Donald Trump is a clear and present danger. But he needs to be understood, Chris Hedges writes, in the context of the digital revolution -- which has made the electronic image paramount:
Donald Trump, like much of the American public, is entranced by electronic images. He interprets reality through the distortions of digital media. His decisions, opinions, political positions, prejudices and sense of self are reflected back to him on screens. He views himself and the world around him as a vast television show with himself as the star. His primary concerns as president are his ratings, his popularity and his image. He is a creature—maybe the poster child—of the modern, post-literate culture, a culture that critics such as Marshall McLuhan, Daniel Boorstin, James W. Carey and Neil Postman warned us about.
Postman understood what was coming:
“It is not merely that on the television screen entertainment is the metaphor for all discourse,” Postman points out. “It is that off the screen the same metaphor prevails.” Americans, because television stages their world, “no longer talk to each other, they entertain each other.”
And Trump is the embodiment of all that:
Trump is what is produced when a society severs itself from print, when it pushes art, ethics, classics, philosophy, history and the humanities to the margins of the universities and culture, when its members spend hours sitting inert in front of a screen. Information, ideas and epistemology are, as Postman writes, given form today by electronic images.
The result is not just cultural regression. It's cultural nihilism and narcissism -- something that John Ralston Saul has opined about:
“Now the death of God combined with the perfection of the image has brought us to a whole new state of expectation,” John Ralston Saul writes. “We are the image. We are the viewer and the viewed. There is no other distracting presence. And the image has all the Godly powers. It kills at will. Kills effortlessly. Kills beautifully. It dispenses morality. Judges endlessly. The electronic image is man as God and the ritual involved leads us not to a mysterious Holy Trinity but back to ourselves. In the absence of a clear understanding that we are now the only source, these images cannot help but return to the expression of magic and fear proper to idolatrous societies. This in turn facilitates the use of electronic image as propaganda by whoever can control some part of it.”
Trump has been at the centre of that communications empire for a long time. The power the electronic image has given him is what makes him so dangerous. The more we worship electronic images, the more powerful he becomes.
Image: New York Magazine
4 comments:
I always got a kick .. and a big smile, whenever one of my biggest heroes 'kicked ass' .. Now since Marshall McLuhan and Hunter S Thompson were atop the totem pole.. (I had several such poles) .. theirs were the 'go to' statements. McLuhan of course became immortal just for The Medium Is The Message .. though he confided to my Aunt Martha over lunch one day.. that he actually 'realized' it or internalized it to himself as The Medium Is The Massage .. he was a sly dog of intensely condensed messaging.. almost speaking in iconic code.
The classic in my view came from a Tom Wolfe anecdote (who else, but another hero.. with the right stuff !) Surely I have mentioned this in a comment or two.. but it seems so timely in a slightly raw way to your blog entry.. and after all.. 'all the world's a stage' non ?
As Tom tells it.. at a finance or big banking conference, attended by hundreds of men in dark blue suits, shiny black shoes.. big banking executives, CEO's, Chairmen of Boards all.. plus one man in a white suit named Tom, with a Panama hat, and one other who was suited dkfferently.. there came a time to tale a break for lunch.. perhaps better than the same old salad, soup and rubber chicken
Off went almost 8 or 10 including Tom Wolfe and Marshall McLuhan.. who were head table guest presenters. Strolling amiably down a Sunny San Francisco street or two they came upon a fancy and likely looking place and headed inside. It turned out it was an upscale strip club. They stood there stunned at the vast stage and spectacle.. until one of the bankers blurted out 'my God, they're all naked!' According to Tom Wolfe, in less than a heartbeat, Marshall McLuhan objected.. saying 'No, they're not naked.. they're wearing us !'
And so in a hearbeat or twenty. surely we can say.. 'Donald Trump is wearing us' .. This is the kind of iconic phrasing I am trying to hone. I mentioned this to Mound a ways back. My background is documentary photography, film and video.. and the related post production stages.. whether motion picture editing or photo editing - 'iconic & minimalist' were always goals. Now I focus more on writing whether long fiction, short story memoir or fiction, somewhat short commentary or concern (this is an example of course) and very short critique, observations or questions via Twitter.. At some point I intend to utilize text caption embedded on imagery.. again striving for iconic, minimalist, inspiring ? Provocative ? Even guerrila for sure, as I believe such public messaging's time is now.. so yes.. I find Banksy quite intriguing .. as someone who advanced McLuhanism .. It may be the most accessible, economic, efficient & effective way to combat neo liberalism, ignorance, captured governments, partisan mainstream media, organized faux religions and greed.. certainly a way to combat election fraud and vote suppression. I can think of dozens and dozens of examples where Banksy style or related style guerrilla messaging would be outstanding ! Certainly Twitter is an obvious electronic public stage ..
There is a movement to send it all up -- a la Banksy, Sal. But I have to wonder how many people would miss the point. Perhaps I'm just too cynical.
We have become a lazy species, Owen. Good critical thinking requires hard work, something not required of the digital image.
Images appeal to our guts, Lorne. They can spark a debate, but they can't carry it. And now, we no longer want to debate. We only wish to hang on -- desperately -- to our position, whatever that is.
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