I’ve been wanting to bring back the popularity of the mid-ninties TV show Celebrity Deathmatch. It was an MTV show that had celebrity clay figures, with tons of personality, fighting each other in a ring. It was really funny at times. (footnote: I think Kim Walker vs. Misty Edwards would be awesome… or Heidi Baker vs. Beni Johnson)
Truth be told there is a “deathmatch” going on in every classroom, boardroom, home, and especially church each week that many are unaware of… The Postmodern Mind Vs. The Monolog! And in case you haven’t heard, the Monolog is taking a serious beating.
I hung out with a dear friend of mine who use to listen to me monolog for about year, and as we talked about life I realized that the stuff I had been talking about each week had not even entered into his thinking. It was a tough realization, and I wanted to be upset with him, but I’ve come to realize it’s not his fault at all
The monolog was birthed in an era where information was sparse. One person had access to a document that others wanted to hear about. That is sooo not the case now, our world is flooded with information thanks to the internet. We have access to every lesson ever taught. We can watch documentaries about conspiracies, aliens, hoaxes. We think in 3 minute clips, flashes, status updates, and friend requests. Affirmation has been boiled down to making the effort of clicking a button that says “like.” No more letters, no more random visits from friends, no more long conversations on the phone (or at least that’s the trend I’ve experienced).
And just in case your thinking, “But I have knowledge/wisdom/revelation that others don’t and by golly I’m a great monologer”, you are still operating in this postmodern age and we are trained by the culture to learn differently. Maybe the info that you have is amazing, but if it doesn’t come through the stream that others receive in then is it even wise to place so much emphasis and energy into your monolog? It’s as if through the past 40 years the river of learning has changed and moved to a different part of the plain.
Occasionally a person can break the mold enough in there speeches that they will be heard and effective, but not without making themselves feel like a circus show. So the issue with monologs isn’t how good or bad they are, or were. It’s how useful of a tool they are in accomplishing the goals you desire. They may still have a place, but it is definitely smaller than before. Ask any student, they spend all day online consuming info like a rabid animal and then they are thrown into a classroom lecture?!
I’m convinced that if we want to be heard, we either change with the flow of our cultural learning habits or we hang it up. Isn’t the essence of teaching loving someone more than yourself, enough to give up your time, energy, and life so that they might make progress.
My bet is that if this concept is true, many didn’t make it to the end of this note. If you did, you might be a little old school and probably needed to hear this more that the kid who didn’t get to the second paragraph.
Mad Love,
JG
Collision of Kingdoms 