Rampant Mediocrity

In the world we live in, there seems to be a downward trend in ethics regarding hard work, mastery of ones craft and being exemplary. This can be seen everywhere one looks from movies, to literature, to political discourse to even the construction of buildings. A while back, which really was not to long ago, one was lauded based on the mastery and the quality of the products they produced. Now days, it seems to be the reverse, that such quality and exceptional works are rare and that thing that are just bland, average and the run of the mill same old, same old are the most sought after and available materials.

This is certainly the case for movies and music. In both situations, we see that trends and popularity is more essential than skill and eminence. With regards to movies, it appears that people need to see certain things and display certain things, to appeal to the masses which are sub-par in intellectual prowess and capacity at best. When people who have worked on the craft for years are les desirable than a face from the music industry, it is not unusual that

In music there is a similar outlook. Whatever is hot at the time is more important than creativity and attempting to challenge the cerebral sphere of the genre. Literature too is not immune to this for we see the focus, at least in African American literature and fiction is on what can be simply put as trash versus literary fiction – fiction that shows skill that is unique and does not follow the ubiquitous feeling that some writers show as “following what will sale.” I do not write to sale, I write because I love it and feel that I owe the canon of literature for even if I did not publish and sale my books, I’d still honor my craft.

Yep, we live in an age where mediocrity is rampant and exceptional quality and craftsmanship is rare. Maybe one day we will see this, and put all of this trash where it belongs – in the dumpster.