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What is truth?
Truth is truth.
Okay. Fair enough. Words are words. But a lot of people are using other
people's "truths" for their own purposes. Bending other's words until it
fits what they need ? often distorting the original intent of the message.
Like making a cake into batterso you can have cupcakes.For example, this
is a quote I recently saw on a web site.
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"Discomfort is a signal of an exceptional concept." ? Craig Frazier.
Hurm. Now, this was a design company's site. (As a general rule, their
creativity should cut them some slack. One would think wouldn't they.) It
is a site, which, in my opinion, is well designed but completely unusable.
However, all of that is beside the point, because they were using this
quote as well as many others to portray an image for their design ideals.
So lets get to the nooks and crannies of it.
Now, I'm a professed village idiot. Having said that, I have no idea who
Craig Frazier is. Now, I know I may be putting my ignorance on display
(you are reading this after all) but I'm willing to bet that a lot of other
people don't know either. I'm not sure about that ? I may be completely
wrong ? again, I'm not as smart as you. But without any concept of who he
is or why he said this, his universal "statement of discomfort" takes away
all possible validity to his argument. (And to the company's design
ideals!)
So, lets say he is a designer. This is a design site after all. By this
statement I can make the conclusion that all great designs should be
shocking to the viewer. They should jar your perceptions of reality and
make you question why you even exist. Black and White ? Good and Evil ?
dogs and cats living together? I would be much warmer to this concept if
designers weren't responsible for creating items like Nursery Room
Wallpaper or company letterhead.
I would feel great if this guy Craig developed interrogation devices in
the fifth century. Big metal chairs with spikes and vices to hold a
prisoner in place. His entire outlook on life would seem diabolically
appropriate. I highly doubt that discomfort is a mark of high quality at
Posturepedic. (However I am quite sure that it was at the manufacturer of
the chair I'm sitting in right now.)
Another quote from said site was, "We cannot prohibit that which we cannot
name. ? George Steiner." Okay ? again ? it's a design site. I get what
they are getting at. Think out of the box. Blah blah blah. But somehow I
don't think that's what George had in mind either. Again, I may be wrong.
But what I get out of this quote is that I have to name something before I
can prohibit it. Okay? So, when the big monster came out of the ocean,
started breathing lightening and smashing the city a bunch of officials
gathered around a table to first figure out a name? I doubt it ? I'm
pretty sure that Godzilla is Japanese for "Holy Shit!!! RUN!!" And from
there the name just kind of stuck from there?.
But those are obscure quotes on an obscure nationally recognized site. I'm
sure the rest of the public and the news media alike quote with much more
deliberation. Making sure to get the context down and relating it to
information that is similar. Um, yeah. I believe it was Frank Lloyd Write
who said, "I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands
of fools. Let's start with typewriters."
* Look for MR. Sweeney's article "Hypocrites, the first greek
philosopher." later this week.
**The opinions expressed in Weekly Commentary are those of Mr. Sweeney and his alone. Any attempt at finding sanity or logic in his rantings are feeble, at best.
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