Monday, February 11, 2008

The Zeitgeist is becoming my poltergeist.

Sometimes I do this thing where I put TV commercials on mute and keep track of the words in the commercials. You can learn a lot about our culture by doing this. For instance, many companies' slogans these days involve change and progress. Why might I consider this to be significant? It's the spirit of our age - we are amidst some turbulent times, between wars and climatic adversity and everything else, and yet we're also in an era of technological innovation and other advancement, so it's nice to see even the most commercial parts of our culture - commercials themselves - are focused on change (hopefully for the better).

That being said, doesn't the concept of "Zeitgeist" and even "the collective unconscious" seem a bit haunting? It's both really awesome and really freaky. Part of me feels like we're all connected due to this and yet another part of me feels like there are influential people who decide certain things to alter how the mainstream and oft less-educated public views the world (not just the media, to which I contribute). Discuss.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

I'll discuss, if I HAVE to...

The first thing I thought of after I read your post was, "what is Thom thinking and why?" After I got over that, I thought that my one hope is that our motivation to continue changing and adapting and working to solve these worldly problems continues long enough, and isn't just the zeitgeist.

I also am intrigued by the speed of all the world's innovations and if they're keeping up with those problems. I feel like we've made great advances, like hybrid cars, etc, but it takes so long to implement them.

Lastly, I don't believe in a collective unconscious, but I do believe that other than the media, there are people that try to control the views of the world. They're called politicians. And I don't like them.

Thom said...

Interesting... this idea of continuing to change. But don't you think there are periods in history where the status quo was acceptable for an extended period of time, as in the spirit of the era was to remain the same? I like how you said "changing and adapting and working to solve these worldly problems." That reminds me of the basic idea that maybe life isn't about improving everything; it's simply about surviving.

But that's all besides the point... what was I thinking and why?

Thom said...

By the way, wouldn't you say teachers can have just as potent of an effect on our world as politicians, maybe not in the present, but certainly in the future?

jp said...

Waple says:

"Lastly, I don't believe in a collective unconscious, but I do believe that other than the media, there are people that try to control the views of the world. They're called politicians. And I don't like them."

Well, they're actually called marketers. That's who I work for. Ask me about conversational marketing, and then you'll really start to wonder about how warped your information is.

Thom said...

Interesting... you'll have to elaborate on this sometime. I've been really fascinated with marketing lately.