URBAN COMMUNICATION | SIGNS AND SIGNALS | STADTGESPRÄCHE

 

Identification figures, geniuses, opinion leader, role models

 

"Other people’s attention is the most irresistible of drugs. Receiving it

surpasses any other kind of income. Because of this, glory ranks higher than power and wealth loses its luster when placed beside prominence." – Georg Franck: The Economy of Attention, 1998

 

The cult of personality differs from region to region. Outstanding personalities often serve as role models to which we measure our own lives. The Americans love it, for example, to celebrate their super-rich.

 

If we are able to be accepted as a member of the followings, we may hope that a little bit of the glory of the outstanding personality emits on us.

 

Enemies, strangers, outcasts, the hated and displaced people

 

Whoever succeeds to position themselves outside of social norms, so they are not worshiped and respected as outsiders, lives in the danger of being despised and persecuted.

 

It is often discussed, whether monuments, if they no longer meet current values, ​​are to be preserved or destroyed. It is unclear if we get used to monuments so fast, that they help us rather to forget than to remember something. Who knows today which kings, generals, church leaders, statesmen, poets, scholars and artists can be found as statues in his city? Some of these memorials do not only remain untouched by vandalism, but still enjoy a special attention. We cannot force people  to think.