Why We Gravitate Towards Spectacle
I am so freaking bored of this Blog. I just spent the better part of the last hour going over the archives and found that my writing is about as drab and lifeless as a crusty piece of old bread, but then I might be too kind.
No really. I can’t stand reading my stuff. How in the heck can I expect anybody else to read it?
Here’s the deal. I promise to put some life into my writing to get this Blog some constant readers, if you will promise to come back more regularly to read what I have written. Sound good?
Alright then, let’s begin.
Just the other day I was sitting at the kitchen table and saw billowing smoke rise into the air from just outside my home. I thought my neighbor’s house was on fire it was so close.
Turned out to be a fire at a recycling plant just a half block away. I grabbed my keys and got in my car. Yep, I’m an ambulance chaser.
Two mischievous boys (ages 11 and 13) wanted to make their mark on social landscape and lit the bundles of compressed cardboard and newspapers on fire while they recorded it on their cell phones.
The blaze was incredible. Within the hour more than several hundred people were crowded around this huge fire.
Which brings me to what I would like to talk about today. Why do we gravitate towards spectacle?
Just recently millions of people were drawn to the spectacle of the death of Michael Jackson. Not that he wasn’t talented and all. But I think the whole thing was a bit over the top.
It was the only thing on the news for weeks – still is. Why?
Farrah Fawcett died on the same day and she barely got a mention. But MJ wa practically lauded as a God.
Come now, back in the day, I bet there were just as many Farrah posters hanging on teenage boys walls compared to MJ posters on teenage girls walls. And hands down her posters were tons more appealing – to me anyways.
But do you think she got nearly as much press? No way close. Not enough spectacle I suppose.
So why is it that we do that? There must be a human gene that gravitates towards spectacle.
P.T. Barnum had it figured out. He could gather large crowds, hoards of people, to gawk over his spectacles. I wonder how he did it. He was a wonderful creator of spectacle.
I’ve got some ideas why I think people are drawn like magnets to spectacle, but I’d really like to hear your thoughts on the matter.
Leave me a comment and tell me what you think. And also chime in on how you think creation, creators, and creating have anything to do with it.
Oh, and the fire burned all night long. The smoke was atrocious. I came very close to getting a hotel room far away. I almost couldn’t breathe that night.
