04/pr_brain2.jpg
The Crow courtesy of http://www.dumage.com/img/fun/righteous-anti-heroes-in-movies/righteous-anti-heroes-in-movies01.jpg
Glorious Shades of Gray courtesy of http://www.seducingwithstyle.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/shades-of-black-and-grey-1024x789.jpg
The Question courtesy of http://freetheanimal.com/images/2012/10/Screen-Shot-2012-10-28-at-1.02.14-PM.png
