Lack of poly-activism a marketing problem? (part II)
ABSENCE OF POLYACTIVISM AS UNSUCCESSFUL MARKETING
(Part 2 of 5; Continued from Part 1)
II
Having described these various realms referred to in this model,
it will now be helpful to trace the path that each innovation
follows on its way towards general acceptance according to Matthews
and Wacker.
The overwhelming majority of potential innovations NEVER manage
to make it beyond this stage of Fringe existence. Most inventions
seem to be of a sort that, although they make sense within the
inventor’s mind, the physical laws of the universe simply won’t
support their construction or operation. Even if the device MIGHT
actually work as promised, the inventor may still never manage to
create a prototype, file a patent, or explain it well enough for
someone else to build. Even if they do manage to build a working
prototype, the inventor still might never manage to convincingly
demonstrate it to anyone else. All such inventions remain in the
Realm of the Fringe. If a poet refuses to recite or write down her
poems, or having done so, never manages to let others read or hear
them, such poetry remains a Fringe phenomena. Likewise with art,
music, philosophy, dance, literature, scientific, religious or
political ideas. As long as they remain solely within the mind of
the creator, for all practical purposes, they have no existence and
their potential impact on the social world is effectively zero. It
may be speculated that over 99% of all potential innovations NEVER
advance beyond the Realm of the Fringe.
However, every once in a while, for reasons that generally defy
intelligent description, a deviant idea successfully moves from the
Realm of the Fringe to the Edge. This is analogous to the way one of
a million seeds blowing in the wind manages to fall into fertile
ground and take root, or the way a fertilized egg SOMEHOW manages to
implant itself in the wall of the uterus, or the way the one single
virus that survived the onslaught of the immune system that destroyed all the others somehow manages to infect a cell in the host’s body. Somehow, against all odds, this new idea or practice spreads BEYOND the mind of the innovator and attracts “a following” among people on the Edge, - invariably among people on the BLEEDING Edge. When Jackson Pollack finally managed to enroll himself in the least reputable of art schools, his extremely deviant art had moved from the Fringe to the Edge. When the visions in the mind of Jesus Christ somehow managed get out of his mouth and attract a small band of disciples, regardless of how imperfect and selective their understanding may have been, what later came to be called Christianity moved from being a purely Fringe phenomena to an Edge phenomena. The same pattern occurred at the founding of Buddhism and with the founding of Islam. Perhaps for no reason other than the fact that the concepts SEEMED new, incomprehensible, refreshing, shocking or different, SOMEBODY at the outermost rim of the Bleeding Edge was receptive. When Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton or Albert Einstein finally managed to explain their “bizarre” ideas to a handful of stunned colleagues, their theories ceased to be purely Fringe phenomena and gained a foothold on the Edge. When the founder of the League for Human/Equestrian Sexual Interaction finally managed to put up his website, his “cause” moved from being a Fringe phenomena to being a Bleeding Edge phenomena. Whatever an innovation’s TRUE merits, having moved from the Fringe to the Bleeding Edge gives it its first fighting chance to have some effect on social reality.
Just as the overwhelming majority of potential innovations never
manage to move from the Fringe to the Bleeding Edge, the vast
majority of innovations that make it onto the Bleeding Edge likewise
never manage to make it beyond the Bleeding Edge. The most usual
case is that an innovation simply stagnates and/or dies on the
Bleeding Edge without progressing even to the Cutting Edge. The
first few Bleeding Edge disciples, fans or aficionados might soon
tire of a charismatic prophet or “fearless leader’s” ramblings,
become bored with a would-be cult leader’s idiosyncrasies, abandon a
new style of art, clothing, or music once the novelty has worn off
and they move on to the next thing that attracts their attention.
The first few converts of Christ, Mohammed or Buddha might well have
drifted away and forgot about such revelations, and if so, such
preachers would have been lost to history. Of course, that is not
what happened in these exceptional cases, but if it had, they’d have
been no different from most of the thousands of messiahs, prophets
and gurus that burst into the Realm of the Bleeding Edge in every
century, burn brightly for 15 minutes and are soon forgotten.
Bleeding Edge people often have notoriously short attention
spans.
Bleeding Edge people, almost by definition, make poor promoters and salesman. They don’t readily identify with or communicate with the rest of society, nor do mainstream society’s motives and concerns closely match those of Bleeding Edge people. Thus the same features that most strongly attract Bleeding Edge personalities to an innovation tend to often be the very features that are repugnant to the rest of the world. The “instincts” of Bleeding Edge people about how to present an innovation so that it seems appealing to anyone other than another Bleeding Edge person tend to be fairly naive and unsophisticated. The informal, word of mouth “promotion” efforts by an innovation’s first wave of Bleeding Edge converts generally fails to attract more than transitory interest even among their local Bleeding Edge friends. At best, such efforts might gain a fledging “cult” following for the innovation among some segment of the Bleeding Edge that never manages to grow beyond the Bleeding Edge.
