Professor J,
I'm not trying to rush you on to chapter two, my dear man! In the end all the things he tackles are related and interwoven . Isn't everything? :) I suspect it is going to be difficult to keep subjects neatly contained by chapter or to keep the current theme on your blog from bleeding over. You are going to disagree with me? I'm shocked. Shocked I tell you! ;)
What an insightful commentary by Ryan Marsh!
Charles Krauthammer did piece about the new Martin Luther King Memorial which is interesting in light of our current words vs. images discussion. He makes this observation which caught my attention:
"Behind the prophet, guarding him, is an arc of short quotations chiseled in granite. This is in keeping with that glorious feature of Washington’s monumental core — the homage to words (rather than images of conquest and glory, as in so many other capitals), as befits a nation founded on an idea."
The "imitative consumption" and "wild pursuit of status and wealth (have) destroyed our souls and our economy." (p. 38) Even this new "status" is an illusion compared to what real social status would have meant a few decades ago. Are there even any annoying social climbers anymore? Are they all just social purchasers, now? At least the old version were hoping to better themselves and much of the tacit price to be paid was a least feigning an interest in cultural activities and charity work.
The story of Jane Goody (p. 42,43) reminded me of several similar characters we see in classic literature who are uneducated and nearly illiterate. In literature we often see such characters as people to be pitied and helped, examples of the unfortunate effects of an unbalanced class system, or as shown at the beginning of a great metamorphosis. What we now often see is the person/character in question isn't even aware of their situation and are happy to receive media attention (because isn't that what life is all about?) while they are held up to public ridicule for the entertainment of others. What would Dickens or Austen think of us? Remember Knightly's scolding Emma for being unkind to Miss Bates? Vast portions of our culture need much the same thing. Of course Emma had enough of a heart to be truly sorry for her callousness and bad manners.
Hedges holds up a painful mirror for us to look in. As a result of using the misfortune of others for our own entertainment our capacity for empathy is diminishing. A study by the University of Michigan backs Hedges up:
"Compared to college students of the late 1970s, the study found, college students today are less likely to agree with statements such as "I sometimes try to understand my friends better by imagining how things look from their perspective" and "I often have tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than me."
In a related but separate analysis, Konrath found that nationally representative samples of Americans see changes in other people's kindness and helpfulness over a similar time period.
"Many people see the current group of college students—sometimes called 'Generation Me'—as one of the most self-centered, narcissistic, competitive, confident and individualistic in recent history," said Konrath, who is also affiliated with the University of Rochester Department of Psychiatry.
"It's not surprising that this growing emphasis on the self is accompanied by a corresponding devaluation of others," O'Brien said."
"Perhaps less overtly raw and savage than in the past, but perhaps even that change is only repressed and still latent" We are quickly devolving here it seems. Regular boxing with gloves and rules has been replaced with the explosion of cage fighting, which smacks of barbarism to me. How many times when you were a kid do you remember benches at a basketball game being cleared or dugouts at a major league game so they could all engage in a public brawl. They behaved better it appears before they all became millionaires.
I have so much more to say but must ask you to excuse my brevity this time. As you know I'm in the midst of producing a little spectacle of my own. ;)
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Celebrity Culture Matters
Most Madame M:
You’ve jumped to Chapter 2? I am still teasing out Chapter 1! I think we may have a few (small?) disagreements on Chapter 2, but will save them for later!
Your wondering about backlash has me wondering a bit of the same thing!
My sentiments exactly about the doll guy! Not only is he another example of removal from reality (and in a disconnected, odd, and as you said, disturbing way), but that his experience with pretty women has been apparently near-uniformly dismal concerning their mental and emotional health, well, that speaks volumes, loudly—because it is echoed and amplified by the agreeing shouts of legions of men. It is a complex issue, as you’ve pointed out. And I do believe there have been unfortunate consequences of the women’s movement. And while I partially agree with you that more women have casual sex because of the cultural norm, there is also the phenomenon (which I have, uhm, observed?) that self-confident women can often be as casual as men about sex, as long as it is with someone they have no more feelings for than a friend. And perhaps that is not entirely a negative thing. But we digress into the Dysfunction of the Genders thread on The Professor…
I have been to Las Vegas a few times. While much of it is the vacuous pseudo-culture you describe, and can leave one feeling a bit empty and disconnected, there are parts that can be enjoyable in the right vacation mindset. I would say it is a mixed bag, that for this traveler shaded slightly to the negative side.
As for your last paragraph above, I am in complete agreement and cannot add anything meaningful to your well said-ness! :)
This celebrity culture, Hedges says, promotes values that “urge us toward a life of narcissistic self-absorption. They tell us that life is to be centered on the practices and desires of the self rather than the common good.” This cult of the self “has within it the classic traits of psychopaths: superficial charm, grandiosity, and self-importance; a need for constant stimulation, a penchant for lying, deception, and manipulation, and the inability to feel remorse or guilt. This is, of course, the ethic promoted by corporations (Professor’s Note: See the book and movie The Corporation). It is the ethic of unfettered capitalism. It is the misguided belief that personal style and personal advancement, mistaken for individualism, are the same as democratic equality…We can do anything, even belittle and destroy those around us, including our friends, to make money, to be happy, and to become famous. Once fame and wealth are achieved, they become their own justification, their own morality. How one gets there is irrelevant. Once you get there, those questions are no longer asked.” (33) Amazing how this is dovetailing very congruently with the discussion over on the Professor…
And how does this play out on grand stages, like our very economy? “It is this perverted ethic that gave us Wall Street bankers and investment houses that willfully trashed the nation’s economy, stole money from tens of millions of small shareholders who had bought stock in these corporations for retirement or college. The heads of these corporations, like the winners on a reality television program who lied and manipulated others to succeed, walked away with hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses and compensation.” (33) And that’s just the top few; total compensation to the casino thieves of Wall Street run into the hundreds of billions. Per year. And is still ongoing.
You are always finding outside things to inject, so here’s one that appeared in a newspaper guest column: “The protection of our liberty is also dependent upon the electorate being educated, informed, and engaged. We haven’t been any of these for some time, and I believe it’s getting worse. To think critically and solve our future problems, we must have a comprehensive understanding of our history. Freedom requires an informed population. Between the half truths and blatant lies that are easily passed on a daily basis, it’s easy to be misinformed” and takes work. “It might mean occasionally turning off the game or our favorite reality TV show. Living free requires engaging in the democratic process. It’s easy to tune out and think our voice doesn’t matter, but when too many of us do that, we allow those with any power to proceed unchecked. How many of us have contacted our elected representatives, at any level of government? How many have written a letter to the editor? How many of us vote regularly? However, entering the voting booth without doing our homework is equivalent to picking a favorite team based on their colors or mascot—not likely to produce reliable results. Admittedly, I consider myself tardy to the party when it comes to meeting the criteria I’ve laid out. It’s only recently that I’ve concluded that ignorance is not bliss even if being informed leads to frequent frustration. Now, when politics and current events come up in conversation I won’t be looking to change the subject. As Thomas Paine said, ‘Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.’” Ryan Marsh, instrumental music teacher, Nebraska, in his local paper
Which won’t happen if we remain enamored of the celebrity culture and its related activities. “’If only that were me,’ we sigh as we gaze at the wealthy, glimmering stars on the red carpet. But we are as transfixed by the inverse of celebrity culture, by the spectacle of humiliation and degradation that comprise tabloid television shows…We secretly exult: ‘At least that’s not me.’ It is the glee of cruelty with impunity, the same impulse that drove crowds to the Roman Colosseum, to the pillory and the stocks, to public hangings, and to traveling freak shows.” (34) We are not so very different after all. Perhaps less overtly raw and savage than in the past, but perhaps even that change is only repressed and still latent.
“Celebrity is the vehicle used by corporate society to sell us these branded commodities, most of which we do not need. Celebrities humanize commercial commodities. But they peddle a fake intimacy and a fantasy. The commercial ‘personalizing’ of the world involves oversimplification, distraction, and gross distortion.” (37) These words of Hedges could work like electric prods if we are reflecting on them, for they can shock us out of superficial acceptance and instead get into looking at the world outside the illusive lens.
Hedges then goes on to mention the cult of distraction you have already accented. He joins another author in saying it “masks the real disintegration of culture. It conceals the meaninglessness and emptiness of our own lives. It seduces us to engage in imitative consumption. It deflects the moral questions arising from social injustice, growing inequalities, costly imperial wars, economic collapse, and political corruption. The wild pursuit of status and wealth has destroyed our souls and our economy. Families live in sprawling mansions financed with mortgages they can no longer repay.” People buy things because they seem to “confer a sense of identity and merit. Our favorite hobby, besides television, used to be, until reality hit us like a tsunami, shopping. Shopping used to be the compensation for spending five days a week in tiny cubicles. American workers are ground down by corporations that have disempowered them, used them, and have now discarded them.” (38)
But there is more to all this distraction than mere unreality. There is diversion. “Celebrities have fame free of responsibility. The fame of celebrities, wrote Mills, disguises those who have real power: corporations and the oligarchic elite. Magical thinking is the currency not only of celebrity culture, but of totalitarian culture. And as we sink into an economic and political morass, we are still controlled, manipulated, and distracted by the celluloid shadows…The fantasy of celebrity culture is not designed simply to entertain. It is designed to keep us from fighting back.” (38) Ominous. As you showed us when you gave us Postman’s words (quoted by Hedges) at the start of the in-depth review of Hedges’ book, this drowning in a sea of information and irrelevancy makes classic (political) totalitarianism perhaps unnecessary. Inverted (that is, economics controlling politics) totalitarianism can result. Do not many sense that this has occurred in many ways?
