Max Headroom is dead....

Remember that 80s series with the talking head that talked back to you? Yeah, the animated guy with the blond hair and tendency to lose facial parts when excited. Yup, you know the one. I loved it! I watched every crappy episode about gathering the news, getting the dangerous, exciting scoop, and chasing down the bad guys. Reporting looked exciting, especially in the brave new world of information overload we were in. They'd turn to the camera, fresh from some dramatic event and start reporting. Breathless and excited, they'd turn to the camera and talk to the world, blue eyeshadow all aflutter and serious hair perfect. Every single detail of the situation was important to everyone. All of it was the public right to know! It looked and sounded like just the most amazing thing to do with your life. Everyone listens to you and respects you, right?

Horsehockey! I cry bullshit! That crap inspired me to spend $80,000 on a spiffy private college degree in Television/Radio that sits on my bookshelf at home. I studied for the first year, and basically learned in that year that no one gives a shit. I learned in the second year that I really had nothing to say, as I was too young to have actually experienced enough to have any sort of opinion. In the third year, I despaired of the idiocy and self-importance exhibited by those around me and switched my major to Public Relations in an effort to be slightly more marketable without spending more money. In my fourth year, I graduated with an excellent average, a worthless degree, and a good paying job as an Internal Auditor. Go me. Yup, look at all that media training, counterclockwise down the drain. Except for moments like this.

Yup folks, I'd like to point out a fallacy folks seem to be operating under. More information isn't necessarily better. Really, it's not. There have been studies shown lately that given the range of input, choices, and options on a daily basis, there's a distinct tie between having too many choices, options, and input and being unhappy. There's a huge difference between being kept in the dark, getting fed piles of shit and knowing a few, key points. Perhaps that's the point of piling a law degree on my little brain - I now have a filter. When you fill it with crap, I'll dump it on your head. Easier to think when there's not a pile of meaningless crap on your mind, eh? Unfortunately my friends, not all of us have this luxury. Some folks still insist that they have to know every single aspect of a situation. They gather every possible bit of information in an attempt to understand, yet never spend any time on understanding their own thought processes.

The rule of computers also works for human brains - put in crap for data, you'll get out crap for data. If you don't understand your own biases and blind spots, why do you presume to have a valid, persuasive opinion on something? Do you know what you opinion really is and what it represents? Have you tried what's distasteful to you? Walked in the opposition's shoes as them? Tried on the things you dislike most as truths? Asked the really painful questions of yourself? Did you spend the time to actually look at the issue and figure out what's really being asked? Have you looked at where the data came from? Any decent researcher knows the sources rule: crappy source = worthless drivel. All the most sexy details in the world can't rescue bad facts. Ask questions. Be bold, truth can take it. Fascinating things happen when you just start asking short questions to get long answers. Listen to how things are said and what someone looks like as they say it. My spidey senses from all that government training can tell me when it's a steaming pile of crap by looking at someone. Especially when they're talking. And there's a difference between getting someone's opinion and just listening to what they have to say. Questions are usually required - think about it...

So folks, give your grey matter a break and build a filter for it. Ask why? How? Really? When? Where did that come from? How? You'll thank yourself. I have to rebuild mine regularly when I'm letting shitty things bother me for no useful reason. Just say no to excess crap. And listen to Antisthenes when he says:"Socrates told his students to know themselves. He couldn't guarantee that they had the equipment."

Go in peace to contemplate your ever meaningful navel.