Saturday, February 4. 2017
The Only Way
I have no intention of stating my opinion about worldwide developments in politics as long as they are not yet history.
This is not the emu way of dealing with it. The problem is that we are forced to talk about someone we would never choose to if we did not feel forced to do so. It is enough being forced to deal with the results of their actions.
There are people suited perfectly to create themselves and their actions as the main subject. Their goal is surely distraction. We must not let this happen. We must not allow anyone or anything to distract us from our paths. Be suspicious, and walk on. Do not hesitate. Work against their actions, and if possible, even before they will have any lasting consequences. And be alert for the needs of others.
For mankind, the only way to survive is to develop to a state of empathy. Diana knew that for example. What a shame she could not put her understanding into action.
This is not the emu way of dealing with it. The problem is that we are forced to talk about someone we would never choose to if we did not feel forced to do so. It is enough being forced to deal with the results of their actions.
There are people suited perfectly to create themselves and their actions as the main subject. Their goal is surely distraction. We must not let this happen. We must not allow anyone or anything to distract us from our paths. Be suspicious, and walk on. Do not hesitate. Work against their actions, and if possible, even before they will have any lasting consequences. And be alert for the needs of others.
For mankind, the only way to survive is to develop to a state of empathy. Diana knew that for example. What a shame she could not put her understanding into action.
Tuesday, November 22. 2016
Oh my!
PR, that used to be about something else. It was not about advertising, I am sure. It had something to do with with convincing us, the buying public i.e. just about all of us, that corporations are serious, trustworthy, reliable, friendly, you name it. But then, in the days when advertising began to get lost in the shuffle - that must have been the shuffling of slippers rushing to the toilet - the downfall of noble PR began. It came down to be the better form of advertising, oh yes. And for a while, it worked. Or it might have. I wouldn't know, I'm not a controller.
Now, though, the time of PR as an advertising improvement must also be on the line. Of course, this can't have anything to do with the fact that the efforts of corporations in this field were simply superimposed by a major online search engine, no, of course not. It must be the desperate need to improve PR, and therefore advertising, since there is still the power of suggestion, oh yes.
But how? How could it be possible to succeed, after so many decades of advertising, and PR following in its footsteps, not in order to replace it, of course, but to support it on a much higher, nobler level? How could it be done to be just as successful as back in the days when people still had a certain beverage and a smile or even smoked a special brand before they would go berserk? How to get back to the standards when a brand's name became the genuine article like a certain glue or paper tissue?
Well, there seem to be a few additionally skilled PR heads who claim to have an answer to this question. And, yes, in some way you could say, the answer is 42. Because, you see, these sly dogs of publicly related advertising know their way through the tangle of fiction. Yes, Fiction. Stories. Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! (In order to quote one.)
I mean, I feel I will have to bring in Aristotle as an expert for fiction, even if the quotation would be fictional but ever so likely. What would he say, the old wise man? Would he rejoice in the idea that story telling is supposed to help PR finally to win us over? Or would he cry?
A story, what is it about? Following Aristotle, it is about katharsis, the cleansing of the soul. And if we were to ask Paul Auster, for example, he would gladly tell us that stories help us to cope with our daily lives full of misery and despair by giving us something to hold on to, to dive into, and return to reality with new powers to face new challenges. And there are lots of experts who would tell you the same, i.e. that we need stories in order to survive.
But we now have to face a completely different challenge, one, I might put into question, might cost us that last resort for our minds. Because if PR will present us with stories from now on, our reality - or should we make it a plural - our realities would clash with the fictional worlds in which we used to withdraw from the suggestions and persuasion to need, or must have, or even buy this or that product. This collision would definitely lead to disaster, I am sure of it. I mean, they banned product placements in films for a reason. But this idea, the combination of PR and fiction, would undoubtedly have a much more devastating effect on us than the debatable chance of possible mimicry of an actor or a character using a certain product.