And one of the ways that control is effected is this absurd idea that everything can be made public fare, and that it is the public’s right to both know, and weigh in on, the strictly private lives of others, including public officials. Celebrity culture via reality shows, Hedges warns, says it “is normal, indeed enviable, to be constantly watched. For corporations and a government that seeks to make surveillance routine, whether to study our buying habits or read our e-mails or make sure we do not organize social protest, these shows normalize what was once considered a flagrant violation of our Constitutional right to privacy.” (40) Have we really become like the pig farmer who starts out recoiling from and resenting the smell of the pigs who are in close proximity all the time, but eventually doesn’t notice the smell anymore? Or the prisoners accepting the walls so poignantly described by Morgan Freeman’s character in The Shawshank Redemption?
I have quoted extensively from Hedges, but there is so much in this first chapter that begs for quotation and discussion! Mere paraphrasing or general idea relating will not suffice. The man’s words need exacting for the discussion to be placed in proper context! This book is that important! If we do not confront our illusory culture, what does most everything else matter?
And, STILL not all the way exhaled on this very first breath! :)
You’ve jumped to Chapter 2? I am still teasing out Chapter 1! I think we may have a few (small?) disagreements on Chapter 2, but will save them for later!
Your wondering about backlash has me wondering a bit of the same thing!
My sentiments exactly about the doll guy! Not only is he another example of removal from reality (and in a disconnected, odd, and as you said, disturbing way), but that his experience with pretty women has been apparently near-uniformly dismal concerning their mental and emotional health, well, that speaks volumes, loudly—because it is echoed and amplified by the agreeing shouts of legions of men. It is a complex issue, as you’ve pointed out. And I do believe there have been unfortunate consequences of the women’s movement. And while I partially agree with you that more women have casual sex because of the cultural norm, there is also the phenomenon (which I have, uhm, observed?) that self-confident women can often be as casual as men about sex, as long as it is with someone they have no more feelings for than a friend. And perhaps that is not entirely a negative thing. But we digress into the Dysfunction of the Genders thread on The Professor…
I have been to Las Vegas a few times. While much of it is the vacuous pseudo-culture you describe, and can leave one feeling a bit empty and disconnected, there are parts that can be enjoyable in the right vacation mindset. I would say it is a mixed bag, that for this traveler shaded slightly to the negative side.
As for your last paragraph above, I am in complete agreement and cannot add anything meaningful to your well said-ness! :)
This celebrity culture, Hedges says, promotes values that “urge us toward a life of narcissistic self-absorption. They tell us that life is to be centered on the practices and desires of the self rather than the common good.” This cult of the self “has within it the classic traits of psychopaths: superficial charm, grandiosity, and self-importance; a need for constant stimulation, a penchant for lying, deception, and manipulation, and the inability to feel remorse or guilt. This is, of course, the ethic promoted by corporations (Professor’s Note: See the book and movie The Corporation). It is the ethic of unfettered capitalism. It is the misguided belief that personal style and personal advancement, mistaken for individualism, are the same as democratic equality…We can do anything, even belittle and destroy those around us, including our friends, to make money, to be happy, and to become famous. Once fame and wealth are achieved, they become their own justification, their own morality. How one gets there is irrelevant. Once you get there, those questions are no longer asked.” (33) Amazing how this is dovetailing very congruently with the discussion over on the Professor…
And how does this play out on grand stages, like our very economy? “It is this perverted ethic that gave us Wall Street bankers and investment houses that willfully trashed the nation’s economy, stole money from tens of millions of small shareholders who had bought stock in these corporations for retirement or college. The heads of these corporations, like the winners on a reality television program who lied and manipulated others to succeed, walked away with hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses and compensation.” (33) And that’s just the top few; total compensation to the casino thieves of Wall Street run into the hundreds of billions. Per year. And is still ongoing.
You are always finding outside things to inject, so here’s one that appeared in a newspaper guest column: “The protection of our liberty is also dependent upon the electorate being educated, informed, and engaged. We haven’t been any of these for some time, and I believe it’s getting worse. To think critically and solve our future problems, we must have a comprehensive understanding of our history. Freedom requires an informed population. Between the half truths and blatant lies that are easily passed on a daily basis, it’s easy to be misinformed” and takes work. “It might mean occasionally turning off the game or our favorite reality TV show. Living free requires engaging in the democratic process. It’s easy to tune out and think our voice doesn’t matter, but when too many of us do that, we allow those with any power to proceed unchecked. How many of us have contacted our elected representatives, at any level of government? How many have written a letter to the editor? How many of us vote regularly? However, entering the voting booth without doing our homework is equivalent to picking a favorite team based on their colors or mascot—not likely to produce reliable results. Admittedly, I consider myself tardy to the party when it comes to meeting the criteria I’ve laid out. It’s only recently that I’ve concluded that ignorance is not bliss even if being informed leads to frequent frustration. Now, when politics and current events come up in conversation I won’t be looking to change the subject. As Thomas Paine said, ‘Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.’” Ryan Marsh, instrumental music teacher, Nebraska, in his local paper
Which won’t happen if we remain enamored of the celebrity culture and its related activities. “’If only that were me,’ we sigh as we gaze at the wealthy, glimmering stars on the red carpet. But we are as transfixed by the inverse of celebrity culture, by the spectacle of humiliation and degradation that comprise tabloid television shows…We secretly exult: ‘At least that’s not me.’ It is the glee of cruelty with impunity, the same impulse that drove crowds to the Roman Colosseum, to the pillory and the stocks, to public hangings, and to traveling freak shows.” (34) We are not so very different after all. Perhaps less overtly raw and savage than in the past, but perhaps even that change is only repressed and still latent.
“Celebrity is the vehicle used by corporate society to sell us these branded commodities, most of which we do not need. Celebrities humanize commercial commodities. But they peddle a fake intimacy and a fantasy. The commercial ‘personalizing’ of the world involves oversimplification, distraction, and gross distortion.” (37) These words of Hedges could work like electric prods if we are reflecting on them, for they can shock us out of superficial acceptance and instead get into looking at the world outside the illusive lens.
Hedges then goes on to mention the cult of distraction you have already accented. He joins another author in saying it “masks the real disintegration of culture. It conceals the meaninglessness and emptiness of our own lives. It seduces us to engage in imitative consumption. It deflects the moral questions arising from social injustice, growing inequalities, costly imperial wars, economic collapse, and political corruption. The wild pursuit of status and wealth has destroyed our souls and our economy. Families live in sprawling mansions financed with mortgages they can no longer repay.” People buy things because they seem to “confer a sense of identity and merit. Our favorite hobby, besides television, used to be, until reality hit us like a tsunami, shopping. Shopping used to be the compensation for spending five days a week in tiny cubicles. American workers are ground down by corporations that have disempowered them, used them, and have now discarded them.” (38)
But there is more to all this distraction than mere unreality. There is diversion. “Celebrities have fame free of responsibility. The fame of celebrities, wrote Mills, disguises those who have real power: corporations and the oligarchic elite. Magical thinking is the currency not only of celebrity culture, but of totalitarian culture. And as we sink into an economic and political morass, we are still controlled, manipulated, and distracted by the celluloid shadows…The fantasy of celebrity culture is not designed simply to entertain. It is designed to keep us from fighting back.” (38) Ominous. As you showed us when you gave us Postman’s words (quoted by Hedges) at the start of the in-depth review of Hedges’ book, this drowning in a sea of information and irrelevancy makes classic (political) totalitarianism perhaps unnecessary. Inverted (that is, economics controlling politics) totalitarianism can result. Do not many sense that this has occurred in many ways?
And one of the ways that control is effected is this absurd idea that everything can be made public fare, and that it is the public’s right to both know, and weigh in on, the strictly private lives of others, including public officials. Celebrity culture via reality shows, Hedges warns, says it “is normal, indeed enviable, to be constantly watched. For corporations and a government that seeks to make surveillance routine, whether to study our buying habits or read our e-mails or make sure we do not organize social protest, these shows normalize what was once considered a flagrant violation of our Constitutional right to privacy.” (40) Have we really become like the pig farmer who starts out recoiling from and resenting the smell of the pigs who are in close proximity all the time, but eventually doesn’t notice the smell anymore? Or the prisoners accepting the walls so poignantly described by Morgan Freeman’s character in The Shawshank Redemption?
I have quoted extensively from Hedges, but there is so much in this first chapter that begs for quotation and discussion! Mere paraphrasing or general idea relating will not suffice. The man’s words need exacting for the discussion to be placed in proper context! This book is that important! If we do not confront our illusory culture, what does most everything else matter?
And, STILL not all the way exhaled on this very first breath! :)
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Love American Style: Faking It
Professor J,
It's really difficult to find anything to quote in the second chapter! ;)
You pointed out that the author says in this kind of culture human beings become "commodities to be used up and replaced." This is most evident in chapter 2, The Illusion of Love, where we don't see anyone he interviews sugar coating exactly what is going on. Hedges bravely draws back the curtain on the porn industry and shines a harsh and depressing light on the ugliness of it. While throughout the book we see examples of people being ill-used by corporations or governments under the guise of something else, this chapter (which I felt was somewhat out of place and would have been an excellent idea for another book) isn't building any illusions. It isn't supporting any. It's the only place in the book where we see people admit openly in interviews that they are out to use, injure, and destroy other human beings without compassion.
