In my last entry I discussed how Adam Curtis' observations
in his insightful documentary series Century
of the Self could be used to interpret political situations throughout the
2010's in America, and how a world was created where the average person's
priorities were misdirected based on irrational, unconscious emotions centred
around consumerism. This world is
promoted and reiterated by Big Media to maintain a passive population. As it turns out, the basis of these theories
are based on classic theory of social analysis, deep thinker and sociologist
turned philosopher Jean Baudrillard.
Writing on the relationship between people and objects in the late 60's,
consumerism in 1970 and politics and culture throughout the rest of his career,
Baudrillard's most famous work was a book in 1981, Simulations and Simulacra,
writings that served as inspiration for the Matrix movies.
Humans relationships to objects have changed as the roles
and functions of objects have evolved alongside us, serving as limbs, sensory
objects, or changing how we in turn interact with a third object. Objects originally bought for a primary
function begin to serve a secondary function, and suddenly the secondary qualities
becomes the object's primary purpose.
Baudrillard uses the example of a refrigerator, where all old fridges
used to be white, once they introduced fridges in different colors, suddenly
you must select a fridge based on the color scheme of the rest of the
kitchen. The fridge becomes an accessory
to the kitchen's ensemble, and by proximity becomes a statement made by the
people who live there. A person can
express themselves by the arrangement and relative colors mixing about the
kitchen.
This analysis continues in The Consumer Society and Simulations, where personal expression
is solely done through the purchasing of items in the full spectrum of
imagination, and this is but one component of the Simulacrum, where we live in
a "hyperreality" where mass production and consumption has created a
fakeness or series of reproducible clones.
This ubiquity of copies of objects changes the way we think about
objects, believing in the reproducibility of everything and so attributing a
disposability and temporariness of everything around us. A striking example he uses is Disneyland, a
hyperreal fantasy that we (as a society) not only use to escape the
"reality" that normally surrounds us for a while, but also reaffirms in our minds that the reality
we normally inhabit is not a simulation.
This conviction that we are living in a more "real" reality is
what allows us to continue living in it, and not questioning why the things
around us have to be the way they are.
Century of the Self
examines Bernays marketing techniques, but otherwise paints a similar picture
where social order is based around consumerism, and where objects are given
relationships to powerful emotional symbols based on self-expression. And if you keep stimulating that irrational
self you can maintain the relations of power and control the animalistic forces
by keeping them engaged. Bernays
pioneered the technique of marketing research, meeting with volunteers and
encouraging them to pretend they are consumer products and act out their
relationships with the products.
Similarly, political marketers encouraged people to talk about policies
and how they felt about them, encouraging them to act out these relationships
as well. This was the creation of the
simulacrum that surrounds us presently.
Not only are people engaged in this hyperreality, they are
completely immersed in a reality created by the forces of media, big business
and government. Advertisement campaigns
create emotional attachment by conveying unspoken ideas, encouraging self
expression and activity through the purchase of products. Curtis uses the example of the World's Fair,
creating a Disneyland-esque atmosphere, while surrounding the visitor with the
icons of consumption and self-expression.
