Light Reading, London, England, July 2009

Doc Searls, Beyond Celebrity Obsession:

According to Don Norman, a black hole topic is one that is essentially undiscussable: “Drop the subject into the middle of a room and it sucks everybody into a useless place from which no light can escape.”

… Most of us can’t help falling into conversational black holes. But we can help getting sucked into celebrity obsession.

Unless, of course, we’re making money at it. … But that’s the supply side. What about demand?

In a comment, Eric T. MacKnight:

The ancient Greeks divided human nature into three parts—appetite, will, and reason—in a triangle diagram with reason the smallest and highest part. Consumer culture, less than 100 years old, appeals to our appetites and our laziness, encourages us to ignore our reason, and most radically succeeds in getting us to define ourselves not by what we make, but what we buy. Which suits the government, too.

The Greeks would not be surprised to learn that 2500 years later most people, most of the time, are ruled by their appetites. Why are we?

Because we’re human. Perhaps I’m naive, but I’m hopeful that culture will reshape the economics of media…