I hope you had a great Thanksgiving!
I have been distracted from writing recently. The holiday, my birthday, working on some new web pages, developing a strategic marketing plan (as opposed to the rather free floating, in my head plan variety) and getting used to working with an assistant. (More about all of that later)
I have also been doing a bit of reading. I don't generally read nonfiction books from cover to cover (usually read sections, skip some and skim others). When they are compelling enough to do so they typically make it on to my recommendation list and this is no exception. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell is about how ideas and social trends become viral and spread like any physical virus and it is fascinating.
There are some very powerful ideas in this book. Enlightening for everyone, especially those who are interested in spreading any kind of message. I have been working on a project about how to create authentic change which is focused on personal and individual change. It will be interesting to see what the correlations may be. (Stay tuned for a new blog dedicated to this project)
Coming out of the election, one of the questions that I have had is, how has fundamentalist "Christianity" become such a movement in spite of its clear departure from traditional Christianity and what seems to me to be its lack of mental health (yes I do have a bias here)? Some things are clear to me. Fundamentalism of all kinds (Christian, Islamic, political...) tends to be fear based. My sister, a UCC (United Church of Christ) minister told me recently that studies show that there is an upsurge in fundamentalism in times of social and political unrest and uncertainty. So that part is clear to me, fundamentalism gives people answers that assuage their fear and on that level it makes a great deal of sense.
But Malcolm Gladwell puts another spin on it. Not really another spin but adds a depth of understanding. First are the people who communicate a message, Mavens, Connectors and Salesmen. They take a message from Innovators and Early Adopters (the visionaries) and translate it to the Early Majority which is the step it needs to take to become a trend (blogs are probably right at this tipping point). The message of the visionaries may be more complex, creating confusion so the communicators translate the message by dropping extraneous details and exaggerating the message itself.
Now think about this in terms of fundamentalism. In the case of Christianity, evangelical leaders function as charismatic interpreters who have "leveled" the Bible into something understandable (sticky) and meaningful to people. They have interpreted it in such a way that it fits into the context of their lives and context contributes to contagion. So the environment which feels out of control and frightening becomes fertile ground for an exaggeratedly simple message.
Bush capitalized on this fear during the election. Fear is a very sticky message which when combined with a charismatic communicator (personally I don't get it but people do respond to him that way) who simplified the message and repeated it endlessly thus contributing to its contagion. The scary part is that it did not matter whether the message was true. What mattered was the stickiness and a characteristic of the person communicating it.
I wholeheartly recommend reading this book. It's the sort of book that will spark lots of ideas that go way beyond the book itself. It is also a must for people in business. It will suggest ways of seeing new trends coming which is certainly beneficial for product development and it will help any business market its products.
