What strikes me more than the recent antics Kanye West is actually how the media has handled it. And I think it offers a great insight into both the media and conscious versus unconscious intention. There are all these media pundits that I’ve seen criticizing Kanye actions at the Golden Globes and recent rants on X, seemingly disgusted by them, and yet all the while giving Kanye lots of time and coverage. And it’s to these people I would ask: why do you think Kanye does what he does? I think any grade-school teacher (or student for that matter) could tell you. He desires to get and hold attention, and he’s successful at doing this. I will highlight Piers Morgan as an example that comes to mind, who I found to be especially duplicitous in his Kanye coverage; seemingly disgusted with Kanye and yet not only giving him time and attention but repeating many of Kanye’s slurs on his show… but to what or who’s benefit? So I would say about someone like Piers that he is either lacking in awareness, and lacking in awareness as to what motivates Kanye, or he’s actually complicit with Kanye (for the sake of his own traffic and viewer count) in creating with and providing for the eyeballs and attention that was sought after. Either way Kanye wins. Focus goes, energy flows. The sure-fire way to incentivize Kanye West to do more Kanye West is to reward the behavior and worse to reward it with exactly what he was seeking. Just food for thought in how we, in our own lives, may also actually reward behavior that we don’t ultimately desire by serving it with our reactions. Also, if you listen to marketers that have worked with Kanye, they call him a “genius” not a nut-bag.
I had a friend of mine yesterday tell me about his girlfriend having these recent meltdowns from time to time with him. And I wondered what she might have been unconsciously seeking that he might have been delivering in his response. It can be counter-intuitive but often the behavior or the action takes place for the sake of attention alone. In any case, it’s always worthwhile trying to understand what is ultimately desired – then maybe we can at least just cut to the chase.