I was at an estate sale recently and among the art and books there was a large collection of Playboy magazines from the 1960s. They was so tame as to be nearly amusing considering that you can practically get it in prime time today, and if you can wait until after 10:00 or if you want to pay, well... But having read this book and having some of the brutal images floating around in my subconscious caused me to notice something else... the women were being presented as pretty. So when women had little power, were channeled into specific jobs, and were denied opportunities, men, even those who would objectify them weren't trying to degrade and humiliate, at least not openly in a public forum. It was, in a way a celebration of them. (Let the feminist howling begin.) So is what we are seeing, with all the degradation and violence a sort of backlash? I wonder.
The guy who owned several anatomically correct dolls and who readily admits it is "really nice thing because you are in full control" and that they "take the stress out of wining and dining women"was disturbing. But when he said "women who look like these dolls are not mentally or emotionally in line" I had a sneaking suspicion in many cases he may be right. I couldn't help wondering how much of that would have been created by the way those women had been treated by men. I also wondered why it was more important for this guy to have some really "hot" (you know, after he covers them with electric blankets ;)) dolls than an average looking REAL woman. I hear Eldredge in the background...something about a man not wanting a woman who would challenge him.
There's a broader discussion to be had here at some point about whether or not while women made advances thanks to the feminist movement there were also, it seems unforeseeable consequences. I find all this intricately linked to the topic you are covering over on The Professor. We might add to that discussion Hedges comment about porn having won the culture war (which sounded very O'Reilly of him). But the real shocker, because I've suspected this to be true for a long time, was "Sexual callousness and emancipation have become synonymous." (p. 86) I suspect that a great number of young women who are having casual sex or having sex far earlier in a romantic relationship than they really want to are behaving this way because it's what the culture tells them it expects from them.
Right in the middle of all this "heartlessness" he gives us a reprieve from brutality but not from how ridiculous we've become with his description of one of America's favorite vacation destinations:
"Las Vegas sells a cartoon version of other cultures and other lands...A trip to Las Vegas is a visit to a sanitized, cutout version of foreign countries without the intrusion of foreign people, the hassle of unintelligible languages, strange habits different ideas and traditions, or bizarre food. Here everyone speaks English. Here you are surrounded by Americans." (p.64)
I thought he made an excellent point about Las Vegas. I have had a couple of opportunities to go there that I turned down. I'm not much on contrived experiences. Why would I want to go to an amusement park when there are mountains to ski and oceans to swim in? Who wants a fake Venice? Who wants "Italy" without Italian? Or without Italians? Depending on how much one loses in the casinos a trip to the real thing might be a bargain.
I was surprised that Hedges didn't have a chapter entitled The Illusion of Friendship. Facebook and Twitter are both mentioned in a quote by William Deresiewicz in chapter 1, but in connection to the "contemporary self" gaining attention and not as places where pseudo friendships may fool us into thinking we are connected. I thought it would have been a very appropriate thing for him to cover alongside fake travel and sex with dolls. Friendship with little time or effort invested is far too common, as I've said before our relationship landscape is now about 5 miles wide and an inch deep. This illusion has increasingly replaced deep meaningful friendships that require something of us. Not that there aren't any real friendships born and maintained via social networking, and used well it can be a great facilitator, but it demands a bit of extra work and trust that the other person will keep showing up. :)
It's really difficult to find anything to quote in the second chapter! ;)
You pointed out that the author says in this kind of culture human beings become "commodities to be used up and replaced." This is most evident in chapter 2, The Illusion of Love, where we don't see anyone he interviews sugar coating exactly what is going on. Hedges bravely draws back the curtain on the porn industry and shines a harsh and depressing light on the ugliness of it. While throughout the book we see examples of people being ill-used by corporations or governments under the guise of something else, this chapter (which I felt was somewhat out of place and would have been an excellent idea for another book) isn't building any illusions. It isn't supporting any. It's the only place in the book where we see people admit openly in interviews that they are out to use, injure, and destroy other human beings without compassion.
I was at an estate sale recently and among the art and books there was a large collection of Playboy magazines from the 1960s. They was so tame as to be nearly amusing considering that you can practically get it in prime time today, and if you can wait until after 10:00 or if you want to pay, well... But having read this book and having some of the brutal images floating around in my subconscious caused me to notice something else... the women were being presented as pretty. So when women had little power, were channeled into specific jobs, and were denied opportunities, men, even those who would objectify them weren't trying to degrade and humiliate, at least not openly in a public forum. It was, in a way a celebration of them. (Let the feminist howling begin.) So is what we are seeing, with all the degradation and violence a sort of backlash? I wonder.
The guy who owned several anatomically correct dolls and who readily admits it is "really nice thing because you are in full control" and that they "take the stress out of wining and dining women"was disturbing. But when he said "women who look like these dolls are not mentally or emotionally in line" I had a sneaking suspicion in many cases he may be right. I couldn't help wondering how much of that would have been created by the way those women had been treated by men. I also wondered why it was more important for this guy to have some really "hot" (you know, after he covers them with electric blankets ;)) dolls than an average looking REAL woman. I hear Eldredge in the background...something about a man not wanting a woman who would challenge him.
There's a broader discussion to be had here at some point about whether or not while women made advances thanks to the feminist movement there were also, it seems unforeseeable consequences. I find all this intricately linked to the topic you are covering over on The Professor. We might add to that discussion Hedges comment about porn having won the culture war (which sounded very O'Reilly of him). But the real shocker, because I've suspected this to be true for a long time, was "Sexual callousness and emancipation have become synonymous." (p. 86) I suspect that a great number of young women who are having casual sex or having sex far earlier in a romantic relationship than they really want to are behaving this way because it's what the culture tells them it expects from them.
Right in the middle of all this "heartlessness" he gives us a reprieve from brutality but not from how ridiculous we've become with his description of one of America's favorite vacation destinations:
"Las Vegas sells a cartoon version of other cultures and other lands...A trip to Las Vegas is a visit to a sanitized, cutout version of foreign countries without the intrusion of foreign people, the hassle of unintelligible languages, strange habits different ideas and traditions, or bizarre food. Here everyone speaks English. Here you are surrounded by Americans." (p.64)
I thought he made an excellent point about Las Vegas. I have had a couple of opportunities to go there that I turned down. I'm not much on contrived experiences. Why would I want to go to an amusement park when there are mountains to ski and oceans to swim in? Who wants a fake Venice? Who wants "Italy" without Italian? Or without Italians? Depending on how much one loses in the casinos a trip to the real thing might be a bargain.
I was surprised that Hedges didn't have a chapter entitled The Illusion of Friendship. Facebook and Twitter are both mentioned in a quote by William Deresiewicz in chapter 1, but in connection to the "contemporary self" gaining attention and not as places where pseudo friendships may fool us into thinking we are connected. I thought it would have been a very appropriate thing for him to cover alongside fake travel and sex with dolls. Friendship with little time or effort invested is far too common, as I've said before our relationship landscape is now about 5 miles wide and an inch deep. This illusion has increasingly replaced deep meaningful friendships that require something of us. Not that there aren't any real friendships born and maintained via social networking, and used well it can be a great facilitator, but it demands a bit of extra work and trust that the other person will keep showing up. :)
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Entertainted
Madame M:
You bring in stark focus how passive we are about, and sometimes even willing embracers of, the surveillance state. Everybody watches everybody, but not to uplift them or even to check their ethics, but merely to be entertained. How oracle-like Postman, who wrote his book before the era of the World Wide Web, seems to all this.
Yes, this Cult of Distraction is sobering to those who still resist it. You point out the example of the woman and her husband on the Springer show, yet there is a possibility that they may not be merely dupes, but as Hedges intimates repeatedly, so desirous of participation in the celebrity culture that they will do literally anything for their 15 minutes of fame. As for the compassionless, discern-less cheerleader with the mocking smile, alas, Madame, I have seen that many times in many otherwise attractive women. Your phrase “as if beauty earns her the right to be cruel,” recalled many unpleasant memories. Those women may be the bitch now, but karma will be the bitch eventually, maybe even after this life.
Hedges does a pinpoint job of conveying how this celebrity-spectacle (and, as you’ve put it, abrasive) culture promotes the view that an improved appearance will not only solve all relationship and self-esteem troubles, but may even be more important than employment, money, etc. “Only a life with status, physical attributes, and affluences is worth pursuing. The American oligarchy, 1 percent of whom control more wealth than the bottom 90 percent combined, are the characters we envy and watch on television…and told that if we want it badly enough…we too can have everything. We are left, when we cannot adopt these impossible lifestyles as our own, with feelings of inferiority and worthlessness. We have failed where others have succeeded.” (26) This is how, as Thomas Frank alludes in his book “What’s The Matter With Kansas?”, we can see legions okaying tax relief for billionaires. After all, those people reason, those billionaires should pay less tax and not be “punished,” because we ourselves could become like them!
And the illusion is never far. Hedges: “The flamboyant lives of celebrities and the outrageous characters on television, movies, professional wrestling, and sensational talk shows are peddled to us, promising to fill up the emptiness in our own lives.” (27) And even beyond that, “faith in ourselves, in a world of make-believe, is more important than reality. Reality, in fact, is dismissed and shunned as an impediment to success, a form of negativity. Those who question, those who doubt, those who are critical, those who are able to confront reality and who grasp the hollowness of celebrity culture are shunned and condemned for their pessimism.” (27)
What does this mean for we American human beings? Hedges says we become a commodity, used up and replaced. “The juxtaposition of the impossible illusions inspired by celebrity culture and our ‘insignificant’ individual achievements, however, eventually leads to frustration, anger, insecurity, and invalidation. It results, ironically, in a self-perpetuating cycle that drives the frustrated, alienated individual with even greater desperation and hunger away from reality, back toward the empty promises of those who seduce us, who tell us what we want to hear. We beg for more. We ingest those lies until our money runs out. And when we fall into despair, we medicate ourselves, as if the happiness we have failed to find in the hollow game is our deficiency. And, of course, we are told it is.” (29)
People look around and see “everyone,” including the entertainment media that passes for news reporting, talking about celebrities, athletes, politicians, etc., and their dramas (often manufactured) and personal lives, and yet find too few who care about genuinely important things that affect the nation, the society, and the world. To modify a well-known phrase, it may be no measure of realism to be realistic inside a culture of omni-present illusions and delusions.
