Achievement is highly valued in our culture. Write a novel, run for office, score a goal… stand out and you’re the man. It is not generally recognized that achievement is, itself, another drug and pleasure that needs to be enjoyed in moderation. This society is on a mad achievement-high – a first rush of cocaine, and the extollation of the ‘peaks of human achievement’ follows. Mediocrity is deemed ‘excellent’ and we’re all suddenly over-achievers. Our poor children…..
postscript (another board bit): Virtually every story you can tell about memes, seems to be isomorphic to another story about ‘attention’. We use ‘attention’ in two different(?) ways…
pps: One way is the mental spotlight that bring our current activity or thought into consciousness. The other is when others bring us to the forefront of their consciousness: we attend and we garner attention.
Leave a comment