Paradox is Not Negotiable

Fear of paradox is the single biggest intellectual, moral, ethical, cultural, social issue facing us today.

Paradox – contradiction and complexity – is essential in nature and, therefore, in humans, and in our storytelling and in our big-picture and micro understanding of ourselves. AND… paradox will be essential (if not the most critical factor) in the continual evolution, adaptation and sustainable survival of humans and society.

Yet we’ve arrived at a state where the overwhelming message we receive from all angles – peers, media, politicians, the moral-outrage brigade – is that paradox should be stamped out at all costs. (You just have to look at the comments on one of my past articles about Australian artist Donald Friend to see how pervasive the fear of paradox is.)

Wherever I can stand up for paradox, and contradiction and complexity, I do. This is partly for selfish reasons. As they say, your ‘why’ is connected to your deepest unmet need. And I guess my deepest unmet need is to be seen and celebrated as the paradox I am, and see that recognition reflected on a broader scale around me.

One of the ways I’m doing this is working with clients to create their Dark Brand. I founded the concept of Dark Branding, and built it on the notion of paradox within a person or product or business. In other words, the REAL tension-filled truth of them – not the bullshit ‘authentic’ truth that most people are passing off as truth these days, where their paradox is completely wiped out and replaced with politeness.

And this post, and this whole venture, is not about me worrying for humanity (because, actually, I don’t. I don’t care if the human race dies out). This is about common-sense and raising the bar of our experience. And paradox does that – raises the bar – IMMEDIATELY in a brand, in a business, in an idea or concept or whatever.

You'd be smart to listen to me. I spent 20 years in the business of ‘what’s the hottest hook’. And predicting future trends and selling it to people who didn’t know they wanted it (yet). And paradox was always, always the secret to the success of whatever was being sold.

My capacity for cognitive complexity is off the charts, according to assessments, and paradox is a difficult concept for people to grasp. I'm learning that my natural ability to perceive and hold paradox is not common. So, Dark Branding is a way to land the plane – tangibly, in the mainstream, and in a commercial and storytelling way – in order to start to shift perceptions on a big scale.

Dark Branding is but one little piece in the immense paradox kaleidoscope I see… a global platform that celebrates paradox.