One reader of Hedges had this insight: “To the list of illusions that Mr. Hedges provides, I'd like to add one more: the illusion of inclusion. This is the illusion that we all have whereby we believe that we will be included among the fortunate few because misfortune happens only to those who deserve it. There are plenty of people who understand that the corporate model is one in which there are squeezers and those who are to be squeezed. This model requires a plantation economy morality that exalts the insiders and denigrates the outsiders. Those content with this arrangement obviously view themselves as insiders even when they work for companies that are actively shedding employees. Many of these people are happy to be making good money for digging shallow graves, never stopping to wonder if maybe someday one of those graves might be their own.”
Our “empire of illusion,” slips its velvet noose around our consciousness and our consciences, and dilutes our wills along with our focus. And so we ignore signs of impending disaster, apparently trusting in some unseen force to make it all right, or at least to make it all work out somehow, as if arrogantly believing that God will protect this place regardless of the actions or inactions of its inhabitants. The planet degrades, global capitalism brings not blessings but hardships and cruelty to many, we remain addicted to declining fossil fuels (a measure of insanity in every way), the near-collapse of financial markets via casino capitalism is followed by no true reform and so full collapse always looms as a possibility, and the dangers and connections of overpopulation almost never intrude on our delusive and illusive processes that pass for conscious thought.
Morality and decency effectively get obliterated. Hedges: “Education, building communities, honesty, transparency, and sharing are qualities that will see you, in a gross perversion of democracy and morality, voted off a reality show. Fellow competitors for prize money and a chance for fleeting fame elect to ‘disappear’ (Professor’s Note: an ominous word, bringing to mind the disappeared of Latin American countries from death squads and secret prisons) the unwanted. Life, these shows teach, is a brutal world of unadulterated competition. Life is about the personal humiliation of those who oppose us. Those who lose deserve to be erased. Compassion, competence, intelligence, and solidarity with others are forms of weakness.” (30)
This book is a rich treasure, to be mined for a plethora of gems and jewels. It is also like a wake-up jolt from a real Morpheus disconnecting us from the Matrix, to live in reality as human beings, not as manipulated slaves of illusion at every turn.
I have a lot more to expel on just this breath of wind alone. But this is a good pausing point. Back to you Madame!
You bring in stark focus how passive we are about, and sometimes even willing embracers of, the surveillance state. Everybody watches everybody, but not to uplift them or even to check their ethics, but merely to be entertained. How oracle-like Postman, who wrote his book before the era of the World Wide Web, seems to all this.
Yes, this Cult of Distraction is sobering to those who still resist it. You point out the example of the woman and her husband on the Springer show, yet there is a possibility that they may not be merely dupes, but as Hedges intimates repeatedly, so desirous of participation in the celebrity culture that they will do literally anything for their 15 minutes of fame. As for the compassionless, discern-less cheerleader with the mocking smile, alas, Madame, I have seen that many times in many otherwise attractive women. Your phrase “as if beauty earns her the right to be cruel,” recalled many unpleasant memories. Those women may be the bitch now, but karma will be the bitch eventually, maybe even after this life.
Hedges does a pinpoint job of conveying how this celebrity-spectacle (and, as you’ve put it, abrasive) culture promotes the view that an improved appearance will not only solve all relationship and self-esteem troubles, but may even be more important than employment, money, etc. “Only a life with status, physical attributes, and affluences is worth pursuing. The American oligarchy, 1 percent of whom control more wealth than the bottom 90 percent combined, are the characters we envy and watch on television…and told that if we want it badly enough…we too can have everything. We are left, when we cannot adopt these impossible lifestyles as our own, with feelings of inferiority and worthlessness. We have failed where others have succeeded.” (26) This is how, as Thomas Frank alludes in his book “What’s The Matter With Kansas?”, we can see legions okaying tax relief for billionaires. After all, those people reason, those billionaires should pay less tax and not be “punished,” because we ourselves could become like them!
And the illusion is never far. Hedges: “The flamboyant lives of celebrities and the outrageous characters on television, movies, professional wrestling, and sensational talk shows are peddled to us, promising to fill up the emptiness in our own lives.” (27) And even beyond that, “faith in ourselves, in a world of make-believe, is more important than reality. Reality, in fact, is dismissed and shunned as an impediment to success, a form of negativity. Those who question, those who doubt, those who are critical, those who are able to confront reality and who grasp the hollowness of celebrity culture are shunned and condemned for their pessimism.” (27)
What does this mean for we American human beings? Hedges says we become a commodity, used up and replaced. “The juxtaposition of the impossible illusions inspired by celebrity culture and our ‘insignificant’ individual achievements, however, eventually leads to frustration, anger, insecurity, and invalidation. It results, ironically, in a self-perpetuating cycle that drives the frustrated, alienated individual with even greater desperation and hunger away from reality, back toward the empty promises of those who seduce us, who tell us what we want to hear. We beg for more. We ingest those lies until our money runs out. And when we fall into despair, we medicate ourselves, as if the happiness we have failed to find in the hollow game is our deficiency. And, of course, we are told it is.” (29)
People look around and see “everyone,” including the entertainment media that passes for news reporting, talking about celebrities, athletes, politicians, etc., and their dramas (often manufactured) and personal lives, and yet find too few who care about genuinely important things that affect the nation, the society, and the world. To modify a well-known phrase, it may be no measure of realism to be realistic inside a culture of omni-present illusions and delusions.
One reader of Hedges had this insight: “To the list of illusions that Mr. Hedges provides, I'd like to add one more: the illusion of inclusion. This is the illusion that we all have whereby we believe that we will be included among the fortunate few because misfortune happens only to those who deserve it. There are plenty of people who understand that the corporate model is one in which there are squeezers and those who are to be squeezed. This model requires a plantation economy morality that exalts the insiders and denigrates the outsiders. Those content with this arrangement obviously view themselves as insiders even when they work for companies that are actively shedding employees. Many of these people are happy to be making good money for digging shallow graves, never stopping to wonder if maybe someday one of those graves might be their own.”
Our “empire of illusion,” slips its velvet noose around our consciousness and our consciences, and dilutes our wills along with our focus. And so we ignore signs of impending disaster, apparently trusting in some unseen force to make it all right, or at least to make it all work out somehow, as if arrogantly believing that God will protect this place regardless of the actions or inactions of its inhabitants. The planet degrades, global capitalism brings not blessings but hardships and cruelty to many, we remain addicted to declining fossil fuels (a measure of insanity in every way), the near-collapse of financial markets via casino capitalism is followed by no true reform and so full collapse always looms as a possibility, and the dangers and connections of overpopulation almost never intrude on our delusive and illusive processes that pass for conscious thought.
Morality and decency effectively get obliterated. Hedges: “Education, building communities, honesty, transparency, and sharing are qualities that will see you, in a gross perversion of democracy and morality, voted off a reality show. Fellow competitors for prize money and a chance for fleeting fame elect to ‘disappear’ (Professor’s Note: an ominous word, bringing to mind the disappeared of Latin American countries from death squads and secret prisons) the unwanted. Life, these shows teach, is a brutal world of unadulterated competition. Life is about the personal humiliation of those who oppose us. Those who lose deserve to be erased. Compassion, competence, intelligence, and solidarity with others are forms of weakness.” (30)
This book is a rich treasure, to be mined for a plethora of gems and jewels. It is also like a wake-up jolt from a real Morpheus disconnecting us from the Matrix, to live in reality as human beings, not as manipulated slaves of illusion at every turn.
I have a lot more to expel on just this breath of wind alone. But this is a good pausing point. Back to you Madame!
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Entertained By Train Wrecks
Professor J,
You know how I love to connect stories and articles to our discussion and I came across a couple this week in the same paper. The first one about the annual trek to Graceland by fans who are often hysterical over the loss of "The King" all these years later relates to Hedges point about our celebrity worship: All Shook Up: Faithful Flock to Graceland. The second, about the woman who the plane The Memphis Belle was named after explains how war was romanticized and packaged for the public:
"When she realized that, despite his attentions, her boyfriend was a womanizer, Polk broke off the engagement but agreed to continue the charade as part of the nationally publicized tour orchestrated by the publicity division of the War Department." (Full story here)
Hedges could have been talking about that exact story when he wrote: (The illusion of war peddled in The Sands of Iwo Jima)" ...worked because it was what the public wanted to believe about themselves. It was what the government and the military wanted to promote."
I couldn't believe how accurate Bradbury's vision of the future was: "Life, Bradbury understood, once it was packaged and filmed, became the most compelling form of entertainment." (29) I find it depressingly fascinating that so many would rather mindlessly imbibe the lives of others, than live their own lives. Just thinking of how often viewers passively watch others do everything from exercise to fall in love is startling. Not only are we not participating in the culture but instead as you point out are fiddling while the whole thing spins downward, but many are not even present for their own lives. We want to believe in something but somehow we can't have the thing we believe in be ourselves, or that our own lives unwatched, unfilmed, unpromoted may be worthwhile.
