Squeeze the Lizard

“Think outside the Box “

It’s such a common phrase that no one examines it anymore. It’s a cliché. A mindless utterance made by the mediocre in hope to appear cutting edge. It’s so ten years ago.

But we have to keep telling ourselves that this is true today and we need to keep saying it, in some form or other. We need to stop letting ourselves be categorized or channeled, herded like so much intellectual cattle. We need to think for ourselves the way the our own minds want to think, not the way some system, some culture, or some authority figure insists. Break the mold and free your mind.

That’s’ the essence of Seth Godin’s manifesto “Brainwashed” as I interpret it. You can read it here.

I don’t totally disagree with Mr. Godin. In fact, on the elements of his argument he and I are largely in agreement. I do question whether or not merely reading his essay is enough to bring about the kind of social revolution he imagines, but I admit this may be a matter of semantics, as one man’s questioning authority is another’s open insurrection. 

Mr. Godin gives us several suggestions on how we can reconstruct our intellectual identities and take part in this digital revolution. In fact he gives us seven.  I’ll look at two, starting with…

“Acknowledge the Lizard”

The reptile n question is the part of all of us that has been socialized into going along with the flow. Keep our heads down and do our work and everything will be all right. We’d like to erace this primitive thought process, but that isn’t possible, at least according to Mr. Cohen. We need to accept the lizard is along for the ride so instead of an insidious whisper in the back of the ear, it becomes a recognized naysayer we can simply ignore.

“Ship”

I like this article a lot, because it acknowledges the importance of productivity. “Ship” in this instance refers to the verb “To move out” rather than the noun with its nautical references. Get your product ready. Get it out there. Get it to the public first. These are incredibly truthful statements about the more practical side of the creative process. The fact that I already agreed with it and therefore feel reinforced by the inclusion on the list may tell you more about me than about the author’s intent, but include it anyway because I haven’t seen this type of pragmatic honesty in the intellectual arena often enough.

I also had to look at the assignments I have been given in this course, two of which you can see here and here. 

Have these helped me reinvent myself, or did I merely  reinforce that which I already knew about myself in the making of them? I honestly did change my thinking process in the creation of them. I had no idea what would happen when I began my sound and music projects, and I used a sort of “Let the art lead me where it wants to go approach” which I typically wouldn’t do. That was caused by my own inexperience with the digital platforms the projects were constructed on. But that lack of technical confidence led me to try things I wouldn’t have done had I used a camera, guitar, drum, or microphone. I know what I can do with those devices. I can create anything I can conceive of within their own confines with them. But this made me rely on the new technology to lead me instead, and I created two works I would never have done with more familiar tools. Are they better? Probably not. But I would never have written a dance tune, or made an expressionist collage on my own. Now I have, for good or ill. And that part of it makes my lizard afraid, and my inner revolutionary very, very happy.