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British Internet Writer [[George Mack]] made an impressive observation not long ago:
> **In a world of infinite information, strategic ignorance has never been more valuable.**
>
> Every minute, 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube.
> Every day, 500 million tweets are uploaded to Twitter.
> Every year, 67 million people die.
>
> **The 24 hours allotted to you each day isn’t even capable of consuming 0.0000001% of the world’s events.**
Mack was referencing professionals - like you, the people on our email list - who feel they operate at constant information deficit.
So much information in the world, we can't keep track of all or any of it.
It's healthier not to try. Doing so makes for soup in the brain. If that's true for white collar professionals in politics and public affairs - and it is, we all feel it - how about the average voter?
Their ignorance, shall we say, is not strategic.
One of [Bullhorn Communications](https://bullhorncomms.com/)' core theories on why political advertising is harder than ever: the transition from analog to digital media consumption is, at best, 1/3 of the way to working itself out, epistemically. The digital revolution will be written of as historians write of the industrial or agricultural revolution. They'll debate its beginning and endpoints. TikTok is not the endpoint.
[[Institutional weakening is more evident in politics with each passing year]]. We're mired in the phase where trust in old institutions is collapsed, many because they can't withstand the constant scrutiny of the internet, or the [[Attention Economy]].
**Everyone fights the last war; the guy who doesn't is dead.**
But since all great narratives are about a guy, trying to do a thing, with something in the way; Republican idea shapers are "the guy". What the hell is in the way, exactly?
We can find out by investigating some old truths; mining [[Eight Rules of Ad Making|some old wisdom]], like [[Ogilvy on Advertising]].
And hopefully be a worthy exception to the strategic ignorance of you; our friends and colleagues.
**So, welcome to *The Matter*, a periodic discussion of politics, advertising and culture from Bullhorn Communications.**