Synchronicity in the Press? Not Hardly!
The word synchronicity originated with Carl Jung, was developed by Arthur Koestler, others have offered their views on the concept, was the title of the final studio album by The Police, the title of a 2015 science fiction movie involving time travel, and more. Pseudo-intellectual New Age and postmodern writers (their material is easily obtained on the Web) are fond of synchronicity. I don't cotton to getting into all that, and want to keep it simple: according to synchronicity, coincidences are not what they appear, and may have a sort of supernatural basis.
In the early days of the George W. Bush presidency, Rush Limbaugh collected a montage of remarks from different leftists, saying that Bush lacked "gravitas". So many people from different sources all suddenly using a rather uncommon word at the same time? The same kind of happenstance has occurred many times over the years. Fascinating.
When updating my post about pinheads who refused to provide services for the Trump inauguration, I found out that Ralph Lauren received the prestige for doing Melania's dress. (Some people care about fashion stuff. I'm a "get dressed and go to work" kind of guy.) Something that caught my attention was how a passel of agencies were were using New Age spiritism lingo, saying that Melania was "channeling" Jackie Kennedy. I used Google and typed, without quotes, melania channels jackie. Give it a try.
Way back yonder, typesetting was the way books, magazines, and so forth were given words so others could read them. Lead cold type in various fonts was set, backwards, so it could be inked and printing would happen. I was a typesetter for a few years, but I reckon it was called typesetting for lack of a better word, because I didn't set lead type. Rather, the Compugraphic was a computer that connected to a big box thing which photographed each letter or symbol, and produced a sheet of camera-ready paper that needed to be taken into the darkroom for developing. The machine with the film actually shook during the process. (Developing was easy, just put it in a machine that sent it through the proper chemicals.) Now it's done by typing on my unregistered assault keyboard and I can send something electronically for printing, Web publishing, or whatever. Why did I tell you about my typesetting days? For contrast in the history of printing, and I just felt like it.
"Get on with it, Cowboy Bob!"
Yes, well, you see, I lack belief that there's any synchronicity involved. Some agencies and reporters may borrow certain words or expressions from each other, but not on this scale. It seems like typeset boilerplate terminology is issued. (We see this all the time in atheists and anti-creationists.) Collusion? Shenanigans? Could very well be happening. Original thought, not so much.
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| Image credit: Pixabay / wilhei |
When updating my post about pinheads who refused to provide services for the Trump inauguration, I found out that Ralph Lauren received the prestige for doing Melania's dress. (Some people care about fashion stuff. I'm a "get dressed and go to work" kind of guy.) Something that caught my attention was how a passel of agencies were were using New Age spiritism lingo, saying that Melania was "channeling" Jackie Kennedy. I used Google and typed, without quotes, melania channels jackie. Give it a try.
Way back yonder, typesetting was the way books, magazines, and so forth were given words so others could read them. Lead cold type in various fonts was set, backwards, so it could be inked and printing would happen. I was a typesetter for a few years, but I reckon it was called typesetting for lack of a better word, because I didn't set lead type. Rather, the Compugraphic was a computer that connected to a big box thing which photographed each letter or symbol, and produced a sheet of camera-ready paper that needed to be taken into the darkroom for developing. The machine with the film actually shook during the process. (Developing was easy, just put it in a machine that sent it through the proper chemicals.) Now it's done by typing on my unregistered assault keyboard and I can send something electronically for printing, Web publishing, or whatever. Why did I tell you about my typesetting days? For contrast in the history of printing, and I just felt like it.
"Get on with it, Cowboy Bob!"
Yes, well, you see, I lack belief that there's any synchronicity involved. Some agencies and reporters may borrow certain words or expressions from each other, but not on this scale. It seems like typeset boilerplate terminology is issued. (We see this all the time in atheists and anti-creationists.) Collusion? Shenanigans? Could very well be happening. Original thought, not so much.
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