in search of the great nothing

I have a hypothesis. which is really an extension of thought. but to present it, i must develop a context.(or trend-spotting as they call it)

1. nucleated world -> people are connected to more people far more thinly. (a lot of hi's, hello's, how are you's.. very few hugs, time-spent-together's, ILUs.)
2. people removed from cause-effect ->  most of us have no clue what their salary paying job's effect is in the world around, due to matters of scale and transferability of work. (did my work as biz develpment for a media company went into funding his accentuated war advocating rhetoric?; did my design for valve go into the bombs that shelled afghanistan's villages? is all that incessant printing in office and penchant for cleanliness causing felling of millions of trees?)

this ignorance of cause-effect also alienates us from what we consume. take that burger out of your mouth and see what's inside. can you name all that goes into it? did u know where it came from? do u know who all touched it? do u know how many people were involved to get that burger to your mouth which would go down in minutes without you yourself noticing it, being lost in staring at this screen?

this increased distance between us and things is definitely a child of industrialization. what we consume is nothing more than its price, and the pleasure of having it. we live a life never having had the pleasure of having created anything at all.

and this brings me closer to presenting the hypothesis...

We identify with abstract ideas more than concrete things around us. because media has brought the abstractness closer, and industrialization has sent the alive things (trees, soil, fresh air) far and replaced them with dead things (table, concrete, plastic) around us.


people have forgotten the joy of consuming. instead joy is found only 'around' the act of consumption.
( imagine a dinner without TV! :O or with friends in fancy gimmicky theme based restaurant.) (imagine drinking water. hmm .. or.. drinking fizz water with thousand static images of drinkers you see all around...on hoardings, on tv, on point of consumtion.)

(and probably its this joyless consumption that is leading to the worldwide epidemic of over eating and consequent obesity)

and finally.....

and hence, abstract brands that have no physical evidence stand to grow humongously, while palpable, consumable, substantiated brands will have to try much harder. so brands that essentially sell nothing, will be most valuable. lesser the substance, higher the value (not necessarily price).

from tea, iron supplements to computer peripherals.. all are selling emotions these days. (To planner -> While doing some category analysis, you might come across that only vacant positioning that is left to occupy is probably the ones that talk of what the product simply is .. physically.)
brand activism is on rise these days. in a few years realising that people can't take the hypocrisy anymore, the brands will move to some other area perhaps.. wonder where are brands headed...

physicality -> emotions -> morality -> ? 
next is what.

this century is going to see a race towards nothingness. in search of the great nothing. 

Comments

Alpa said…
Thats quite true...
gogi said…
Nicely written... Really like reading your posts!
gogi said…
Nicely written... Really like reading your posts!
Rama said…
gooood stuff jinx !

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