kaymac 2.21.08

"America got what is fantasized about, and that was the biggest surprise." (Zizek, 233). I could not have put that into better words myself. Here we are, fantasizing about planes blowing up and landing on The Strip, dramatic reenactments of past and future wars, and money laundering and drug cultures, just to name a few. We glorify the actors and the people they play, therefore we glorify the actual people whom those actors represent.

So when these actual events that we have glorified so much actually take place, we call it surreal because we don't want to take responsibility for our actions and for what we have done to those images. And because these events and images are so surreal, we don't know how to act around them and therefore do not have the proper reaction. I mean, look at Katrina and New Orleans. Was there a plan somewhere in city hall that had a directions on what to do just in case the levees broke? People think that just because it happens in films, it can't happen to them (including romantic-comedy films) because nothing can live up to having the right music and camera angles at the right time, having their hair perfect even though their plane almost crashed to the ground, and things of that nature.

It's true. We are destroying ourselves in our films. Not only are we actually killing off people in the films (you ever notice that in Jackie Chan films you rarely ever see the fate of a random ninja he beats up?) but we are destroying our perception of reality. Our visions of reality are so skewed by now that when reality actually does occur it doesn't register and we don't react. Think of how many images and representations of starving children you've seen. Or even better, how many images and representations of Briney Spears going nuts have you seen? If you look into it, Spears is an actual person going nuts because of the public eye upon her 24/7. Imagine if you're mother went nuts and locked you up with her in your house, not allowing anybody else to see you while cops were outdoors? Instead of wondering why all of this happened, we laugh at the (soon to be) Saturday Night Live skits and John Stewart comments (personally, I really hate Britney Spears. What a waste of human).

So where are we going to go from here? I don't think we have as a species have ever realized our realities and maybe that's why we've become "higher" than animals with our buildings and agricultural systems and animals have just been happy living their lives, not getting hit by cars.