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ATTENTION | Noah Brier

All the World's a Stage

When you pull the curtain away you start to realize that we're the ones running the show.

August 8, 2006 | RSS | EMAIL | PRINT | 5 COMMENTS

I'm going to expose some big things here, so be prepared.

  1. Journalists are just regular people who write for a magazine.
  2. Advertisers are just regular people who work in the advertising industry.
  3. Superstars are just regular people who get a lot of attention.

That's right ladies and gentlemen, it's all a sham. The media industry is filled with regular people. When you look behind the curtain, the wizard is actually us.

For a long time what these people had going for them was distribution. Not anymore.

We've all got it now.

People don't go to MySpace for MySpace, they go for MY space. We are all creators and our creation is our lives. As we become more aware of how the world functions, of how businesses operate, of how textiles are produced, our consumption choices become a kind of production of their own.

Best of all, it's happening right now.

"Teens are extremely socially aware, but favour participation through their consumption choices, because they believe corporations are more effective agents of change than governments."

"Perhaps the first lesson of the brand underground is not that savvy young people will stop buying symbols of rebellion. It is that they have figured out that they can sell those symbols, too."

We're all in the game now. We've just got to accept that we're all acting on the same stage. It's all about self-awareness. Reality television, for all its shortcomings, has shown us that we're all players. The internet has exposed the inner workings of our brain.

When you step back and look at the landscape from above, you start to realize that it's all shaped by people just like you.

Update (8/8/06): Got rid of a Shakespeare quote I took completely out of context (which Jeff corrected me on).


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COMMENTS

1chartreuse

Spot on.

Obvious if you pay attention. But nobody notices it because they are looking at themselves.

August 8, 2006

2Noah Brier

Good point.

We've finally got a mirror. We look around and see people just like us.

It's eye opening.

August 8, 2006

3jeff

The "All the world's a stage" speech is a monologue about the depressing, cyclical nature of existence. Jacques isn't referring to the individual's role in the universe but quite the opposite. He's stating that we have NO role in nature, that nature dictates its own terms and eventually we'll be what we were - nothing, or as Shakespeare says it, "sans everything."

August 8, 2006

4noah kagan

you are so right on. people don't realize that even the big shots pee and poop just like me and you. albeit its in a nicer toilet;)

August 8, 2006

5Noah Brier

Jeff, that's the problem with taking stuff out of context. Thanks for filling it in. Got rid of the quote. (For those interested, you can find it here.)

August 8, 2006