Being and Nothingness in the Schoolyard

The risk inherent in any sort of meta-level content activity (say, “reporting news” or “consulting on change management”) is that you can get caught up in your own importance extremely easily. Doesn’t anyone know how vital the things that you think/write about are? Where are the legions of angry/inspired/devout minions, poised to change the world at a moment’s notice? Why can’t readers/clients grok the freakin’ essentials?

This is the schoolyard all over again, the not-petty-so-much-as-unaware cruelty that defines a young person emerging into grown up cultural norms. “I know for a solid fact that if I ran the universe, stuff would go a lot better.”

Thing is, the web has made it possible to be the master of your own personal universe. Maybe people are paying attention, maybe not, but if you happen to have some venture capital lying around, you can create an empire. Or you can “ride for the brand” in the Louis L’Amour sense, throwing the weight of your staggering intellect behind some enterprise for another, blogging your little heart out. And just like L’Amour’s frontier, there is no law; there is etiquette but little adherence to it. So you are your own moral code, your own watchdog.

But then something happens that spurs the lizard brain into action, and you react. And then the person you reacted against reacts, and you throw down, and then…

…and then everyone else thinks one or the other or both of you are silly. “Allegiances” are tested, “bitter rivalries” ensue. And no one gives the slightest half of a damn, because even in the microcosmic spectrum in which you have influence, more interesting things are going on. And compared to world affairs, the whole spat ranks a negative in terms of importance.

It happens online and off, all the time, in the house, office, and car park. It wants to happen less often, but we keep calling the same plays. Humility, humanity, and hunger. As Clarence says, marinate.