“Hype is the Enemy”
“Oh wow, what deep insight you have into life’s core issues, young man.”
I won’t be upset to find that is your reaction to a statement that seems like an all too eager attempt at a t-shirt slogan. I mean, “hype is the enemy”? So cliche right?
I say it with all seriousness though. Hype, otherwise known as praise or “critical acclaim,” is the enemy. What should be the encouragement or reward for effort put into one thing or another has often become the very death of that endeavour. Entire dangerous religions have been based on this phenomenon, promising careers have stalled and unnecessary wars have been waged too.
Harvested from the word “hyperbole,” which literally translates to exaggeration, hype is the word used to describe the excitement built up around concepts. Whether tangible or not, we’ve seen various things get people (ourselves inclusive) worked up into a frenzy they spend their lives defending.
That thing you love to watch (really a dud)that almost everyone agrees was flawless *cough* Empire *cough*, that political candidate (a fraud) you “know” is capable of changing the landscape, the life-choice (huge mistake) that has been hailed as the best move ever... Name it.
Google Glass was at some point the “next level” in augmented reality but we saw how that went, just like Google Plus (sorry guys). Kanye West’s clothing line was the rave of the moment a while back. It still is in some quarters, but really, it’s rags folks, rags! Stuff that would not be out of place on the set of The Walking Dead or I Am Legend.
Hype is so often the voice of the crowd aggressively begging people to accept ideas and ideals of the collective as the truth without giving it personal thought. Hype dictates to you what to like. It says accept, don’t consider; swallow, don’t chew. The deeper you are in the “culture”, the more susceptible to Hype you are, the more welded you are to the hive mind.
What if you could pause for a bit, unplug yourself to analyse the true pros and cons and then perhaps make a much more accurate assessment? Hype, it might not permit such rational thinking.
We have seen multitudes stall in their development simply because they made considerate advancements in a project, then got carried away.
In Nigeria, a public servant is hailed to the high heavens for doing the most basic parts of his job and nothing else in a time span of up to 8 years. Other times we’ve lied to friends about their true abilities and then vanished when they ended up walking around with donkey heads.
What was meant to be a tap on the back saying “good job, there is more to do though,” suddenly got fed into the hype machine and transformed into yet another case of the Emperor’s New Clothes, (here’s a modern twist on that classic tale)Tragic really.
The trap is always set up in such a way you focus on the achievements you have stacked up, albeit minute, compared to the opportunities available to reach even greater heights. Thomas Edison could have easily bagged a medal for attempting 964 times in some quarters. Apparently the fellow felt the need to press on and today his legacy speaks. A few trials did not cut it for him, a much higher and tangible goal beckoned.
I often wonder how many others put on beach shirts and sipped from cocktails after getting “somewhere” on a journey they began, never really hitting the optimal mark. It won’t be a surprise to find an alarmingly large figure.
Have I, at any point, said encouragement of little effort is bad? Or even suggested that we must become soulless shells of manic ambition who are never grateful for what we have? Certainly not. My friend Yinkoose Peperempe once touched on this issue, albeit in less dramatic fashion. Sometimes hype gives us stuff worthy of the rave reviews. No doubt.
However, it is quite important to never get to a place where an individual sees himself as one who has discovered the periodic table when all that’s been done is the unceremonious act of stumbling upon two grains of sand in a beaker.
Kevin Hart, the comedian, once said every group of individuals or a “squad” needs a “No man.” This is the individual who is not afraid to remind you that your latest effort is really not the best thing since penicillin was discovered. A person who keeps you grounded, lest you find yourself, a hot air balloon, trying to carry out covert bombing missions for the military.
Hype. It will kill you, and you won’t see it coming. Watch it. For the umpteenth time, it is the enemy!
