The Showbiz Sage

Once, our information was stored in communities. It was stored in the collective memory of our tribes and people groups.

Somewhere along the line, and over time, our information was extracted from it's storage in communities and began to be stored in other media. On cave walls, carved in stone, on paper, in books...and so on.

Then we realised that how we were storing our information was limited. There is only so much one can paint on a wall, carve on a stone, write onto paper or print in a book. But no longer is this the case - we brought forth the internet.

This has generated a new problem...which it seems we are solving in the most novel of ways...
The problem now is no longer about the difficulties of obtaining information, but rather the difficulty of deciphering the myriads of information that we not only seek out, but that also seeks us out each day.

Enter the "Showbiz Sage".

Alongside the shift in our storage of information has been the growth of our celebrity world. A world where the soundbite that can grab the most attention wins! (It is little wonder that McLuhan has gained a resurgence of interest in this area - he was a master of the soundbite and I think I am not alone in saying perhaps a touch ahead of his time).

With the plethora of information at hand, the last thing people want or need is more information! Long explanations and critical reasoning! You get a gold star if you've actually made it to  this point of the post and have actually read not skimmed, the couple of hundred words that got you here. What is needed is a pithy, shorthand, wrap it all up, soundbite.

But a soundbite is not enough. Because just like there is a plethora of information, there is a plethora of soundbites. So what is needed is celebrity. The celebrity is the new expert. There's no point getting yourself firmly established in an academic ivory tower because no one is listening! All those degrees and awards are not worth half as much as sixty seconds on prime time.

I don't think this is much different within Christian circles. The rise of the celebrity pastor is not breaking news to anyone. Yet it seems to me one of the biggest complaints from these celebrity pastors is that people are not really listening to them. That they are taking a sentence said here, in this context as part of this monologue, and sticking it over here in this context with this narrative.

But why is that a surprise when what people are looking for is the showbiz sage?

Heard today that the new pope has 2 million followers on Twitter. 140 characters.....the world of the soundbite.....the soapbox of the showbiz sage.