I found the connection of all this reality television nonsense (Where have all the writers gone?) and the rise of the surveillance in stores, at stoplights, or on public streets to be interesting: "Mark Andrejevic, a professor of communication studies at the University of Iowa at Iowa City, writes that reality shows like Big Brother and Survivor glamorize the intrusiveness of the surveillance state, presenting it as one of the hip attributes of the contemporary world' 'an entree into the world of wealth and celebrity, and even a moral good." (p39)
I like the phrase Hedges uses for all of this nonsense that we allow ourselves to be lured away from reality with: "This cult of distraction..." We are, it seems, quickly losing our grip on reality. And decency. And self respect. Of all the depressing examples the author uses, the Jerry Springer one in which a husband both allows and encourages his wife to make a public spectacle of herself, I felt was the worst. To allow her to be humiliated and degraded in a public setting was just sad to me. For her to allow herself to be made a laughingstock (surely when you are going on the Springer show you know what's coming) is just as bad. It seems to be a cultural phenomena for people to be so dim that they don't realize when they are the unwitting butt of the joke. Think cast of Jersey Shore. What's worse is that at the end of the whole sordid episode Springer deems it "true love." Is this how low we've sunk? We can no longer tell the difference between idiocy and love. The skinny cheerleader's mocking smile in the background without an ounce of compassion or understanding made me cringe. Her smug sense of superiority due to her looks was so familiar and nauseating. As if beauty earns her the right to be cruel. Painfully common, unfortunately. In this cowardly new world, character and kindness are often in short supply.
As Hedges points out, once celebrity or wealth is obtained one is held to a different set of standards, or rather a non-existent one. We see athletes who break the law and are found guilty and sent to prison only to receive multi-million dollar contracts once they are released, or in the case of Michael Vick a phone call from the president. Actors, super models, and musicians are expected to misbehave and treat others poorly. Everyone is just supposed to be thrilled to work for/with them to the point that rules of common decency become things for other people. Not them. Sadly, they are often allowed to self destruct while posses of "yes" men hang on to the end making every penny they can. Parents of child stars allow their children to be ill used by publicists and agents so that they can keep being invited to A list parties and traveling in private jets. It's all so very "casting pearls before swine" as to be sickening. When the whole thing goes to hell a little more publicity and attention can be eeked out on some show about celebrity rehab or with a book deal (with a ghost writer, of course).
"Reality is complex, why deal with it; it makes our nutritionally depleted and shrunken brains hurt." Classic Professor J! I'm reading Eat, Pray, Love after seeing the movie several times and it is so refreshing to read Elizabeth Gilbert's words of careful introspection and mindfulness. Someone's thoughts and words on a page, the sharing of a solitary search for fulfillment and peace is like a balm on the open wound caused by this abrasive culture.
You know how I love to connect stories and articles to our discussion and I came across a couple this week in the same paper. The first one about the annual trek to Graceland by fans who are often hysterical over the loss of "The King" all these years later relates to Hedges point about our celebrity worship: All Shook Up: Faithful Flock to Graceland. The second, about the woman who the plane The Memphis Belle was named after explains how war was romanticized and packaged for the public:
"When she realized that, despite his attentions, her boyfriend was a womanizer, Polk broke off the engagement but agreed to continue the charade as part of the nationally publicized tour orchestrated by the publicity division of the War Department." (Full story here)
Hedges could have been talking about that exact story when he wrote: (The illusion of war peddled in The Sands of Iwo Jima)" ...worked because it was what the public wanted to believe about themselves. It was what the government and the military wanted to promote."
I couldn't believe how accurate Bradbury's vision of the future was: "Life, Bradbury understood, once it was packaged and filmed, became the most compelling form of entertainment." (29) I find it depressingly fascinating that so many would rather mindlessly imbibe the lives of others, than live their own lives. Just thinking of how often viewers passively watch others do everything from exercise to fall in love is startling. Not only are we not participating in the culture but instead as you point out are fiddling while the whole thing spins downward, but many are not even present for their own lives. We want to believe in something but somehow we can't have the thing we believe in be ourselves, or that our own lives unwatched, unfilmed, unpromoted may be worthwhile.
I found the connection of all this reality television nonsense (Where have all the writers gone?) and the rise of the surveillance in stores, at stoplights, or on public streets to be interesting: "Mark Andrejevic, a professor of communication studies at the University of Iowa at Iowa City, writes that reality shows like Big Brother and Survivor glamorize the intrusiveness of the surveillance state, presenting it as one of the hip attributes of the contemporary world' 'an entree into the world of wealth and celebrity, and even a moral good." (p39)
I like the phrase Hedges uses for all of this nonsense that we allow ourselves to be lured away from reality with: "This cult of distraction..." We are, it seems, quickly losing our grip on reality. And decency. And self respect. Of all the depressing examples the author uses, the Jerry Springer one in which a husband both allows and encourages his wife to make a public spectacle of herself, I felt was the worst. To allow her to be humiliated and degraded in a public setting was just sad to me. For her to allow herself to be made a laughingstock (surely when you are going on the Springer show you know what's coming) is just as bad. It seems to be a cultural phenomena for people to be so dim that they don't realize when they are the unwitting butt of the joke. Think cast of Jersey Shore. What's worse is that at the end of the whole sordid episode Springer deems it "true love." Is this how low we've sunk? We can no longer tell the difference between idiocy and love. The skinny cheerleader's mocking smile in the background without an ounce of compassion or understanding made me cringe. Her smug sense of superiority due to her looks was so familiar and nauseating. As if beauty earns her the right to be cruel. Painfully common, unfortunately. In this cowardly new world, character and kindness are often in short supply.
As Hedges points out, once celebrity or wealth is obtained one is held to a different set of standards, or rather a non-existent one. We see athletes who break the law and are found guilty and sent to prison only to receive multi-million dollar contracts once they are released, or in the case of Michael Vick a phone call from the president. Actors, super models, and musicians are expected to misbehave and treat others poorly. Everyone is just supposed to be thrilled to work for/with them to the point that rules of common decency become things for other people. Not them. Sadly, they are often allowed to self destruct while posses of "yes" men hang on to the end making every penny they can. Parents of child stars allow their children to be ill used by publicists and agents so that they can keep being invited to A list parties and traveling in private jets. It's all so very "casting pearls before swine" as to be sickening. When the whole thing goes to hell a little more publicity and attention can be eeked out on some show about celebrity rehab or with a book deal (with a ghost writer, of course).
"Reality is complex, why deal with it; it makes our nutritionally depleted and shrunken brains hurt." Classic Professor J! I'm reading Eat, Pray, Love after seeing the movie several times and it is so refreshing to read Elizabeth Gilbert's words of careful introspection and mindfulness. Someone's thoughts and words on a page, the sharing of a solitary search for fulfillment and peace is like a balm on the open wound caused by this abrasive culture.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
The Culture Petri (Putrid?) Dish
Madame:
Hedges has a loathing for positive psychology, one for the very reason that he sees it as further divorcing us from reality. From the many examples he gives in his book, one can see that far from achieving any notable positive effect on the American psychological profile and productivity, it has served to distance us even more from reality. The elites love it because it not only excuses them, but even makes those they trod upon think it’s their own fault. Hedges should be congratulated for laying bare the mechanisms and institutional frameworks used to divert us from confronting the economic, political, physical, health, emotional, and ethical/moral collapse around us. He is right to, as one fellow has put it, expose the absurd idea that we can always draw on inner resources and strengths to have everything we desire, that reality can be overcome by human will if one just believes it so. And the equal absurdity that even if the present is not so great, the future is going to be better just because we believe it will. Positive psychology could have its place, perhaps even a beneficial one, in the realm of human self-improvement, but it sought too often to effectively make itself its own religion, and was used in the service of those who care nothing but for themselves and their own control.
Your examples and links have pointed out quite well how neurotic we are as a society. We are the addicts, and furthermore, we are doubly so because we are culturally addicted, not just individually. That we have become the culture of self only illustrates in monstrous waves how little concerned we have become with what our Framers fretted about: the public good.
The world, and especially America, spend excessive amounts of life-energy on Facebook and similar electronic connections. Like many things in this digital age, it has gone from being a useful tool, or entertaining and occasional pastime, to being an addiction. The same about YouTube. I know of one place that had to ban access to it because it was taking up so much bandwith from people and their “hey, look at this video on YouTube.” No longer apparently is it the occasional thing, but a constant 3 or 4(+) a day per person in some instances. Rather than connect it, it seems to only make us more shallow.
It is not just the productivity lost from this, it’s the diversion. We the people fiddle while society and the world spin downward. Who is doing the job of preserving the civilization, let alone providing vision for its continuance and advancement? The powerful? They seem to care only for their own advantages, not the common good, and any “vision” they have is a sick one.
War is packaged and sold to us, and with the high-tech allure and all-volunteer force, sold to us as something most people get to feel as external, rather than as a real part of (with all that would really entail). Further distancing us from reality and its true effects. Hedges’s description of the shock of reality displacing illusion while under fire should be required reading for all would-be soldiers—and those who send them in harm’s way. Not just to save their lives from the nonsense that has been ingrained into them, but to also save their spirits from the manipulation and illusions that would use them up and never care.
Illusions we have willingly embraced. Reality sucks, people think, so why not. It has made us a nation of lotus-eaters, perpetually disconnected from authentic lives, a collection of opium dens. It doesn’t have to be that way. Many resist the allure, but its presence is ever there, ever pounding on the will. We may not be the Matrix, but we are far from its opposite.
