It’s so thought provoking that I have started taking notes. I have only read 30 pages and already my head is spinning.
In the introduction he discusses one of the problems we have in a high tech age. “Is it real or fake?” Here is a quote, which may be the only truly coherent thing you read in this whole entry today. So pay attention.....
“In a world where information is transmitted instantaneously and people are transported almost as quickly, the climate is right for mass imitation, fakes, copies and simulations. The raw authentic is hunted down by “cool” hunters, snatched up, stripped clean, and mass marketed. It’s no wonder we question what is genuine.”
At first we might think, what’s the big deal, who cares ? But there are deeper implications to this uncertainty. For one thing, we all (I assume) want to be seen as “real” and authentic. But the tricky part is who will define this authenticity? Increasingly it seems to be that TV gets the first shot at it. We tend to think that if we see it on TV it is “real”. Look, you can see it right there, it must be real !
There is a very disturbing trend that a large segment of people are buying into. That is, they don’t seem to think that THEY are real unless they appear on TV. This would explain all the unbelievably demeaning things some people are willing to do to get on TV. From getting voted off the island to eating slugs, to shamelessly competing over some fabulously wealthy hunk. (who turned out to be a fake, how appropriate to the discussion!) It’s insane !
You know, this brings to mind an observation I have made of people who have some wonderful talent. It really doesn’t matter what the talent is. If the “mass marketing machine” gets ahold of it, that person is sucked dry, used up, manipulated, overexposed, perhaps even cloned by having lots of imitators, and then thrown in the trash when they finally get burned out. One has to be a VERY centered and strong person to resist this process.
But on the other hand, I’m a bit confused about what is a legitimate desire to “matter”, to have a voice, to be counted. And maybe the reason this has become so important is that there are so many of us now. And not only that but we are constantly being reminded of it by seeing what is going on in far flung places all over the world. From Zanzibar to Fairbanks to London, we see so much of what is going on in the world that it is no wonder we feel insignificant sometimes.
But does the whole world need to know your name before you are “real”?
And then if they DO know your name, that mysterious and disastrous thing happens. It seems THEY end up defining who you are. Oh, he’s an actor, oh, she’s a singer. You get put in a category. But no person fits in any one box, so that person is actually diminished by all this public attention.
However, once the TV and mass marketing vehicles get in motion, pigeonholing people is inevitable.
None of us wants to be ignored, discounted or passed over, but the thing that you’d think we would notice it the almost invariable story the fantastically famous tell. The one of being defined by other’s fantasies of them and the fact that they can’t do “normal” things any more, and they feel confined to a certain role. Everyone wants to touch them, see them, talk to them, “know” them, because by golly, THEY are REAL !
Oy, it’s so complicated. And here I must admit, after my little identity crisis yesterday, that this high tech vehicle we are using right now, helps me to have a seat at the table, a say so in the world, even if it is only to ask a bunch of questions that I don’t have answers for. Hence my love/hate, or maybe more accurately love/distrust, relationship to technology. I need to come to grips with it, understand it, and perhaps come to a truce with it.
Maybe I could get to a more healthy, “use carefully/keep an eye on”, relationship with the high tech world. (We would be SO happy for you if you could do this, then we wouldn’t have to listen to you whine about it any more!) Yeah ? Take a number. ;-)
I guess it’s like everything else, it can be used for good or evil. I mean even a hammer has two potentials. You can build a house with it or smack someone over the head with it. The hammer itself is neutral.
I suppose the tricky thing about technology is that it is SO vast and SO powerful that the extreme end of the destructive side really gives me the willies.
So much for my rant of the day. The questions mount up, the answers go begging. I must be the opposite of an Oracle. That’s where you go for answers. This is where you can come for questions. What’s the opposite of Oracle? Whyacle? Whoacle? Whatifacle? Sounds pretty weird, besides that, I don’t think it’s marketable. . . .
But is it authentic ? Ay, there’s the rub !
(We have been quoting Shakespeare to each other at our house these last few days…. I’m stuck !)