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Get Back in the Box, by Douglas Rushkoff
“Eureka”, he’s got it. Author, Culturist, Thinker and now muse of innovators, Douglas Rushkoff has drafted the foundations of a new renaissance at the dawn of a century in need. As much as the language of Rushkoff sparks the Promethean fire within those who think outside the box, his message is clear: Get Back In The Box. Has the age of consulting in business, government and culture sent us running back to the box we so eagerly wanted out of? Rushkoff has long been a consultant to industries and companies that rely on innovation. He was tuned into a cultural frequency untouched by markets, yet his advice was often taken – but not heeded. Media and tech companies saw he was the guy they needed to talk to in order to reach Generation X, Y, Z. So they listened and read his rooted understanding of how subcultures operate, but skipped the part about how to reach them. An implicit lesson from Rushkoff, in both his earlier writings and his newest, Get Back In the Box, is not to treat the Demos you desire to reach as markets. From a consulting point of view this means you can’t sum up a person or collective of individuals in an hour-long focus group. You might have heard a sound bite or been savvy to a quote or two from Rushkoff. Perhaps he grabbed your ear on NPR one afternoon during rush hour or you caught one of his Frontline documentaries1 on PBS. As much as Rushkoff’s books are perhaps the most provoking and accessible ideas engaged in the media sphere, they brew quietly under the radar, even amongst several bestsellers. Perhaps it is the dynamic of media itself that explains this, as blood, sex and scandals still rule the day. What flows from Rushkoff’s ponderings cannot be sensationalized; he is more one of the decoders of why sensationalism hypnotizes our need for information. This still does not mean he is a neo-revolutionary, posing a threat to the very system he navigates. It is a New Renaissance that Rushkoff has pointed to for years and Get Back In The Box is the first rite of spring to its’ full bloom. As prolific as his topics have been; Cyberia, Media, Marketing, Comic Books, Judaism, Chaos Theory, there is an underlying question that he has cast into the oceanic frontiers of existence. What is the core of why we do what we do? With skillful fascination his projections put cultural phenomena into the bigger picture, but not by wandering way up on the hill like Nietzsche’s Zarathustra2. Rather, by maintaining we humans stay attuned to a plasticity that enhances the core mechanics of our cultural being. What exactly does that mean you ask? Get Back In The Box is an accessible handbook for sticking with what you know best. It was only a few years ago walking in the high altitude buzz of Aspen, Colorado that Rushkoff casually mentioned to me he wanted to write a book on returning the ethic of “play” to work. In all its modest wisdom, this very book could do the ski town of Aspen some good about now. With recent chatter about selling ad space on the ski lifts, affluent patrons often respond with distaste. Skiers who pay primo access on the slopes of Aspen don’t want to be marketed to while soaking in the Rocky Mountain views. The tourism department of Aspen is not alone, everyone in the business of serving people, occasionally needs to re-evaluate their core task in reaching customers. Continue reading the full review of Get Back In The Box at the link provided. It is not a sales page, just the actual article site it was originally published on.
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Contributor's Note
When the past meets future for Jason, the moment is fueled by a creative background in music, writing, film and philosophy providing a nexus of the complex world to come. He is currently a freelance writer and ghostwriter of books, articles and screenplays.
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Book Review of Rushkoff's "Get Back in the Box"
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