An Era of Destraction
“Ours is an era of distraction. It’s a punishing drumbeat of constant input, this cacophony which follows us into our homes and into our beds. It seeps into our souls, for want of a better word.” It creates “raw nerve endings”. He wonders if he’d been born “when it was a little – quieter– out there, before everything got – AMPLIFIED, might I have been more –focused–, a more fully realized person.”
From the series Elementary, season 2, “The Marchioness” taken from a monologue by the character Sherlock Holmes.
I feel the same way, and the character of Sherlock has expressed it perfectly. I often wonder about the many effects and costs of this perpetual pounding. I know I’m not the only one negatively affected by it. Everywhere I look, I see it in the faces, sense the stress, and feel the tension. Could we be more focused, more fully realized, or at the very least, a little happier if things were a bit quieter? Along with many artists, I think the answer is yes, which is why many of us seek a place apart, a quiet place away, where we can think, process our thoughts, and give some space in our minds for creation to take place. A place away from the constant and irritating input that takes as much mind space as it can force itself into, where we can have some control over our environment of sights and sounds. Somewhere to be able to think our own thoughts and form artworks that develop from those thoughts.
Perhaps this is a way one can actually be, or be born into, another time and place. The attractions to a different time usually are about certain differences between another time and ours, such as a perceived peacefulness, quietness, a friendlier more human paced time. And a different place often involves similar desires of differences such as a more attractive place, a more peaceful place, a place more suited for human habitation. The environments many artists create do provide a space that satisfies many of these needs and desires, so, in a way, actually does transport one to a different time and place. At least the mind probably experiences it that way, and, as they say, the perception is the reality. That reality seems preferable to a more harsh reality over which one has no input or say, even if for a short time, keeping the “reality of modernity” out of sight and mind for a while to recover oneself from the onslaught. A sanctuary to help preserve our sanity.
In a way, it’s like freedom or imprisonment. With imprisonment, one has no say over what is imposed each and everyday, one must only accept what is dictated and delivered. With freedom comes the ability to direct, at least to some extent, how one’s days will be, how much of the cacophony one will be exposed to. Without making conscious choices to determine this, we give up this freedom, we become prisoners to the drumbeat, pawns to the marketers directives, victims with “raw nerve endings” , frayed patience, and a general feeling of malaise and dissatisfaction. Maybe that “something that’s missing” is the space that is constantly occupied by the outside.