We're better than half way through this arc The Conversations with the Past, based on a nine year old article by Chris Locke, Faster Horses! sent to me by Jim Sterne. This arc are an experiment in trans-temporal communication; a kind of "Can we learn from the past?" thing and some of the interactions are a little strained. I will be offering a "lessons learned" post at the end of this arc. Already I've acquired so much regarding what has and hasn't changed in nine years.
Part 1 had Mr. Locke waking up in the middle of the night and asking me some questions. Part 2 went into why we dream what we dream and what would have to happen for someone to dream about ecommerce. Part 3 ended with Mr. Locke going to a prospect meeting and in Conversations with the Past, Part 4 Mr. Locke was engaging with the prospect. Part 5 found Mr. Locke going into metaphor and being distracted and Part 6 delved into a cynicism that can develop between client and consultant (and hopefully note mine!). To make things a little easier to read, Mr. Locke's article will be in standard text, my responses in italics.
"I think I see what you're saying," some other besuited weasel chimes in, saving my bacon. "It's like we need to liberate people from their repressed desires so they don't feel guilty about making what are essentially unnecessary purchases."
Ooh...and ouch.
"Precisely!" I thunder, striking the table with surprising force and causing several people to jump half out of their seats and spill coffee down their fronts. "Get more stuff!" Nevermind that I lifted the line from R. Crumb. No one here is likely to call me on that score.
R. Crumb? I'm no out of things.
"Look," I say, demonstrating great patience, as if dealing with witless children, "it's really quite simple." But I know where I'm going with this now, and it'll be anything but.
This is really beginning to sound like soooo many meetings I took part in in large corporations. I wasn't giving the presentation, mind you, just participating. That usually meant I was listening. I gave an example in Visualizing...what?.
"Before people become consumers, what are they? Just plain vanilla human beings, right? Confused, bewildered, horny for something, but they don't know what. They wander aimlessly through life filling their basic needs, sure, but suspecting that there must be something else. Some larger plan and object to it all. And that's where you come in. The invention of purpose is a gift to humanity, an invaluable offering in the great potlatch of commercial intercourse. Semantic complexity enriches the social fabric, empowers the body politic, ennobles the spirit, enlivens the soul..."
(more to follow...)
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Links for this post:
- Chris Locke's Faster Horses!
- The Conversations with the Past blog arc
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