I agree with you about mob governance. I don't think it's because of the TV shows. What's we're seeing now has always been there. Before the voting rights act. There's also the Republicans ratcheting themselves up to this. One thing about the sopranos I keep thinking about is the US Attorney who let herself get intimidated abs bullied by Carmella. It's very clear Tony and the people are predators.
Before those shows there was calls to free John Gotti.
I agree with you things have changed I think it was Rush Limbaugh and social mirrors stretching back from before FB
The tragic is that you can't teach or press people to use their own braincells. To stand allone is a hard thing to live . But Trump will stumble and fall over the fear he has. All threats are fear and nothing else.
This is a clear description of how art shaped society. Art creates the theater. We wrongly think of ourselves as the audience when in reality we are the actors. The art provides a script with clues on how we are to behave. We come to identify with the“entertainers“, that is, the actors, and we are transformed into the entertainers. Most people do not realize how they are shaped by the theater, the script, and the actors. Certainly as you stated in your comment, “television built the cultural template first.” Presently, technology is taking over and providing the Theatre and the script and the direction. Technology is the director, providing information, nudging, and manipulating our relationships, ideology, and politics. It seems that most people are enjoying playing their part in the entertainment, rather than recognizing how they are being lied to a man manipulated. It is performance theater with real world consequences.
I was always the weird one. I almost never liked what everybody raved about. Because of that, and my observations, I completely understand the validity of what Wendy is saying. I just rebelled against authority and conformity. So, I nearly always remained true to myself, but noted so many others changing their views and conversation when something became popular. It was easy to manipulate others, but it was never in me to do it. It's probably why I chose to major in psychology. I was the guy who couldn't stand John Wayne's western movies, or any westerns, but loved him in The High and The Mighty, a disaster movie where he turned out to be the hero. Once, when I brought my report card home to my mother, she looked and me and yelled, "God damn son of a bitch. How come you can get all As in the subjects, but you always flunk behavior?" To a fair degree, I'm still that guy. I'm always skeptical and almost always research when I am and I rarely join the crowd, unless I'm absolutely certain that they agree with me.
"Fiction arrived first. The country absorbed the logic long before reality enforced the outcome." Brilliant essay. Thank you for putting the pieces together, step by patient, outraged step.
Television is not even on any more. The Internet and its algorithms have taken over and unlike TV, where it is time to turn it off and go to bed, Americans take the internet with them to bed and lay awake being amused, outraged or absorbing lies way past sleeptime. TV does not seem to matter to anyone under 30. Whatever structure, and its changing morality, was once king on TV has on the internet become unstructured, wildly hyperbolic, filled with garbage and a cacophony of me, me, me. Twump may still watch TV but he posts on the internet, constantly. I wish he would shut up.
Television built the cultural template first. The internet accelerated and weaponized the pattern. Algorithms did not invent the characters; amplification followed decades of cultural conditioning.
The medium changed. The psychological programming remained.
I agree with you about mob governance. I don't think it's because of the TV shows. What's we're seeing now has always been there. Before the voting rights act. There's also the Republicans ratcheting themselves up to this. One thing about the sopranos I keep thinking about is the US Attorney who let herself get intimidated abs bullied by Carmella. It's very clear Tony and the people are predators.
Before those shows there was calls to free John Gotti.
I agree with you things have changed I think it was Rush Limbaugh and social mirrors stretching back from before FB
The tragic is that you can't teach or press people to use their own braincells. To stand allone is a hard thing to live . But Trump will stumble and fall over the fear he has. All threats are fear and nothing else.
This is a clear description of how art shaped society. Art creates the theater. We wrongly think of ourselves as the audience when in reality we are the actors. The art provides a script with clues on how we are to behave. We come to identify with the“entertainers“, that is, the actors, and we are transformed into the entertainers. Most people do not realize how they are shaped by the theater, the script, and the actors. Certainly as you stated in your comment, “television built the cultural template first.” Presently, technology is taking over and providing the Theatre and the script and the direction. Technology is the director, providing information, nudging, and manipulating our relationships, ideology, and politics. It seems that most people are enjoying playing their part in the entertainment, rather than recognizing how they are being lied to a man manipulated. It is performance theater with real world consequences.
Very prescient essay - and scary.
Fantastic!!! Well done. Thank you.
I was always the weird one. I almost never liked what everybody raved about. Because of that, and my observations, I completely understand the validity of what Wendy is saying. I just rebelled against authority and conformity. So, I nearly always remained true to myself, but noted so many others changing their views and conversation when something became popular. It was easy to manipulate others, but it was never in me to do it. It's probably why I chose to major in psychology. I was the guy who couldn't stand John Wayne's western movies, or any westerns, but loved him in The High and The Mighty, a disaster movie where he turned out to be the hero. Once, when I brought my report card home to my mother, she looked and me and yelled, "God damn son of a bitch. How come you can get all As in the subjects, but you always flunk behavior?" To a fair degree, I'm still that guy. I'm always skeptical and almost always research when I am and I rarely join the crowd, unless I'm absolutely certain that they agree with me.
Cruelty is the point of this regime. It's disgusting.
"Fiction arrived first. The country absorbed the logic long before reality enforced the outcome." Brilliant essay. Thank you for putting the pieces together, step by patient, outraged step.
Oh, this really resonates.
I’ll share broadly 🔥🦊
Prescient.
Television is not even on any more. The Internet and its algorithms have taken over and unlike TV, where it is time to turn it off and go to bed, Americans take the internet with them to bed and lay awake being amused, outraged or absorbing lies way past sleeptime. TV does not seem to matter to anyone under 30. Whatever structure, and its changing morality, was once king on TV has on the internet become unstructured, wildly hyperbolic, filled with garbage and a cacophony of me, me, me. Twump may still watch TV but he posts on the internet, constantly. I wish he would shut up.
Television built the cultural template first. The internet accelerated and weaponized the pattern. Algorithms did not invent the characters; amplification followed decades of cultural conditioning.
The medium changed. The psychological programming remained.
The only thing lower than accepting immoral leadership is aiding (quietly or loudly) immorality against others.