I recall some of us working as Editorial Staff for one of the Surfing publications, discussing that the next strep in the evolution of Professional Surfing would be to create location driven contests where the end result would be a widely disseminated piece of entertainment media. That was around 1997 I believe. Most sports and indeed culture have followed suit. The rise of commentators as experts later coincided with the collapse of Publishing and the removal of Journalistic expertise. What resulted was a programming of the audience by nonexperts and insertion of prepurchased POVs into the viewers, which spread virally throughout culture, and created exactly what Eco describes. Many of us saw what headed in. That comedic film "Idiocracy" seems to have been somewhat prophetic.
This is possibly my main preoccupation right now. Identifying what can be considered 'real' as opposed to some form of artiface. I'll be linking to your piece in my latest.
What you wrote back then seems to have come pass in spades, especially the way the news media has degenerated, and how hard core porn is now ubiquitious.
Ed, you've hit the nail on the head here. I've explored similar trains of thought myself, and come to similar conclusions. We live in a world of artifice, which (among other things) disconnects us from our true nature (call it soul, spirit, whatever term you prefer).
I recall some of us working as Editorial Staff for one of the Surfing publications, discussing that the next strep in the evolution of Professional Surfing would be to create location driven contests where the end result would be a widely disseminated piece of entertainment media. That was around 1997 I believe. Most sports and indeed culture have followed suit. The rise of commentators as experts later coincided with the collapse of Publishing and the removal of Journalistic expertise. What resulted was a programming of the audience by nonexperts and insertion of prepurchased POVs into the viewers, which spread virally throughout culture, and created exactly what Eco describes. Many of us saw what headed in. That comedic film "Idiocracy" seems to have been somewhat prophetic.
This is possibly my main preoccupation right now. Identifying what can be considered 'real' as opposed to some form of artiface. I'll be linking to your piece in my latest.
What you wrote back then seems to have come pass in spades, especially the way the news media has degenerated, and how hard core porn is now ubiquitious.
Ed, you've hit the nail on the head here. I've explored similar trains of thought myself, and come to similar conclusions. We live in a world of artifice, which (among other things) disconnects us from our true nature (call it soul, spirit, whatever term you prefer).
More thoughts on this subject here:
https://dystopianliving.substack.com/p/we-are-living-in-mythic-times