The Real And The Unreal

"What is left, then, of the real event if the imaginary, the fictional, the virtual, intrudes everywhere into reality?...In the aftermath of the [World Trade Center] attack we seek to give it whatever meaning we can, to make whatever interpretation. But there is no meaning, and the radical nature of the spectacle, its brutality, is the only thing about it that is original and irreducible. The spectacle of terrorism forces upon us the terrorism of the spectacle...The media are part of the event, they're part of the terror; in one way or another they play along."

-- Jean Baudrillard, Le Monde (11/2/01), reprinted in Harper's

An Emanation Of The Absurd In Modern Life:

Career as boundless, insensible self-adventure:

1. In one decade a man is an earnest political speechwriter and activist; a few short years later, a television anchorman in a large urban market, then a mayor for a medium-sized city; after that, the host of a syndicated daytime television show whose purpose is to flaunt the zany, the abnormal, the narcissistic, the irrational, the irresponsible, the mindless (downmarket stuff). No one is too insane or too grotesque or too scummy to appear before the camera: in fact, the more insane, the more grotesque, the more scummy the guest, the better for the host and for the show. The thing is a smash hit, at least for a few years (nothing anymore can avoid the fate of being "yesterday's news": once a commodity, always a has-been). The television host is an obvious whore now (integrity and pride were bartered away for millions), wholly unserious, even despicable.

2. Or take the example of a navy seal in Vietnam who turned out to be a raucous, chest-thumping, professional wrestler, and then a wrestling announcer, and then a small-town mayor, and then governor of a state. During his gubernatorial run, he was scoffed at, dismissed as an entertaining sideshow, but somehow he won; to many in his state, he was a refreshing change from the standard cookie-cutter politician. After victory, he was taken seriously as an individualist and as a political independent; his opinion was sought out on a range of issues, from the legalization of prostitution to the two-party system to the role of the military in faraway lands.

(Many similar examples of unintelligible career zig-zagging can be given here.)

What is the effect of the odd sequencing of careers on the public consciousness? Does it contribute at all, even in the tiniest way, to the sense that "nothing matters anymore," that "nothing anymore is serious"? Does it add to the sense that human identity itself is beyond the realm of the meaningful and the rational? Is not the Faustian compromise of soul nowadays tantamount to commodifying oneself in an ever protean marketplace?

Facts And Meaning-Making In The World:

The Trade Center Attacks:

Irreducible Facts: At a particular hour, on a particular day, two hijacked planes smashed into two skyscrapers, destroying them, leaving almost three thousand people dead, deluging half of Manhattan Island in a violent fog of debris.

The Realm of Meaning-Making:

-- That the event marked "the end of innocence" for America (it used to be the JFK assassination that ended the "innocence").

-- That the perpetrators belong to a civilization that is backward, unmodern, technologically primitive, clerical rather than secular, authoritarian rather than democratic -- one at "war" with western civilization, "American civilization."

-- That the event is unique, singularly significant (killing is not unprecedented; the conflation of "terrorists" with the national enemy is hardly new.)

-- That the event has implications as significant for someone living in Topeka, Kansas, Flagstaff, Arizona, or Helena, Montana, as for someone living in Manhattan or Brooklyn or Long Island or Washington, D.C. Corollary: that the mourning of the victims' survivors is a national affair, that it is public and not private.

-- That the "only logical" response to the event is retaliation, fattened military budgets, greater leeway of domestic intelligence agencies (spies) to pry into the activities of domestic groups and citizens.

-- That there is an "axis of evil" out there in the world, not nations with specific interests, heads of state with identifiable agendas, groups with particular grievances.

-- That "we are one now," that "we have been brought together" (despite differences in class, social status, race); that the "nation is united" (the man in the street in Brownsville, Texas presumably has the same circumference of priorities as an investment banker or real estate developer in New York, or as a political party operative in Washington).

-- That the "real heroes" in America now are fire fighters and police officers (despite the ubiquity of celebrity magazines, Hollywood television shows, gossip sheets, glamor magazines, glossy advertisements, and the near-universal wish to be "rich and famous").

-- That Osama bin Laden is an unambiguous person standing for unambiguous things ("terror," brutality).

The Realm of Manipulation:

-- Companies alluding to "September 11" in their commercials, hoping that prospective customers will see the allusion as proof that the company is "responsible, decent, caring, cool."

-- Displaying the flag, pictures of the flag, pictures of the World Trade Center to sell product, to sell a cause. Notice it's always the national flag, not a particular state flag (subliminal hint: that the United States is one country, as opposed to a federal republic made up of separate, autonomous states).

Television News:

Irreducible Fact: A man or woman reads feed from a teleprompter. What is read more or less corresponds to something that happened "out there in the world." This person isn't really in your living room even though you see her night in, night out; she is in a studio, rather far away.

Illusion: That the reporter or anchorperson is a friend (the viewer in all likelihood doesn't know him/her); that the reporter or anchorperson is "like family"; that the reporter or anchorperson is really knowable (the reporter knows that when he appears before the camera he's appearing in public; his private persona is likely different from his public persona).

Manipulation:

-- The anchorwoman just happens to be beautiful or glamorous, just happens to have an endearing smile, a soft and gentle manner, a nice laugh, radiant eyes. She exists to appeal to one's senses, one's feelings, not one's critical intellect or functioning mind.

-- The evening news anchorman, teary-eyed, after a tragedy is reported; the same anchorman with a feigned smile on his face after something eccentric or oddly amusing is shown (usually at the end of the broadcast).

Movies:

Familiar Criticism: That most pictures are merely mass-marketed product whose chief (perhaps only) goal is to make a buck for companies like Disney (this explains the uncountable films centering around the life of cops -- usually two of them -- and sex, violence, high-speed car chases, slapstick comedy, plotless special-effects presentations, &c.).

Less-familiar Criticism: Once upon a time, to paraphrase Robert Redford, the movie theater sat all by itself on some ordinary street corner. A kid in a city like Los Angeles (where Redford grew up) would look forward to going to the self-contained theater and leaving with a heightened sense of meaning, something in the way of imaginative adventure. Going to the "movie" was a special event, not something taken for granted, not yet another boredom-killing escape. Today, there are no such movie theaters. To see a movie, one visits a mall and has to pass through Abercrombie & Fitch, Sbarro Pizza, Reebok Shoes, The Foot Locker, and Sam Goody to get in line. The moment one steps foot in the mall, the mind is saturated with sounds and sights and distractions. Everywhere noise and everywhere throngs of people ambling down aisles, in and out of stores (what counts today as intimate encounters). The cinematic experience is thus no longer an independent one; it is mediated by this commercial and consumptive milieu. Is there much difference between eating a slice of pizza, drinking chilled soda on a mall floor, watching people of varying countenances stream in and out of stores, and following a familiar mass-marketed narrative with popcorn and soda in hand? Where is that special place that is unburdened and unmediated by the department-store experience?

Further Reading:

Baudrillard, Jean. In The Shadow Of The Silent Majorities (1983). Links: Baudrillard On The Web; Jean Baudrillard.

Enzensberger, Hans Magnus. The Consciousness Industry (1974).

Goodman, Nelson. Ways of Worldmaking (1978).

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