It’s a good thing futurist and business consultant Watts Wacker believes in paradox. Last month, in his keynote speech at the Public Relations Society of America’s Counselors Academy Convention in Savannah, Wacker attempted to put notions such as the “abolition of context” into -- for lack of a better word -- context.

Speaking with TrylonSMR by phone from his Connecticut home, the founder and director of the think tank/consultancy FirstMatter LLC opined that “reason has reached the end of its run,” as the lines between fact and fiction are becoming more blurred. On top of that, rather than being perplexed by it all, consumers are demanding it. Therefore, marketers, advertisers and media relations practitioners need to embrace paradoxical concepts such as “abolition of context” – which emphasizes the chaotic, schizophrenic nature of the marketplace.

As evidence of the desire for message-duality, Wacker points to the bestseller lists and politics: “The top books are diet books and cookbooks. While many people believe in evolution, there are also many people who believe in creationism. When it comes to marketing, due to the lack of central norms – general rules everyone can agree on – marketers need new ways of organizing themselves and their messages.”

That new model is what Wacker calls “the self-selecting social organization”: “A thousand years ago, life was organized around families. Now we are moving to a neo-tribalism, a desperate search of people to find someone like themselves. This is what blogs are about.

“As we move into this self-selecting organization, you have messaging, content creation, networking and commerce creation,” he continued. “The value creation becomes truly exponential. It’s up to [media relations practitioners] to help clients put themselves together with new self-selecting communities, these tribes.”