Want to become known? Become EXTREME!
Extremes come in all sizes, shapes and colors... just look around you to find them!
I am sure I am not the first to realize this but the more extreme people act, the more attention they seem to garner.
Why extremes get attention
From those who (still) fear that the Large Hadron Collider will mark the end of the world to simply “famous” people acting rather stupidly, being extreme does get attention but why? Basically, most people can be organized along a bell curve. You have the 5-10 percent at either end (extremes) and the large majority in the middle living a rather mundane life. How do you give your mundane life some excitement? Well, you read and try to imaging living life through those 10-20 percent extremes. Don’t believe me? Why is it that Britney Spears is able to get front page news reports around the world while the genocides STILL occurring in Africa are barely raising a tick on the attention meter? Unless you are involved in the genocides as either the victim or executor, most people honestly don’t care about what others are going through as death is both a taboo subject in our “civilized” society and celebrities seem to be way more fun with their money, fame and fortunes. Another instance, take the Queen of England, a useless relic who is (was) supported by the taxes of the people she “governed” to live a life of absolute luxury… she gets worldwide attention each time something happens in her family. Why? Who cares? I bet just down the street there are some far more interesting people who don’t live a subsidized life of luxury that can actually play an active role in solving many of the world’s problems without being given an allowance by the general public. So, why do extremes, either created by heritage or otherwise get so much attention? Because they represent a novelty, something out of the ordinary or mundane. They wake people up and make them feel alive, give them something to talk about and sound “intelligent” about.
The spiral of becoming an extreme
Our brains have developed a quick adaptation mechanism that, in some people, is a little out of wack. This isn’t a good or bad thing. To be blunt, not everybody can stand living the life of a lemming being told what to do, how to do it and when by societies norms. The problem with becoming extreme is that the next time around, you must be even more extreme to get the attention otherwise you get little or no attention. We, collectively, quickly become desensitized to things. For instance, if you watch a horror movie made in the 40s or 50s, I am willing to bet you don’t find it all that scary compared to what is being played today. If you where able to travel back in time and bring somebody from the 40s a movie produced in 2008, I am willing to bet that they would totally freak-out. What “was” scary “is” no longer. Sames goes with just about every other aspect of our lives. This is why extreme views become more so with time, if they don’t, they quickly become boring and disregarded. This happens in parties as well, the Republican party in the USA slowly evolved into the “religious, me” party while how the Democrats became the “secular, socialist” party over the period of a few elections. Another example of this is reality TV, they USE to be real but then producers realized that having extremes together made for more interesting television, thus diluting the entire meaning of “reality TV”.
When extremes is linked to finances
Now, imagine your earning potential was directly related to your behavior or lifestyle. For example, Madonna usually does something termed “crazy” just before the release of a new record to get some quick press, same for Michael Jackson and many other artists. This does two things. First, it makes the collective realize that “hey, I remember them (flood of memories)” and secondly, eases the entire marketing process from “remember” to “purchase”. First time you see something, there is shock, second time, your brain has had time to recover and you are far more likely to act on impulses… the time frame for this might be a few seconds or weeks but this is a process that marketers know very well and take advantage of.
The Bottom Line
Being or listening to extremes isn’t bad, it’s acting on what you are learning that is.
