The mission statement of our blog notes that one of our objectives is to cut through the increasingly chaotic din of contemporary communications. This is no mean feat. Thanks to infinite outlets and myriad voices, we live in history’s most cacophonous culture. To stand out, to be heard, we advocate a well-crafted combination of intelligence, eloquence, and—above all—clarity.

You can take another tack, however: outright volume.

Today pundits put forth screeds at such ear-splitting volume that an audience scarcely has time to call on their critical thinking skills. Of course, that’s the idea. When your point is weak and your logic is flawed, being able to bluster, bloviate, and bellow is an unfortunately persuasive substitute for substance. What’s worse is that those messages have no staying power. Like an annoying advertising jingle that sticks in your head long after the product is forgotten, volume-driven communications works in all the wrong ways. We don’t remember the message; we remember the messenger.

Short story writer and essayist George Saunders describes the inception and aftermath of this trend in his latest book, The Braindead Megaphone. In an Amazon blog post, he encapsulates the idea driving the title essay:

Our cultural discourse is being dumbed-down by mass-media prose that is written too quickly, and therefore fails to due justice to the complexity of the world. On the other hand, prose that is revised and that the writer lives with awhile can go deeper and deeper and become more nuanced and truthful.

I’m a huge fan of Saunders’ surreal fiction, and his essays have redoubled my admiration. They succeed as provocative cultural commentary, and perhaps as an optimistic indication that today’s overwhelmed audiences are regaining their sentience. Here’s hoping we’re rediscovering the importance of evaluating messages based on value, not volume.

Click here to check out a two-minute Braindead video breakdown.