Most innovations in their original form are simply too raw, half-baked, crude, vulgar, outrageous, dangerous, useless, irrelevant or impractical to appeal to any but their most die-hard fans whose attraction to them may often be for less than rational motives. In their original forms, most innovations either contain extraneous obnoxious features repulsive to most people, lack essential features that might give them a broader appeal, or both. The first steam engines of Roman times were expensive toys that must have been amusing to watch rotate, but were incapable of doing any useful work. The first guns of the 12th century were so inaccurate, had such limited range, failed to fire on command, fired so often when their owner didn’t want them to, or simply exploded that they were almost worthless as weapons. In its purest, most “authentic” form as found among certain extremist Jain sects of India, what in America is called “vegetarianism” required a vow to eat no food AT ALL, whether derived from plants or animals since either act required the killing of a living thing. (All sincere practitioners of this “diet” are dead of starvation within weeks of adopting the practice). The “Ideal of Romantic Love,” in its most original medieval form seems to have appeared in strange suicide/martyrdom cults seeking to emulate the “perfect, sacred and pure” love that Christ had for humanity. In this form, the romantic ideal was for one member of a pair of lovers to LITERALLY sacrifice their own life to demonstrate their devotion to the other, - thereby validating the specialness and worthiness of the surviving lover, and exalting them to a blessed spiritual status akin to sainthood. (The concept had very limited potential for creating long term relationships). The original version of the concept that “sexual pleasure is sinful” and that “chastity = holiness” as it first appeared in pre-Christian Western Asia included the requirement of ritualistically AMPUTATING ONE’S OWN genitals as proof to the gods that the devotee’s commitment to renounce sexual pleasure was sincere. (Not much hope of establishing a universal religion if ALL adherents must submit to such severe discipline). It is only with great difficulty that such innovations managed to spread from the Fringe and gain even a tiny following on the extreme outer rim of the Bleeding Edge.
At least in this model of the world, no innovation spreads to the rest of society without first having survived and been nurtured for at least a while within the Realm of the Bleeding Edge. Even so, without some rather drastic refinement, significant modification, severe revision, and considerable moderation, very few innovations are capable of appealing to people beyond their own tiny cult of Bleeding Edge devotees. The direction, type and degree of modification that would permit wide acceptance is almost always more than the uncompromising militant idealism and self-righteously anarchistic romanticism of Bleeding Edge-oriented minds are willing or able to perform. (All the more so since the raw features and jagged edges are usually part of what made the innovation attractive to Bleeding Edge minds in the first place).
Nevertheless, on rare occasions, an innovation will manage to spread
from the Bleeding Edge to the Cutting Edge. If it does so, it will be because one or more Cutting Edge minds realized that the innovation had some potential for genuine usefulness to a “problem” that they considered significant. Those with certain needs and social agendas heard about Christ’s teachings, probably second or third hand from someone loosely affiliated with Christ’s first bunch of Bleeding Edge converts, and realized that, perhaps with slight modifications, such teachings MIGHT have practical application to issues they were struggling with in their personal lives and/or be useful for furthering their political ambitions. Certain wealthy and ruthless German bankers heard about the racist and xenophobic ravings of a young psychopath named Adolph Hitler from the rag-tag band of Bleeding Edge thugs that had gathered around him, and realized that if given a slightly more “respectable” exterior, intensive inflammation of the nation’s latent anti-Semitism and anti-foreigner sentiments could be turned to their own advantage and be used to destroy foreign-owned and Jewish banks that were out-competing them. A very open-minded scientist might suddenly appreciate that a certain startling new heretical theory that his colleagues find repulsive, - (perhaps with a few improvements), might actually make sense of some perplexing data they have been struggling with for years, or be useful as ammunition against a professional rival. A highly unorthodox engineer or entrepreneur might realize that the barely-functioning creation of some apparently crackpot inventor, IF it were more thoroughly researched and developed, MIGHT potentially grow into a form that could resolve a serious problem that plagues his own technology, might save his company or might even revolutionize an entire industry. A small group of eccentric “consumers” might realize a radically new, unfamiliar and largely unproven product could actually be better for them than whatever it is they are currently using. In all such instances, the innovation can be said to have moved from the Bleeding Edge to the Cutting Edge.
Cutting Edge “sexual deviants,” non-conformists, “early adopters” or converts to unorthodox cults are subtly different from their Bleeding Edge counterparts, even though they might outwardly appear similar. The distinction is that Cutting Edge people tend to adopt such lifestyles, practices or products as they do as an effective means of meeting a need or fulfilling a desire that they genuinely experience, rather than simply as a reaction AGAINST authority or rejection of mainstream society. Thus, such choices and decisions made by Cutting Edge people tend to be of a somewhat more deeply considered and substantial nature, and therefore have more potential impact on society at large than do analogous decisions by Bleeding Edge people in favor of the same innovation.