Oh no folks, we can't let this happen. We must defend all our fictional worlds against these desperate usurpers. We should face them and tell them: If you cannot sell anymore, you will finally have to accept the truth you have been ignoring for so long. We need more money to buy your stuff. And therefore we need work. And again, therefore we need to esacpe from reality now and then, in order to be able to fulfil our duties in the business world. But since corporations deprive us continuously of the little we have, or had, we cannot get work, and we consequentially cannot buy your products. And no ever so clever PR alternative will change that fact.
So leave our stories alone!
© 2016
Now, though, the time of PR as an advertising improvement must also be on the line. Of course, this can't have anything to do with the fact that the efforts of corporations in this field were simply superimposed by a major online search engine, no, of course not. It must be the desperate need to improve PR, and therefore advertising, since there is still the power of suggestion, oh yes.
But how? How could it be possible to succeed, after so many decades of advertising, and PR following in its footsteps, not in order to replace it, of course, but to support it on a much higher, nobler level? How could it be done to be just as successful as back in the days when people still had a certain beverage and a smile or even smoked a special brand before they would go berserk? How to get back to the standards when a brand's name became the genuine article like a certain glue or paper tissue?
Well, there seem to be a few additionally skilled PR heads who claim to have an answer to this question. And, yes, in some way you could say, the answer is 42. Because, you see, these sly dogs of publicly related advertising know their way through the tangle of fiction. Yes, Fiction. Stories. Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! (In order to quote one.)
I mean, I feel I will have to bring in Aristotle as an expert for fiction, even if the quotation would be fictional but ever so likely. What would he say, the old wise man? Would he rejoice in the idea that story telling is supposed to help PR finally to win us over? Or would he cry?
A story, what is it about? Following Aristotle, it is about katharsis, the cleansing of the soul. And if we were to ask Paul Auster, for example, he would gladly tell us that stories help us to cope with our daily lives full of misery and despair by giving us something to hold on to, to dive into, and return to reality with new powers to face new challenges. And there are lots of experts who would tell you the same, i.e. that we need stories in order to survive.
But we now have to face a completely different challenge, one, I might put into question, might cost us that last resort for our minds. Because if PR will present us with stories from now on, our reality - or should we make it a plural - our realities would clash with the fictional worlds in which we used to withdraw from the suggestions and persuasion to need, or must have, or even buy this or that product. This collision would definitely lead to disaster, I am sure of it. I mean, they banned product placements in films for a reason. But this idea, the combination of PR and fiction, would undoubtedly have a much more devastating effect on us than the debatable chance of possible mimicry of an actor or a character using a certain product.
Oh no folks, we can't let this happen. We must defend all our fictional worlds against these desperate usurpers. We should face them and tell them: If you cannot sell anymore, you will finally have to accept the truth you have been ignoring for so long. We need more money to buy your stuff. And therefore we need work. And again, therefore we need to esacpe from reality now and then, in order to be able to fulfil our duties in the business world. But since corporations deprive us continuously of the little we have, or had, we cannot get work, and we consequentially cannot buy your products. And no ever so clever PR alternative will change that fact.
So leave our stories alone!
© 2016
Sunday, September 28. 2014
In Rough
From the first word on, I absolutely adored Campbell's and Vogler's works about the hero's journey, knowing, of course, that "hero" could also stand for heroine. And surely, we collected quite a few stories with female lead characters. But we hardly ever come across a wise old woman. From Merlin to Gandalf, or Obi-Wan, or Dumbledore, we have met and learned from so many wise old men having sacrificed themselves to allow their heroes to fulfil their tasks that we just could not imagine a woman in this role. And since the hero's forthcoming solely rests on the wise old man's act, we just know that he will be there, a human deus ex machina.
And here it is, the source of nearly all our problems. We live expecting that our expectations will be fulfilled. If not, we feel empty and betrayed. But if we thought it through, we would know, what is wrong, what has been a lie throughout the history of mankind. There are no wise old men. There never have been, and there never will be. The truth is, most men never even grow up. They become big boys.