Americans’ obsession/addiction with entertainment makes us willing pseudo-worshippers of celebrities, athletes, and deceivingly charismatic politicians and clergy. Like many masses of the past, we idolize who should not be idolized because they seem to represent what we, in our dim and deluded state, might wish to be. Reality is complex, why deal with it; it makes our nutritionally depleted and shrunken brains hurt. Easier to live in fantasies and escapism manifested in the unreal panorama of celebrities, reality TV, and sports. As someone said, we want to be lied to, because the lies make us feel so much better about our lives. And as Hedges points out, our obsession carries even into the artifacts and relics of celebrity-dom: we covet the possessions of living or dead celebrities with the same religious zeal that people of the past did for their own religious icons, and we visit shrines of those personalities in a way not too dissimilar to the way religious pilgrimages were made in the not so distant past. Our own lives seem to have no meaning compared to their illustrious and glorious ones.
Hedges points out our narcissistic culture in many examples and explanations. And our manipulated one. We the people need rules to be enforced, but they are not, except when they can be used against us. The elites escape scot-free, except when their internecine squabbling claims one of their own.
This lack of rules enforcement leads to disrespect and disillusionment with them. And the law. The masses take their cue from the corrupt elites, who they watch do all manner of illegal and thoroughly unethical or even criminal things without consequence. Seeing these bad examples teaches that those who play by the rules are suckers and losers. “If the world is rigged against you, if those in power stifle your voice, outsource your job, and foreclose your house, cheat back.” (12)
We blandly accept this spectacle of the elites partly because we are embodying what Plato feared: “the power of entertainment, the power of the senses to overthrow the mind, the power of emotion to obliterate reason. No admirer of popular democracy, Plato said that the enlightened or elite had a duty to educated those bewitched by the shadows on the cave wall…” (14)
Well that you have brought up Boorstin, who is quoted by Hedges, “We are the most illusioned people on earth. Yet we dare not become disillusioned, because our illusions are the very house in which we live,; they are our news, our heroes, our adventure, our forms of art, our very experience.” (15)
The reader at this point may think that the Prof is merely a fan-boy of Hedges here, accepting all with the rapid nods of a yes-man. Not so. There will be places in the book that I disagree with Hedges, or feel that he’s painting with a broad or incomplete brush. For instance, while I agree that our celebrity culture makes too many people want to be like celebrities (and excessively so), I also believe that it can be too easy to merely give one’s self a pass too. Just because one might not lose enough weight or get enough plastic surgery to become some artificial definition of attractive, does not mean that excess pounds should not be shed, or that care and attention to one’s appearance is not warranted and beneficial.
Ah, a good deal more to say, and I’ve just begun! I guess I’m still taking in air! ;)
Hedges has a loathing for positive psychology, one for the very reason that he sees it as further divorcing us from reality. From the many examples he gives in his book, one can see that far from achieving any notable positive effect on the American psychological profile and productivity, it has served to distance us even more from reality. The elites love it because it not only excuses them, but even makes those they trod upon think it’s their own fault. Hedges should be congratulated for laying bare the mechanisms and institutional frameworks used to divert us from confronting the economic, political, physical, health, emotional, and ethical/moral collapse around us. He is right to, as one fellow has put it, expose the absurd idea that we can always draw on inner resources and strengths to have everything we desire, that reality can be overcome by human will if one just believes it so. And the equal absurdity that even if the present is not so great, the future is going to be better just because we believe it will. Positive psychology could have its place, perhaps even a beneficial one, in the realm of human self-improvement, but it sought too often to effectively make itself its own religion, and was used in the service of those who care nothing but for themselves and their own control.
Your examples and links have pointed out quite well how neurotic we are as a society. We are the addicts, and furthermore, we are doubly so because we are culturally addicted, not just individually. That we have become the culture of self only illustrates in monstrous waves how little concerned we have become with what our Framers fretted about: the public good.
The world, and especially America, spend excessive amounts of life-energy on Facebook and similar electronic connections. Like many things in this digital age, it has gone from being a useful tool, or entertaining and occasional pastime, to being an addiction. The same about YouTube. I know of one place that had to ban access to it because it was taking up so much bandwith from people and their “hey, look at this video on YouTube.” No longer apparently is it the occasional thing, but a constant 3 or 4(+) a day per person in some instances. Rather than connect it, it seems to only make us more shallow.
It is not just the productivity lost from this, it’s the diversion. We the people fiddle while society and the world spin downward. Who is doing the job of preserving the civilization, let alone providing vision for its continuance and advancement? The powerful? They seem to care only for their own advantages, not the common good, and any “vision” they have is a sick one.
War is packaged and sold to us, and with the high-tech allure and all-volunteer force, sold to us as something most people get to feel as external, rather than as a real part of (with all that would really entail). Further distancing us from reality and its true effects. Hedges’s description of the shock of reality displacing illusion while under fire should be required reading for all would-be soldiers—and those who send them in harm’s way. Not just to save their lives from the nonsense that has been ingrained into them, but to also save their spirits from the manipulation and illusions that would use them up and never care.
Illusions we have willingly embraced. Reality sucks, people think, so why not. It has made us a nation of lotus-eaters, perpetually disconnected from authentic lives, a collection of opium dens. It doesn’t have to be that way. Many resist the allure, but its presence is ever there, ever pounding on the will. We may not be the Matrix, but we are far from its opposite.
Americans’ obsession/addiction with entertainment makes us willing pseudo-worshippers of celebrities, athletes, and deceivingly charismatic politicians and clergy. Like many masses of the past, we idolize who should not be idolized because they seem to represent what we, in our dim and deluded state, might wish to be. Reality is complex, why deal with it; it makes our nutritionally depleted and shrunken brains hurt. Easier to live in fantasies and escapism manifested in the unreal panorama of celebrities, reality TV, and sports. As someone said, we want to be lied to, because the lies make us feel so much better about our lives. And as Hedges points out, our obsession carries even into the artifacts and relics of celebrity-dom: we covet the possessions of living or dead celebrities with the same religious zeal that people of the past did for their own religious icons, and we visit shrines of those personalities in a way not too dissimilar to the way religious pilgrimages were made in the not so distant past. Our own lives seem to have no meaning compared to their illustrious and glorious ones.
Hedges points out our narcissistic culture in many examples and explanations. And our manipulated one. We the people need rules to be enforced, but they are not, except when they can be used against us. The elites escape scot-free, except when their internecine squabbling claims one of their own.
This lack of rules enforcement leads to disrespect and disillusionment with them. And the law. The masses take their cue from the corrupt elites, who they watch do all manner of illegal and thoroughly unethical or even criminal things without consequence. Seeing these bad examples teaches that those who play by the rules are suckers and losers. “If the world is rigged against you, if those in power stifle your voice, outsource your job, and foreclose your house, cheat back.” (12)
We blandly accept this spectacle of the elites partly because we are embodying what Plato feared: “the power of entertainment, the power of the senses to overthrow the mind, the power of emotion to obliterate reason. No admirer of popular democracy, Plato said that the enlightened or elite had a duty to educated those bewitched by the shadows on the cave wall…” (14)
Well that you have brought up Boorstin, who is quoted by Hedges, “We are the most illusioned people on earth. Yet we dare not become disillusioned, because our illusions are the very house in which we live,; they are our news, our heroes, our adventure, our forms of art, our very experience.” (15)
The reader at this point may think that the Prof is merely a fan-boy of Hedges here, accepting all with the rapid nods of a yes-man. Not so. There will be places in the book that I disagree with Hedges, or feel that he’s painting with a broad or incomplete brush. For instance, while I agree that our celebrity culture makes too many people want to be like celebrities (and excessively so), I also believe that it can be too easy to merely give one’s self a pass too. Just because one might not lose enough weight or get enough plastic surgery to become some artificial definition of attractive, does not mean that excess pounds should not be shed, or that care and attention to one’s appearance is not warranted and beneficial.
Ah, a good deal more to say, and I’ve just begun! I guess I’m still taking in air! ;)
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Bombarded and Bummed
I thought you were about to give your opinion of some little known third world despot when I first saw the title to your last post. I nominate you for the P & H Clever Title Award. You are sure to win! :)
As for (my perceived?) Hedge's bias against Christians, I couldn't help notice that he gives Walter Lippmann's definition of a "stereotype" followed by a list of examples on one page and uses the term "Christian Right" on the next page and throughout the book to lump a group together. I'll assume however, for this discussion that he is referring to a group springing out of the Moral Majority who are active in politics and make up a large part of faithful Republican voters, in addition to those (who he points out by name) that teach a "prosperity gospel" which seems to prosper them nicely, if no one else. I am going to assume he is not using the term to include all Christians or even all Evangelicals.
On p. 22 he writes "Celebrity worship banishes reality. And this adulation is pervasive. It is dressed up in the language of the Christian Right." What language? Later on the same page: "If Jesus and The Purpose Driven Life won't make us a celebrity, then Tony Robbins or positive psychologists or reality television will." The Christians I know aren't looking to Christ to make them "a celebrity" and I was confused by his use of that book in particular ( there are many others I would have agreed with him on) given author Rick Warren's battle against the “Global Goliaths” – spiritual emptiness, egocentric leadership, extreme poverty, pandemic disease, and illiteracy/poor education. His goal is a second Reformation by restoring responsibility in people, credibility in churches, and civility in culture." (From Purpose Driven Life.com)
If you are correct however, and he is simply focusing on "anti-hypocrisy, and also against what he sees as the corruption of Christ’s example" then more power to him. I can certainly take no issue with that.
