BiegieGo, 9/26

So this week in class we focused on Zizek and the question of what is real? “In today’s market we find a whole series of products deprived of their malignant properties: coffee without caffeine, cream without fat, beer without alcohol…” these are things what we never stop to think of in our day to day lives. What is the point of drinking coffee without the caffeine or beer without the alcohol? Well, this is where virtual reality comes into play, “it provides reality itself deprived of its substance.” We see these images on the screen and we start to believe them because they are repeated over and over again until the product become second nature to us and we done even notice what is happening.

For example “the ‘terrorists’ themselves did not do it primarily to provoke real material damage, but for the spectacular effect of it.” Someone in class explained this quote very well. He said that the terrorist are not trying to mainly hurt people, but it is the only way to get the camera on them so they can get their message out to the world. They think that is the attack is bigger them the more coverage to their story they will get. The image of the planes hitting the WTC on September 11 was what the people of America were repeatedly shown and therefore it led to an up-rise in anger and took us into war. I believe if the images that the media displayed were not repeated so often on the news then the anger of the Americans would have not been so high. Another thing is that in America the people tend to believe that nothing should ever happen to us. They think we are the greatest nation there is and if something ever happens or if there is a bomb that explodes in our country then we must fight back because we are Americans.