Any piece, any performance, has arguably two main components. There is the delivery through which the work unfolds, and the content that is conveyed. Both are important, but apparently not equally so. Delivery trumps content, unfortunately.
We live in a psychedelic space, where a person can say nothing at all confidently and gather celebrity, while another person shares valuable insight hesitantly, and goes overlooked. Attention is distributed disproportionately, focusing on the details with little value. Looking good earns one credibility, and witty speech draws in a following. Leveraging jargon is seen as a sign of intellect and proficiency, even though it can be exploited as a disguise for incompetence and inability. Listeners too often respond like a herd, bleating supportively and bobbing their heads approvingly. As if from an old Western, a clever speaker can quickly transform a crowd into devout followers ready to embark on a haphazard mission.
Representing content’s hollowness is the present state of media. Blogs and newspapers are increasingly using misleading titles for their articles to compensate for their dismal subject matter. Reality television has hypnotized audiences with its push drama played out by individuals who were specifically cast to invoke dysfunctional scenarios on an ornately constructed set. Reality television has never been further from reality, and resembles a controlled laboratory experiment. It surprises me that we have put up with sub-par content this long. We should demand better content. Ironically, we continue to support and reward the phony performances of actors with enough to buy them Hollywood mansions, while scientists who produce new useful knowledge earn modest pay.
Augmenting the importance of an article or item is not limited to the news. All forms of advertising depend on this. Marketing campaigns have flooded cities and competed to occupy previously unthought-of spaces with their slogans. Rather than spending millions on generating the most noise, the money could better be used in many cases on developing a better product. People today also dedicate considerable time to advertising themselves. CVs bloat our accomplishments, job titles glorify our positions, and social media presence inflates our achievements and joys in the eyes of others. The resulting image we build of ourselves takes on mythical proportions but stands disconnected from its base. We put so much effort vying for attention trying to stand out, that we end up shaped by the act and no longer represent who it is we really are. In the end, delivery is greater than content, because we let it be.
Reckless Pineapple 