When Clever goes Cliché…
It was the usual jaded cynicism that forces people to be resistant to new ideas. One possible reason is ideas have the risk of traversing the clever to cliché path. And when clever goes cliché, no one would seem to want to convey an idea. I made a blog entry: “Panhandling: Baby Shower Universe.” It communicates how a baby shower registry can be misguided. However, last week, I follow the step by step instructions of a baby shower registry, an action contrary to the views I made on the entry.
As far as conformity goes, this can be one of the pitfalls an idea can go through. People want to be different, but not that different, or else labels such as “nonconformist,” and “antisocial” would hemorrhage into your path.
This is one of the ways that an idea can live. Another way would be ideas can be legislated and censored unreasonably. An example would be the term called “infotainment.” From what I observed, the broadcast journalism that is practice here tends to have a goal give the people what they want, in the expense of a guided and methodical idea flourishing. News networks today are own by Corporate Conglomerates which means business. And when nonconformist ideas are reasonably good but bad for business, such idea is censored or killed from the moment of conception. An example of ideas being censored unreasonably is when David E. Kelley, “Boston Legal” creator had a hard time getting approval for the script mentioning Fox News because this news show mostly communicates overly patriotic themes.
Resistance to new ideas can be a threat to freedom of expression. When freedom of expression would meet its demise, it is reasonable to view people as automatons, submissive to the dictates of customs and consumerism.
As mentioned above, these are the two paths an idea can travel, clever to cliché and legislated and censored. Both seem to be risky, but rather take the risk than to defy the ideas’ purpose: inform and educate.
