This is the reason for this journey into hyper-reality, in search of instances where the American imagination demands the real thing and, to attain it, must fabricate the absolute fake: where the boundaries between game and illusion are blurred.
– Umberto Eco
Some years ago, I had a kind of image whose message was that we were ginning up to rerun the Nazi Germany horrors and WWII. I didn't quite understand how it was meant to come out, but I thought maybe it wasn't supposed to come out in any particular way; only we were being given another chance to change.As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.
– H.L. Mencken
I'm now beginning to think that vague image might well be true. And I'm not feeling very optimistic that we will come out any different.
What happened is that a couple of people tried to disrupt Trump's show.Donald Trump’s campaign rally had only been underway for a few minutes Monday night when the first angry eruption occurred.
The Republican frontrunner had invited a supporter up to the stage to recount how his son was killed by an undocumented immigrant.
BuzzFeed
By the time security swooped in, several amped-up Trump supporters had already encircled the protesters — booing, and chanting, and slowly closing in — while a crush of smartphone-wielding media scrambled to capture footage of the clash. The guards managed to remove one protester, but the other resisted, stiffening his limbs and screaming about the First Amendment as they tried to haul him toward the exits.
[...]
“Light the motherfucker on fire!” one Trump supporter yelled.
[...]
Activists interrupted Trump at least half a dozen times at the event — and the longer the night wore on, the more crazed many in the crowd seemed to get.
One after another, protesters were forcibly dragged from the ballroom — limbs flailing, torsos twisting in resistance — while wild-eyed Trump supporters spewed abuse and calls to violence.
“Kick his ass!” yelled one.
“Shoot him!” shouted another.
[...]
According to NBC News, someone at the Trump rally even yelled a German Nazi-era salute — “Sieg heil!” — while a protester was being removed from the event.
Trump, meanwhile, gleefully narrated the madness from his podium like a tabloid talk show host presiding over an on-camera brawl between guests — egging on the confrontation, whipping the audience into a frenzy, and basking in his fans’ celebratory chants.
“Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump!”
[...]
At several points, Trump berated the reporters in the room for taking pictures of the clashes. “They are terrible!” Trump hissed of the press. “The worst!” Hundreds of riled-up Trump fans turned to face the press corps, and booed loudly.
[...]
Families with young kids scampered toward the exits well before Trump wrapped up, and some elderly people had to leave in search of medical assistance.
Are we witnessing the spectacle of politics or the politics of the spectacle? It is impossible to tell the two apart. Guy Debord spoke of the Spectacle as being the ever self-replicating capitalist structure; a society saturated with images, stimulating distractions, and the limitless commodification of existence. The authentic ceases to be, and only the flood of immersive media remains. Umberto Eco once dubbed it the ‘authentic fake’. There are few better examples of this than American politics.
It has been said in humor that the primaries is the best of reality television. That statement could not be any more accurate. Politics, as with everything else, has been devoured into the Spectacle. It is the ultimate fake, the parody that reflects the people, and the satire that reveals to us the truth about our own culture. We mock politicians as if we are looking into a funhouse mirror, but alas, that is no funhouse mirror, it is simply our reflection.
[...]
Trump is the embodiment of Poe’s Law [when one cannot tell the difference between satire and seriousness]. Trump is the embodiment of the Spectacle. Trump is the embodiment of the people and mass media. Trump is the authentic fake.
[...]
The ideologies of America today, be they secular or religious, are merely echoes leftover from the past.
Trigger Warning
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