I thought the wrestling example he opened with was an excellent analogy for the culture we find ourselves in. It often feels as if we are wrestling (and losing) against a "cult of self" that prizes physical beauty, wealth, and fame above all else. Some of the most difficult parts of this book for me were the examples he gives of the humiliation, degradation, and lack of compassion or enjoying someone else's emotional pain, that are now not only tolerated but in many cases expected, or worse applauded. A natural slide in a "culture of narcissism" where we believe "We are all entitled to everything." (p.27) So in the current atmosphere the very things we are most in need of are likely to be not only devalued but mocked and ridiculed:
"Education, building community, honesty, transparency, and sharing are qualities that will see you, in a gross perversion of democracy and morality, voted off a reality show...Compassion, competence, intelligence, and solidarity with others are forms of weakness." (p. 30)
The printed word invites contemplation, pages invite pondering. The ever increasing speed of everything is reflected in the theme of this book. Images are fast; words are slow. "Intellectual or philosophical ideas require too much effort to absorb. Classical theater, newspapers, and books are pushed to the margins of cultural life, remnants of a bygone literate age." (p. 43) Our minds are bombarded with thousands of sound bites, pictures, bits of video every day. We are held captive by a media that makes us feel constantly behind as they tout the newer, faster, clearer technology. Remember when TV announcers use to say "Don't go away" ? Now it has been made nearly impossible to ever "go away" since we now have constant access to the spectacle.
Psychologists are concerned about how attached people are to their smart phones according to this article on Huff Post Tech. No one is invited to take a moment out to breathe and think unless advertisers can sell us something in the process. To relax or disengage them properly you are going to need the coffee, chocolate, alcohol, spa, or retreat they are selling. All this is taking its toll on us: "...between 1997 and 2004, Americans more than doubled their spending on anti-anxiety medications like Xanax and Valium, from $900 million to $2.1 billion." (It's Not the Job Market)
Movies and WWI and WWII propaganda posters were influential in their day (the author has quite a bit to say about how war is packaged and sold to us, that you are more qualified to expound on) and in politics the Nixon/Kennedy debate forever sealed the power of those who manipulate the images of politicians. But the constant, uninterrupted, high definition fare being endlessly streamed to us in our techno-saturated lives leaves us no time between exposures to process our own thoughts about them. Even solemn ceremonies such as weddings and funerals have become spectacles of their own. Celebrating a couple's commitment or honoring someone's life must now entertain us as well. Again, allowing us to put the focus squarely where we think it should be...on ourselves.
Currently featured in French Vogue is a photo spread of a ten year old girl in full make-up, seductive clothing, and stilettos giving a sexy pout to the camera. I covered it on my blog last week. It seemed a perfect representation of this quote from p. 15:
"Those who manipulate the shadows that dominate our lives are the agents, publicists, marketing departments, promoters, script writers, television and movie producers, advertisers, video technicians, photographers, body guards, wardrobe consultants, fitness trainers, pollsters, public announcers, and television personalities who create the vast stage for illusion."
I couldn't resist the comparison of that Vogue image with one of Brooke Shields with no makeup and unshaped eyebrows, when she was also ten, after reading this quote by Daniel Boorstin (p.15):
"...in contemporary culture the fabricated, the inauthentic, and the theatrical have displaced the natural, the genuine, and the spontaneous..."
The windbag is taking in air, huh? Must account for the change in air pressure even from so far away! I thought I felt my ears popping. :)
As for (my perceived?) Hedge's bias against Christians, I couldn't help notice that he gives Walter Lippmann's definition of a "stereotype" followed by a list of examples on one page and uses the term "Christian Right" on the next page and throughout the book to lump a group together. I'll assume however, for this discussion that he is referring to a group springing out of the Moral Majority who are active in politics and make up a large part of faithful Republican voters, in addition to those (who he points out by name) that teach a "prosperity gospel" which seems to prosper them nicely, if no one else. I am going to assume he is not using the term to include all Christians or even all Evangelicals.
On p. 22 he writes "Celebrity worship banishes reality. And this adulation is pervasive. It is dressed up in the language of the Christian Right." What language? Later on the same page: "If Jesus and The Purpose Driven Life won't make us a celebrity, then Tony Robbins or positive psychologists or reality television will." The Christians I know aren't looking to Christ to make them "a celebrity" and I was confused by his use of that book in particular ( there are many others I would have agreed with him on) given author Rick Warren's battle against the “Global Goliaths” – spiritual emptiness, egocentric leadership, extreme poverty, pandemic disease, and illiteracy/poor education. His goal is a second Reformation by restoring responsibility in people, credibility in churches, and civility in culture." (From Purpose Driven Life.com)
If you are correct however, and he is simply focusing on "anti-hypocrisy, and also against what he sees as the corruption of Christ’s example" then more power to him. I can certainly take no issue with that.
I thought the wrestling example he opened with was an excellent analogy for the culture we find ourselves in. It often feels as if we are wrestling (and losing) against a "cult of self" that prizes physical beauty, wealth, and fame above all else. Some of the most difficult parts of this book for me were the examples he gives of the humiliation, degradation, and lack of compassion or enjoying someone else's emotional pain, that are now not only tolerated but in many cases expected, or worse applauded. A natural slide in a "culture of narcissism" where we believe "We are all entitled to everything." (p.27) So in the current atmosphere the very things we are most in need of are likely to be not only devalued but mocked and ridiculed:
"Education, building community, honesty, transparency, and sharing are qualities that will see you, in a gross perversion of democracy and morality, voted off a reality show...Compassion, competence, intelligence, and solidarity with others are forms of weakness." (p. 30)
The printed word invites contemplation, pages invite pondering. The ever increasing speed of everything is reflected in the theme of this book. Images are fast; words are slow. "Intellectual or philosophical ideas require too much effort to absorb. Classical theater, newspapers, and books are pushed to the margins of cultural life, remnants of a bygone literate age." (p. 43) Our minds are bombarded with thousands of sound bites, pictures, bits of video every day. We are held captive by a media that makes us feel constantly behind as they tout the newer, faster, clearer technology. Remember when TV announcers use to say "Don't go away" ? Now it has been made nearly impossible to ever "go away" since we now have constant access to the spectacle.
Psychologists are concerned about how attached people are to their smart phones according to this article on Huff Post Tech. No one is invited to take a moment out to breathe and think unless advertisers can sell us something in the process. To relax or disengage them properly you are going to need the coffee, chocolate, alcohol, spa, or retreat they are selling. All this is taking its toll on us: "...between 1997 and 2004, Americans more than doubled their spending on anti-anxiety medications like Xanax and Valium, from $900 million to $2.1 billion." (It's Not the Job Market)
Movies and WWI and WWII propaganda posters were influential in their day (the author has quite a bit to say about how war is packaged and sold to us, that you are more qualified to expound on) and in politics the Nixon/Kennedy debate forever sealed the power of those who manipulate the images of politicians. But the constant, uninterrupted, high definition fare being endlessly streamed to us in our techno-saturated lives leaves us no time between exposures to process our own thoughts about them. Even solemn ceremonies such as weddings and funerals have become spectacles of their own. Celebrating a couple's commitment or honoring someone's life must now entertain us as well. Again, allowing us to put the focus squarely where we think it should be...on ourselves.
Currently featured in French Vogue is a photo spread of a ten year old girl in full make-up, seductive clothing, and stilettos giving a sexy pout to the camera. I covered it on my blog last week. It seemed a perfect representation of this quote from p. 15:
"Those who manipulate the shadows that dominate our lives are the agents, publicists, marketing departments, promoters, script writers, television and movie producers, advertisers, video technicians, photographers, body guards, wardrobe consultants, fitness trainers, pollsters, public announcers, and television personalities who create the vast stage for illusion."
I couldn't resist the comparison of that Vogue image with one of Brooke Shields with no makeup and unshaped eyebrows, when she was also ten, after reading this quote by Daniel Boorstin (p.15):
"...in contemporary culture the fabricated, the inauthentic, and the theatrical have displaced the natural, the genuine, and the spontaneous..."
The windbag is taking in air, huh? Must account for the change in air pressure even from so far away! I thought I felt my ears popping. :)
Monday, August 8, 2011
Ill Use Shun
Madame M:
Let me start by attending to a few things first. First, I highly recommend this book to all, just as it came highly recommended to us.
I must disagree a bit with your assertion of anti-Christian bias on Hedges’ part. Given his own theological training, as well as his familial and other background, it would be odd for him to be overtly anti-Christian, which I don’t think he is. What he is about to me: anti-hypocrisy, and also against what he sees as the corruption of Christ’s example and teachings by the American pastorate (too many, who are, he believes, in ready service to the corrupted wealth obsession of American capitalism and American predatory capitalists). But if there is something I have missed, point it out to me good Madame!
Your words on Huxley are well selected, and illustrate our apparent national situation nicely (albeit disturbingly). How bitterly ironic that Huxley’s BOOK would be marginalized, ignored, or be completely invisible by/to so many in their descent into pleasure-mania, illusion, and delusion.
Yes, I agree with you that those things described are perhaps not defensible, but I think Hedges would agree that we at least need to understand the reasoning, such as it is or could be.
