LINKMACHINEGO.COM picks up Texting via wood s lot thus
“I read about Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld and Ashcroft’s approval ratings and I wonder about my fellow citizens. I wonder if there isn’t some collective human core drive toward conservatism. I mean conservatism on its most basic level: fear of change. These familiar white men — familiar both because they’re clones of what we’ve been acculturated to perceive as power, and familiar literally, it’s the exact same people, the same handful, the plutocracy — are they somehow reassuring big daddies, distant and tight-lipped, security conscious and faintly disapproving, a little out of touch, a little authoritarian and secretive, deals out of earshot and quiet phone calls, a potential for real anger, but usually genial and a little hokey; they want what’s best for us, they know what’s best, because they’re father? We don’t need to know the details. They’re in charge, and that’s as it should be”
The slightly bizarre coincidence for me is that I met the author of LINKMACHINEGO.COM today at a seminar being given by Christopher Locke of Cluetrain fame. (seminar was organised by the man behind The Obvious? so this was something of a blogflesh or whatever you call bloggers meeting in real life…)
I’ve not heard Chris before, so not I’m not sure if this was his “standard” (??) Gonzo Marketing talk or something he had tailored for the organisation sponsoring the event …anyway… the reason for associating this and the quote from Texting is that a key part of rageboy’s message was about the need for large corporations to let go of that assumed position of authority if they are going to survive in the internet world, to let go of the fear of talking with their consumers.
All of that somehow links in my mind to the quote (allegedly from “A Course in Miracles” but if not I’m sure The Obvious? will correct me!) about all human actions being ultimately based in love or fear. And when someone stands up in front of an audience who are (indirectly) paying for him to be there and demonstrates what he means about the new level of human honesty required in communication and enabled by the internet through simply telling us about his current heart-breaking head-exploding relationship problem then you do rather get the point… (although from the comments I heard at the buffet afterwards not everyone in the audience saw it that clearly – so maybe the fear factor is still too high…)
[post script – here is Gary Turner‘s account of how he met up with Chris Locke on the very same London trip on Sunday…]