Can you see the dilemma? That is why we imagine G'd as a man. We just want to hope for the wise old man. We even killed the few wise old women who were nothing but a threat to our belief. Shame on us.
And here it is, the source of nearly all our problems. We live expecting that our expectations will be fulfilled. If not, we feel empty and betrayed. But if we thought it through, we would know, what is wrong, what has been a lie throughout the history of mankind. There are no wise old men. There never have been, and there never will be. The truth is, most men never even grow up. They become big boys.
Can you see the dilemma? That is why we imagine G'd as a man. We just want to hope for the wise old man. We even killed the few wise old women who were nothing but a threat to our belief. Shame on us.
Tuesday, September 18. 2012
To the Best of My Abilities
Quite some time ago, I had a very dirty job, and I mean, literally dirty. I had to read Nazi files archived by a German authority called Hauptstaatsarchiv Wiesbaden in the Federal Land of Hessen. These files were not only literally dirty, that is to say, they were full of decades of dust. They were also absolutely filthy on the inside, since they dealt with the murder or banishment of many Jews.
We were a team of freelancers looking for certain documents in order to pass on valid compensation data to a Jewish organisation.
Even with this horrible working material we had to read, we had to develop some routines since we were short in time. And therefore, one day, I opened the umpteenth file, hurrying from Nazi order to Nazi order, which were getting worse page by page. I browsed through the file and found, amongst other cruelties, the order to call themselves "Sara" or "Israel", to hand over their insurance money or savings, or their silver cutlery.
This time I stopped, reading:"Confiscation of silver goods, including one golden medal." And after that succinct statement, in brackets, I read: "(Nobel Prize)".
My brain did not function for a few seconds. Still rather frozen, I slowly closed the folder and read: "Hedwig Ehrlich".
In this very moment I got hit by a virtual bullet. Those bastards had deprived Paul Ehrlich's widow of her late husband's greatest honour.
One will of course know that this is a minor incident compared to the many, many brutal murders in the Shoa, considering that the Nazi murderers, for once, did not dare to lay their hands on Hedwig Ehrlich. But to me, this experience was so very much significant since it showed the inhumanity as well as the stupidity of this fascist and racist regime and its followers most accurately.
They were vermin stopping at nothing, and so this outrageous confiscation of the honour medal of one of the first German Nobel Prize winners is another very shameful part of German history. A Nobel Prize lost in history. Again, there is nothing to be proud about. And no bank note, or stamp, with Paul Ehrlich's face on it will be able to compensate this absurdity.
To the best of my abilities, I have written down this memory. May it make an impact.
We were a team of freelancers looking for certain documents in order to pass on valid compensation data to a Jewish organisation.
Even with this horrible working material we had to read, we had to develop some routines since we were short in time. And therefore, one day, I opened the umpteenth file, hurrying from Nazi order to Nazi order, which were getting worse page by page. I browsed through the file and found, amongst other cruelties, the order to call themselves "Sara" or "Israel", to hand over their insurance money or savings, or their silver cutlery.
This time I stopped, reading:"Confiscation of silver goods, including one golden medal." And after that succinct statement, in brackets, I read: "(Nobel Prize)".
My brain did not function for a few seconds. Still rather frozen, I slowly closed the folder and read: "Hedwig Ehrlich".
In this very moment I got hit by a virtual bullet. Those bastards had deprived Paul Ehrlich's widow of her late husband's greatest honour.
One will of course know that this is a minor incident compared to the many, many brutal murders in the Shoa, considering that the Nazi murderers, for once, did not dare to lay their hands on Hedwig Ehrlich. But to me, this experience was so very much significant since it showed the inhumanity as well as the stupidity of this fascist and racist regime and its followers most accurately.
They were vermin stopping at nothing, and so this outrageous confiscation of the honour medal of one of the first German Nobel Prize winners is another very shameful part of German history. A Nobel Prize lost in history. Again, there is nothing to be proud about. And no bank note, or stamp, with Paul Ehrlich's face on it will be able to compensate this absurdity.
To the best of my abilities, I have written down this memory. May it make an impact.
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