OLD Post - How Fickle

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2006

How Fickle

It amazes me how little humanity progresses, and how little it has learned from its few thousand years of affluence. This can clearly be seen in a case study of the object of our eyes. When explored, what is it that is catching to the eye, or desirable? The transfixed eye finds its subject to be a combination of color, motion, and shine.

Colorful objects, seen in our modern advertisements, books, and cartoons, but also found in simple pleasures like flower arrangements, seasonal foliage changes, and rainbows.

Moving objects have been a mainstay of entertainment for as long as it has existed. Carnivals, parades, tricks, games, machines, and gadgets are all fascinating because of their movements. There is no denying that they are more than movement, but the eye finds these things intriguing (and consequently the person) simply by the motion involved.

Shine is a quality so prized among humans that our most expensive and sought after objects are desired because they are the shiniest objects around. Don't believe me? Think fame and fortune, wealth and power, treasure and plunder. First to the mind are our precious metals (gold, silver) and precious stones (diamonds, sapphire). Why is that? What do our precious natural resources do for us? We can't eat them. We can't use them to keep us warm. They can't be used as a flotation device. So what then are they good for? Until this recent technological age, where practical uses for these materials were invented, the desire for such objects was a matter of pride only.

If we take these three qualities, color, motion, and shine, we can break down the majesty and appeal of our visual euphoria into what seems a rather bland, fickle, and childish sense of wonder. Are your visual cravings nothing more than the next shiny, colorful, machine? Are our movies and entertainment more exciting with more motion, and flash? Does color emphasize our advertisements? Sure. And why not, if that is what is catchy to the eye. But how fickle. How disappointing that our optical spectacles and auspicious images are so often so simple. Are there other ways in which our experiences are motivated by asinine and feeble impulses? What are they, and what is their instigation?

Learn, Think, Act.