About nothing

If you read this blog with any regularity you know I like to make fun of people. All people.

I make fun of Republicans, the low hanging fruit on the tree. But I've also taken potshots at Democrats. And quite a few at Libertarians. They're no longer on the tree but have fallen and are rotting at the base of the tree, covered in fungi and looking eerily similar to that mop of faux hair that sits on Rand Paul's head.

I make fun of religion. All religion. But take particular joy at mocking the inane musings of my own particular tribe. Come on, talking snakes? Burning bushes? Parting seas? And murrain?

What the hell is murrain?

Plus, you're going to tell me the Lord of Lords, the Host of Hosts, the omnipotent force that rules over vast stretches of space and time that the mind cannot even fathom, is going to have a kinnipshin if I add some zest to my salad with a few bacon bits?

I don't have time or energy for that.

"Please pass the lobster roll."

I make fun of advertising people. All advertising people.

No one is spared. Holding company executives who take home 8 figure compensation packages but tell bootstrapped employees, "there's no money for raises." Whiny art directors and copywriters who have convinced themselves they're changing the world and want to bookend their Cannes Lions with a nice Nobel Prize. Or two.

And I make fun of planners and strategists. Perhaps even to excess. For a stretch of two years or so (in the pre-Trump era), every 5th blog posting seemed to be about delusional planners.

But by far the biggest target of my derision is me.

The reasoning is quite simple.

At 215+ lbs. I make for quite a can't-miss target. Also, if I write something mean about myself, there are no consequences. No one can put me in Blog Jail. Or curtail my blogging activity in any way.

The other reason is my solid belief in self-deprecation. It's become somewhat of a lost art. And frankly, it's what brands ought to be doing more of.

Over and above all that, after 44 years on this earth I've cultivated a very pragmatic philosophy. And tried not to make the mistake of conflating what I do, or have done, with any importance.

As my former boss Steve Hayden put it so eloquently in a graduation speech I posted several weeks ago, "I can make a decent living twisting some words into clever phrases? Cool."

Or as it was put so perfectly (at 1:52) in this Seinfeld clip that is in current inter web circulation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQnaRtNMGMI



I love that.