On the subject of Calcified Patterns and on the subject of the Facebook “likes” and general approval votes. “Like” is a very inaccurate name, a more descriptive is “I recognize a familiar and preapproved pattern” People seek patterns that confirm concepts, ideas, visual or musical formulas they already decided to accept. So the act of liking something is really an act of recognizing a preapproved pattern. It’s like saying thank you very much for filtering and highlighting what I agreed to like. And hence is the problem with the “likes” and votes in general. Notice how political campaigns gravitate to oversimplified formulas that everyone already “likes”. The wider is a campaign the narrower is the pool of formulas till it completely dissolves into a visceral jingle – “change” or “hope” anyone? Me likes, but I digress.
The search for approval or the search for being liked or popular is the strongest gravitational force towards the bottom of the proverbial barrel. It also means that a new idea is by definition disapproved because it doesn’t fall into a preapproved pattern and it doesn’t give people the affirmative structural pleasure of recognizing the familiar, something they already agreed to agree about.
Beware of your work being liked or approved. It could only mean that you hopelessly fallen into a passé pattern. If you do patterns for living than have some sense of humor about it, the only way you can survive the routine of waking up at 4am on a farm full of sheep, apes, parrots and donkeys.
Photo via flickr/yushimoto_02
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