Here's a place to collect thoughts some quick thoughts prior to my blog www.thinkerbelle.me. I'm a strategist hungry for knowledge. Crazy about fashion, the interweb, design, food and music.
Slightly obsessed. With good reason. A smattering of my favorites.
Many months ago, I was struck by Plato's Allegory of the Cave. In case you aren't familiar watch the little vid attached, and here's a quick synopsis:
Plato imagines a group of people who have lived chained in a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them, and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows. According to Plato, the shadows are as close as the prisoners get to seeing reality. He then explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall are not constitutive of reality at all, as he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners.
The shadows are a great metaphor for where we have been in ye olde advertising world: the paradigm of a world of glossy images and superfluous words--a time and place where we talked AT people. The reality (real objects/communication/people!!) --people talking BACK, are the future. Sometimes reality is scarier than the safe cave we create for ourselves. Is it easier to just reside in the walls of the cave, watching the shadows of a different time pass by? Or are you willing to take a risk and stand up (and stand out) of the cave?
