When my primary four teacher first made the statement, “empty barrels make the most noise”, in the 1992/93 academic year, i never really understood it. But when the years steadily passed by, a lot of occurrences made the statement very clear. It could just not be misunderstood any more. At the time, the teacher was referring to the students who never performed well academically but made the most noise in class.
The statement actually applies to most aspects of life. One sector where the statement readily carries weight in recent times is the political arena. The followers of a political party, particularly the foot soldiers, as they are affectionately called, make the most noise. Most at times, the noise is just empty. Some refer to them as party sympathisers or followers. These are people who hardly benefit directly from the party. They waste their precious time which could be used productively somewhere, on political discussions. They defend their parties at all times as if their very lives depend on them.
Even if it’s so clear that their various political parties are on the wrong path of a political agenda, they still defend it instead of pointing the wrongs out. Some go to the point of losing their lives needlessly. These are the very people who the parties as a whole hardly recognise. They don’t even smell a pinch of salt when their parties are in power let alone laying their hands on milk. The lucky ones get some queer positions which do not even come easy. The majority continues to be foot soldiers, sympathisers and most of all noise makers.
The political parties they call ‘their parties’ even hardly recognise them. They don’t even know that they have to be successful in their private lives first, thus being able to put something credible on the table before they can be duly recognised.
Very sad indeed.
In life, the empty barrels indeed make the most noise.
From there, we generally start working on visual concepts that can make that vision more tangible. Our stakeholders are often editors with strong points of view on design and layout—and they love to edit whatever we come up with! Their perspective can give us essential focus as we move into development.
~Lawson Ametorwoyorna.
A.k.a. Mankind.
(03/03/2017)