The Central Skill

In a relatively brief time on this planet I have been able to find one of the most critical human skills. This fundamental capability is not unique to humans, but those who wish to have talent in any sphere must exhibit it.

So what is this talent?

It's the ability to pay attention. Without this skill, one's talents are wasted. It is indirectly taught in every single subject in school and in every moment of life. We have platitudes that celebrate it and artists that stun us with their ability to pay attention to things that others are incapable of noticing.

In today's society, this ability has eroded to amazing levels. Nothing can surprise, nothing can shock or offend. While I might turn to various studies made on the effects of things like television or movie violence, I have difficulty citing these. The names of such coalitions makes their biases clear. For my purpose, it is not the result of such productions that matters, but that they exist and there are relatively few outcries.

I admit that I haven't found a good origin point for this short desensitizing process, but my gut instinct is to point at the fifties and sixties. The Vietnam War naturally brought a lot of hard images home. I believe the mass media, more than any war, has created this desensitizing process. It's impossible to deny that the television has been the greatest vehicle of shocking images. Of course it has now been beaten firmly by the internet, where one can quite easily get their hands on just about anything. Pornography and other 'extreme' media are more easily obtained than ever before.

This is of course not to say that desensitizing is new. In the past, exectuions and cruelties only occasionally matched today were quite common. Genocide is not new, nor is the mutilation of certain members of our own species, nor is the concept of shocking entertainment new. However, it still strikes me as important to acknowledge the way the mass media has changed the human mind.

As one might expect, a sort of evolution has taken place. Companies early-on realized that things which shock or offend draw amazing ratings. Of course, something too shocking or offensive will cause disaster, as government and popular forces move against the audacious company. I believe this situation has encouraged a society with an amazingly short attention span. What is hot today will be completely tame tomorrow.

The mind-blowing growth of the internet has crushed television in the expansion of desensitizing media. From barnyard fun to drugs that turn you into a super sex machine, our email boxes are a testament to the gathering storm.

So if what I suggest is accepted, what can one do? Are we all to bow to the pressures and focus only briefly on whatever images are thrown in front of us? I know for many humans, this is likely the way it is.

To avoid this loss of life in the daze of parading imagery, one should exercise their mind daily. In a society obsessed with the physical, the thought of exercising the brain might seem secondary. It is at least as important as getting those buns of steel and in my opinion more rewarding.

Pay attention to something every day. At least twenty minutes a day should be spent really focusing on something. My personal favorites are all artistic. Singing, writing poetry, reading, and drawing are all included. These acts in themselves can be done with little effect, so care is required. Like one exercising with too low a weight, the brain may not be engaged. If one finds this happening, they should stop and change things. Record reactions and thoughts as you read, change forms as you write, or consider alternate characters or scenarios, in music, feel the emotion and energy of every note.

And that's all from the podium today.

First Post!

Just signed up for my own blog. I figure everyone else has one, and I might as well have a place where I can drop notes for later review.

So what is Magical Dancing Wallabies all about? It's going to be a fairly wild array of personal interests, from the ugly (politics) to the beautiful (poetry, music, art.)

For now I will just bask in the magnificence of my blog.