Mr. Hedges begins his book with an example of wrestling showing that spectacle has replaced literacy and the ability to deal with issues critically and effectively. He has many valid points about how American life has been manipulated for various purposes—nationalism, racial, ethnic, and religious prejudice, etc.—and demonstrates it by the example of wrestling. One of the premier manipulations has been diversion—diversion from the real problems and real causes. And especially diversion from how the rich elite have upended the world of the lower and middle classes, and made economic and social basket cases of so many. Furthermore, by making something like wrestling both an outlet for releasing frustration, including frustration with the wealthy, and a spectacle to disconnect things from reality, the wealthy elite have undercut a potential threat to their power, as well as masked or confused the source (them) of the upendeds’ misery.
On the historical hand, this trick of the elites is as old as civilization. American wrestling entertainment has been upticked, however, to subtly and not so subtly poke at the hurt of the upended, and all for more profit along the way to even greater embrace of illusion and spectacle in place of dealing with reality.
It also deepens the disconnection among people. As has been said in this forum many times in many ways, this helps the “elite,” who are relative few in number, from being confronted by a united many. In Hedges’ words, “it represents a society that has less and less national cohesion, a society that has broken down into warlike and antagonistic tribes,” who “cheat, lie…and ignore all rules in a desperate scramble to win. Winning is all that matters. Morality is irrelevant.” (7) “Established truths, mores, rules, and authenticity mean nothing. Good and evil mean nothing. It is all about personal pain, vendettas, hedonism, and fantasies of revenge, while inflicting pain on others. It is the cult of victimhood.” (11)
Did he just describe the sentiments that underlie much of what passes for American politics?
Much, MUCH more to say on this, but don’t want to overwhelm the readers yet. The Windbag is taking in air though! :)
Let me start by attending to a few things first. First, I highly recommend this book to all, just as it came highly recommended to us.
I must disagree a bit with your assertion of anti-Christian bias on Hedges’ part. Given his own theological training, as well as his familial and other background, it would be odd for him to be overtly anti-Christian, which I don’t think he is. What he is about to me: anti-hypocrisy, and also against what he sees as the corruption of Christ’s example and teachings by the American pastorate (too many, who are, he believes, in ready service to the corrupted wealth obsession of American capitalism and American predatory capitalists). But if there is something I have missed, point it out to me good Madame!
Your words on Huxley are well selected, and illustrate our apparent national situation nicely (albeit disturbingly). How bitterly ironic that Huxley’s BOOK would be marginalized, ignored, or be completely invisible by/to so many in their descent into pleasure-mania, illusion, and delusion.
Yes, I agree with you that those things described are perhaps not defensible, but I think Hedges would agree that we at least need to understand the reasoning, such as it is or could be.
Mr. Hedges begins his book with an example of wrestling showing that spectacle has replaced literacy and the ability to deal with issues critically and effectively. He has many valid points about how American life has been manipulated for various purposes—nationalism, racial, ethnic, and religious prejudice, etc.—and demonstrates it by the example of wrestling. One of the premier manipulations has been diversion—diversion from the real problems and real causes. And especially diversion from how the rich elite have upended the world of the lower and middle classes, and made economic and social basket cases of so many. Furthermore, by making something like wrestling both an outlet for releasing frustration, including frustration with the wealthy, and a spectacle to disconnect things from reality, the wealthy elite have undercut a potential threat to their power, as well as masked or confused the source (them) of the upendeds’ misery.
On the historical hand, this trick of the elites is as old as civilization. American wrestling entertainment has been upticked, however, to subtly and not so subtly poke at the hurt of the upended, and all for more profit along the way to even greater embrace of illusion and spectacle in place of dealing with reality.
It also deepens the disconnection among people. As has been said in this forum many times in many ways, this helps the “elite,” who are relative few in number, from being confronted by a united many. In Hedges’ words, “it represents a society that has less and less national cohesion, a society that has broken down into warlike and antagonistic tribes,” who “cheat, lie…and ignore all rules in a desperate scramble to win. Winning is all that matters. Morality is irrelevant.” (7) “Established truths, mores, rules, and authenticity mean nothing. Good and evil mean nothing. It is all about personal pain, vendettas, hedonism, and fantasies of revenge, while inflicting pain on others. It is the cult of victimhood.” (11)
Did he just describe the sentiments that underlie much of what passes for American politics?
Much, MUCH more to say on this, but don’t want to overwhelm the readers yet. The Windbag is taking in air though! :)
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Chains of Illusion
Professor J,
This Housewife gives you an "A" for the thoroughness of your answers to all my questions. I'm reluctant to move on to our next discussion if for no other reason than that I love the vintage photo of the newspaper readers we have up. Since, however, you have invited me to open our discussion on Hedge's work, move on I shall. It isn't exactly a dramatic shift from the news though, is it? The segue was an easy one. I expect that the discussion of this book will frequently have recent headlines dragged into it.
As a whole the book wasn't quite what I expected. I suspect the reason is that the first part of the subtitle led me to believe it was going to be another book about how Americans read less, watch too much television and are losing their connection to the printed word. So let's start by redefining and enlarging the definition of "literacy" because the author is using it at times in its more modern and broad sense. Beyond the "ability to read and write" the more comprehensive meaning now embraced is one that includes comprehension and critical thinking in addition to lots of kinds of specific literacy. Hedges is often referring, though he never says it explicitly, to a moral literacy (Knowing this helps make sense of the title of Chapter 1). A literacy of compassion and community. The "triumph" is not only of "spectacle" but of the crass and common. The collective vulgar. The corporate drain on our morality.
Our words become less important, images more so as the thing unravels: "We are a culture that has been denied, or has passively given up, the linguistic and intellectual tools to cope with complexity, to separated illusion from reality. We have traded the printed word for the gleaming image." Hedges turns to Plato early on for an explanation and a warning:
"In The Republic, Plato imagines human beings chained for the duration of their lives in an underground cave, knowing nothing but darkness. Their gaze is confined to the cave wall, upon which shadows of the world above are thrown. They believe these flickering shadows are reality. If, Plato writes, one of these prisoners is freed and brought into the sunlight, he will suffer great pain..."
I liked this book a lot even though it's dark and the message is difficult. I agreed overall with what he had to say about the disintegration of the culture. He occasionally let his anti-Christian bias shine through and tossed it in at times when I felt the connection was weak. Of course our friend Gibbon had lots of issues with Christianity and the organized church and I suspect that to be only the first of many connections that we may draw between these two works before we're finished. In addition to excerpts from The Decline and Fall, often while reading I found bits and pieces of Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 rattling around in by brain along with Orwell and Huxley. In Chapter 2, The Illusion of Love (again, this title is misleading having nothing to do with love but more with the illusion of intimacy) Hedges includes a great quote from the book Amusing Ourselves to Death:
"What Orwell feared were those who would ban books,' Neil Postman wrote:
Note to the reader: This is not a book for the faint of heart. Much of what he is documenting in the culture is disturbing, ugly, and cruel. But stick with us. He is making some very necessary points.
To view an interesting cartoon based on the Orwell/Huxley comparison, click HERE.
As a whole the book wasn't quite what I expected. I suspect the reason is that the first part of the subtitle led me to believe it was going to be another book about how Americans read less, watch too much television and are losing their connection to the printed word. So let's start by redefining and enlarging the definition of "literacy" because the author is using it at times in its more modern and broad sense. Beyond the "ability to read and write" the more comprehensive meaning now embraced is one that includes comprehension and critical thinking in addition to lots of kinds of specific literacy. Hedges is often referring, though he never says it explicitly, to a moral literacy (Knowing this helps make sense of the title of Chapter 1). A literacy of compassion and community. The "triumph" is not only of "spectacle" but of the crass and common. The collective vulgar. The corporate drain on our morality.
Our words become less important, images more so as the thing unravels: "We are a culture that has been denied, or has passively given up, the linguistic and intellectual tools to cope with complexity, to separated illusion from reality. We have traded the printed word for the gleaming image." Hedges turns to Plato early on for an explanation and a warning:
"In The Republic, Plato imagines human beings chained for the duration of their lives in an underground cave, knowing nothing but darkness. Their gaze is confined to the cave wall, upon which shadows of the world above are thrown. They believe these flickering shadows are reality. If, Plato writes, one of these prisoners is freed and brought into the sunlight, he will suffer great pain..."
I liked this book a lot even though it's dark and the message is difficult. I agreed overall with what he had to say about the disintegration of the culture. He occasionally let his anti-Christian bias shine through and tossed it in at times when I felt the connection was weak. Of course our friend Gibbon had lots of issues with Christianity and the organized church and I suspect that to be only the first of many connections that we may draw between these two works before we're finished. In addition to excerpts from The Decline and Fall, often while reading I found bits and pieces of Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 rattling around in by brain along with Orwell and Huxley. In Chapter 2, The Illusion of Love (again, this title is misleading having nothing to do with love but more with the illusion of intimacy) Hedges includes a great quote from the book Amusing Ourselves to Death:
"What Orwell feared were those who would ban books,' Neil Postman wrote:
'What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions." In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that our desire will ruin us.”How chillingly accurate Huxley's fears seem to have been. "...man's almost infinite appetite for distractions." Hedges does a magnificent job of pointing out just what some of them are and how they are keeping us from an honest view of the situation at hand and causing us as a culture to lose our grasp on reality. I had difficulty getting through some parts, the first two chapters were downright painful to me because they so graphically depicted some of those things you pointed out in your last post that you couldn't find the "other side to"because there isn't a defensible one. Ever.
Note to the reader: This is not a book for the faint of heart. Much of what he is documenting in the culture is disturbing, ugly, and cruel. But stick with us. He is making some very necessary points.
To view an interesting cartoon based on the Orwell/Huxley comparison, click HERE.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
