We Are No Longer…
I read an email this morning from a friend expressing anguish at the juxtaposition between the stunning accomplishments of mankind culturally and scientifically with the despoliation of Nature and the consequent global warming and climate catastrophe. It is hard to conceive of anyone now living who is not aware of the event of climate extremes in some form.
This quotation from Jean Baudrillard seemed apposite to our situation:
We are no longer alienated and passive spectators
but interactive extras;
we are the meek and lyophilized members of
this huge “reality show.”
it is no longer a spectacular logic of alienation
but a spectral logic of dis-incarnation,
no longer a fantastic logic of diversion
but a corpuscular logic of transfusion and transubstantiation*
of all of our cells;
a radical deterrence of the world from the inside
and no longer from the outside.
Being an extra in virtual reality
is no longer being an actor or a spectator,
it is to be out of the scene,
to be obscene.
-Disneyworld Company
America by Jean Baudrillard, pub. 1988
*Transubstantiation is a theological term. It means that ordinary things such as bread and wine literally become something else, by means of powers which are inhuman. Things changed from inside out, into something else.
One can live with such realities for just so long. We need a song to hold onto. This one is for David, a good friend whose knowledge of history is inspiring to me. Angel From Montgomery by John Prine.
