The Show Part One

by Jefferson Hansen

(This is a series of posts reflecting on the place of "the show" in contemporary society and culture.)

We can ask whether or not a tree falls in a forest when there is nobody there to hear it. But there is now a more relevant question: Does anything happen, in a meaningful way, if it is not filmed or photographed? Digitalized "film" is slowly being accorded more reality than that which is filmed. Something not filmed is becoming irrelevant and quaint. More and more, we live in the show, as spectators and participants.

It has been said that entertainment—the show—reflects and reproduces the economic and social order. In other words, the means of production reproduce themselves during leisure time.

Today, it would seem that the opposite is often the case: the show creates the economy.

The most obvious example is TV commercials. Actors create small dramas, arising from a script that attempts to get people to buy things. The show creates consumer desire, a central aspect of the economy.

Take pharmaceutical advertisements. They usually begin by presenting the image of a suffering person who cannot engage in life’s most fulfilling activities. The drug is introduced and, presto, the person now can live life to the fullest. This is signified by something like a dance or a walk on the beach. The narrative presents the drug as the portal to paradise.

That nobody lives in paradise is only hinted at by the hurriedly uttered list of potential side effects.

The goal of this show is to remind us of our miseries and to make us feel bad. Then it offers the way out of the misery. This is often the goal of advertising: to make us feel bad so that we buy a product to feel better.

Purchasing things is the way to paradise. This claim is, of course, absurd. But if it is repeated time and again, day in and day out, from ubiquitous electronic devices, can anyone resist?

We are plugged into the show. And we have all become its actors.

The lines between entertainment, information, and advertising have become blurred. News correspondents, who used to report on politics and important events, have become actors in the show, wearing sparkling costumes to report on glitzy happenings or putting a cheese hat on their head, during a morning news show, to advertise the Packer game appearing on that network that evening. “Hard” news no longer has its cache. We have come to accept that the show is the real story, and our news people must engage. To not engage in the show is to be not only irrelevant, but a veritable nonentity.

More and more, we become the show. An activity, for some, does not seem complete until photos and movies from it are posted on social media and commented on. How often do we engage in an activity simply because it will be filmed? Do we sometimes film that which exists only for the film in the first place? The medium is message, but also a ground of reality.

(This series will continue.)