Title: Superlatives............Where have they taken us?
Tags: Superlatives, jake kot, bassist jake kot, american idol
Blog Entry: This question got me thinking, especially after my most recent diversification as a writer with the creation of Jake Kot Publicity. As a publicist, my awareness of grammatical enhancement started to open my eyes shall I say, to how much we as a media driven culture might need to consider how we’ve actually “affected” our culture with the misuse of this segment of our everyday language. Giving credit where credit is due, this observation was also triggered by a comment pertaining to our use of superlatives by Lydia Courtney-Pope, a teacher, and better half of bassist Mike Pope. Her thoughts are definitely part of this presentation. We’re in a sell-sell-sell society, more than ever before at this point in time, and I believe grammatical enhancements are at an all time high with justification for these enhancements being totally on the backburner. For example: If the contestants on American Idol (with all due respectand admiration to a younger person giving their all) are presented after their performance as “unbelievably talented” and “absolutely incredible”, what phraseology would we then use when speaking of “icons” in the same business—the Herbie Hancocks, or the Itzhak Pearlmans, or Sting. Why do I make this point? Understand, millions of viewers hear these “superlatives” used in that context, and it goes without saying that the general public will take it as fact due to the power of the media. If that is the standard, and no one questions it, will the media push it with almost a total disregard to any authenticity at times….absolutely! Said another way; if the popular fiction writer Du jour is hailed as a first class “world renowned” writer, how do we even begin to describe a Thoreau, or a Shakespeare? Is this just simply a spin on semantics…I think not. So how does this affect America’s “culture”, and oureveryday lives beyond that? Let me try to make my point in musical “ease”, if you will. At one point in time, the most popular, and I want to accentuate“popular” acts of the day were the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix. I would hope there’s no need to go into the magnitude of their legacy. Today, the most“popular” acts of the day are artists such as the Brittany Spears and Justin Timberlake. To be clear, this is not so much a judgment on these two particular artists as it is a premise to be considered for how the media’s use of language(superlatives) over the years, and the power they ensue, has impacted our cultural landscape present day, and what we see holding the “most popular” title is now a decision of the Media, not the public. There's a world of artists outthere, easily found on the net, that could represent America’s potential best, or most popular, but we tend to take what is given to us through the media’s eyes. If we continue to let them make the decisions on what’s happening and what’s not, I shudder to think what my teenage sons “cultural background” will consist of ten to fifteen years from now. And how does this affect our everyday lives…consider this. Japan, with its century’s old culture that absolutely spills over to their work ethic is leaving us far behind in the global market. India, steeped in cultural heritage as a part of there everyday life as well has 25% of its population with the highest IQ’s adding up to being greater than the total population of the United States, and this has some of the biggest companies, such as Microsoft, outsourcing to them as well as building campuses over there. [Kind of interesting how we started off simply considering a superlative] We cannot afford to let our culture be reduced to a novelty status. The cost is becoming too high, and somehow, somehow, we need to get its growth and relevance back into the hands of the general public, and out of the hands of the few and the powerful.
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