_____________ is power.

Centuries ago Francis Bacon said "Knowledge is Power."

Meaning, simply, when you know stuff, you're better able to do intelligent stuff and prevail.

Today, of course, in our memed-mediocrity of a world, the quotation is attributed not to an English Viscount but to someone or something called "France is Bacon."

We have dumbed down everything.

In the ad agency of today, knowledge isn't power, bluster is.

The assertion that the latest technological fillip will "change everything."

Our industry spent countless millions sending people down to SXSW. I've yet to read anything that's come out of it that matters to the world of marketing.

I've written an adjunct to Bacon's adage.

Knowledge is power. Yes, I still buy that.

(BTW, data is not knowledge is not power. Data is meaningless without insight. American "Intelligence" services had pedaflops of data saying that planes would be crashed into the Twin Towers. When, where, how and by whom. What they didn't have was even a slimmest ability to read that data and turn it into a meaningful conclusion.)

Yes, knowledge is power. But even more powerful than knowledge is memory.

The memory and knowledge of what makes a strong marketing campaign. 

The memory and knowledge of what has worked before.

As a species we keep thinking we're reinventing all the rules, all the syntax of humanity.

We issue proclamations daily about how this or that will change everything.

We have little knowledge.

And no memory.