In the rare cases when an innovation manages to move beyond the
Bleeding Edge and into the considerably larger realm of the CUTTING Edge, it will have drastically expanded its potential audience, popularity, “customer base” and potential sphere of influence. However, by the time it has done so, it will probably have already undergone some revision, sanitizing, maturing and “refinement” during its residency on the Bleeding Edge, and will undergo even more at the hands of Cutting Edge minds.
For instance, revising the TOTAL ban on food so that cult members can eat nothing EXCEPT brown rice instead of being forbidden to eat ANY food at all MIGHT have given the idea a fighting chance to survive on the Bleeding Edge for at least a time. Likewise, moderating the notion that “sex = sin” and “chastity = holiness” apparently had a similar effect. In that case, some time prior to its being imported to Rome in about 200 BC, the notion was changed so that self-castration was mandatory ONLY for the PRIESTHOOD of the cult, and just STRONGLY encouraged but VOLUNTARY for all OTHER cult members, - so long as they all took a vow of strict lifelong abstinence and absolute celibacy. Doing so allowed the notion of “holy chastity” to gain a small but measurable following within the Bleeding Edge population. However, considerable further modification would be necessary if such innovations were ever to gain any popularity among the general population of the Roman Empire.
Because of the highly selective mixture of idealism AND personal pragmatism that characterizes Cutting Edge-oriented minds, much of the necessary modification of original concepts and practices required for widespread acceptance happens while the innovation is contained within the region of the Cutting Edge rather than while it was living only within the Bleeding Edge. Many of the most vulgar, excessive, obnoxious, dangerous, unpalatable features associated with the original innovation may be selectively removed, and valuable, necessary, pragmatic features may be added. The entity may become more potentially useful, but almost invariably it becomes more tame, less raw, more bland and less “authentic” in the process.
The “remains” of experimental “automobiles” created by anonymous Bleeding Edge “hobbyists” during the last decades of the 1700s and the first decade of the 1800s have (allegedly) been found, - complete with primitive steam engines and wheels but with neither brakes nor steering mechanisms. Indirect and sketchy references to such machines marauding through the English countryside of that era suggest they were perceived as quite a menace, presumably spooking horses, frightening children, scattering flocks of poultry, colliding with wagons, careening into trees, buildings and pedestrians. These audacious contraptions probably broke down (or exploded) before travelling more than a few miles, and no one knows how many drivers or others were killed by them. (Such “vehicles” were (probably) the forerunners of the earliest known steam locomotives that appeared several decades later in the 1830s). These early machines unquestionably moved, and their creators, - whatever it was that they thought they were up to, were no doubt very enthusiastic about them. But in the form these machines were in, they were neither a safe nor an effective means of transportation.
The original Jewish teachings of the person history remembers as
Jesus Christ and his first generation of Bleeding Edge converts, whatever those teachings actually were, apparently were so incendiary and/or incomprehensible that they only began to gain significant popularity in the world AFTER several decades of severe revision, major reinterpretation and moderation. This editing and revising was done at the hands of Cutting Edge Greco-Roman thinkers such as Saint Paul who never met Christ, and became embodied in the documents we now recognize as the “authentic” New Testament. Analogous processes occur with most other truly original innovations. By the time any innovation has passed from its original manifestation on the Fringe, survived its journey across the Bleeding Edge, and emerged at the inner rim of the Cutting Edge, it has already gone through a transformation comparable to what happens to beef when it goes into one end of a building as a wild, untamed, living, breathing herd of cattle and comes out the other end as a collection of uniform, prepackaged USDA-approved containers of hamburger meat.
Without going through this modification process during its residence in the Realm of the Cutting Edge, few if any innovations ever spread beyond the Realm of the Cutting Edge.
Even so, such drastic modification and transformation is still generally NOT sufficient to allow the innovation to be perceived as useful and attractive enough to be “consumed” by more than a fraction of the population of Cutting Edge people. That being so, the majority of potential innovations never spread beyond the Edge, so they live and die with more than 95% of the general population having (at most) a very dim awareness of their existence.
If an innovation manages to break into and develop a following on the Cutting Edge, it again has three options. It can continue to live on within the Realm of the Cutting Edge without further significant modification, - and without advancing beyond the Cutting Edge. Or it can regress back to a Bleeding Edge existence as people on the Cutting Edge who initially embraced it lose interest in it, decide it doesn’t work for them and abandon it. Or it can continue to mutate, evolve, transform and spread beyond the boundaries of the Cutting Edge. The majority of the time, the innovation follows one of the first two paths - either regressing back to the Bleeding Edge or remaining fairly stagnant but living on within the Realm of the Cutting Edge. However, on rare occasions, in an even further modified form, the innovation moves on into the “Realm of the Cool.”
(End of Part 2; to be continued in Part 3)
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