Celebrities

Celebrities are those who alienated from the mirror in front of them. They are no longer alone in the bathroom. Their mirror replaced by another tools: camera, voice recorder, or journalist record. The tools represent the people's stare which they assume it is always present. In the gaze of the objects, they see themselves. The crowd -- gossip readers, radio listeners, TV viewers and cinema -- of course, unseen in their eyes, it is not really clear who the actual figure and voice. The mass. The crowd. Faces without history, and not you that they can greet, but them. And they pose for "them".

How important "the invisible" is, so that Paris Hilton's self-construction , for example, can differ from her face in the mirror? If we were in the mid-1930s, at the peak of the first development of the film industry and the technology of photography, the answer is more definite. "They who are invisible when (an actor) running the show are  those who actually control the show. "It was Walter Benjamin's conclusion in that year when he talked about the audience, listeners, and the unseen media readers to the actor.

But Benjamin is not entirely true. As consumers, "the invisible" can also be important,  perhaps in line with "the invisible hand" in the free market. But in between the audience and the actor there are producers, not only the director, but also, and especially, the owners of capital which control the mass media, both the film itself and newspaper gossip. Those who circulate the "opiate"  (rumor is "opiate" for the crowded) so that the crowd is completely engrossed in awe and ready to bear everything.

And Benjamin is not entirely wrong. At the end of paragaf he added the capitalism factor, although -- in my opinion -- not only capitalism, but also every form of cultural industries to reach the masses, and all the things which transform themselves into "self". Actually, there is no longer the charm of personality on them. The charm has been replaced by "mesmerizing power that has been torn", because -- especially in capitalism -- the charm exists only as a commodity. Eventually, if the celebrities do have value, they only have "der Ausstellungswert", "exhibition values", "show", or "display."

Now the value propagates everywhere into the measurement. In an age when 90% of information absorbed by audience comes from TV which busy with various shows, the "spectacle value" get into politics: the parties consciously mixed up  the role of celebrities with political work. TV soap star -- slut players but sparkling -- converted into executive leaders or legislators. With the belief they will be selected. I mean : saleable.

Quite worrying, because this trend reminds us on the circumstances when the audience is made captivated,  and "the champion, the star, and the dictator emerges as the winner."

Benjamin said it in one of the same footnote to his treatise, about works of art in the age of reproductive technology, which he wrote four years before he fled from Hitler's Germany oppression but ended in suicide at France-Spain's border.

Benjamin spoke about the "crisis of democracy". He connected it with the changing conditions of politicians to public displays. "Radio and movies," he wrote, "are not only changing the function of professional actors but also their function -- who such as the politicians -- to show themselves in front of media."

The appearance practically controlled by the existing instruments. It just becomes the kind of technical skills. If the aura of an Oedipus when played by my partner -- for example -- linked to the actor's aura on the stage and at that moment, then the politicians figure who appear on television are actually only "self" without aura. They have been formatted.

An alienation process is underway. The actors enter into the political arena without subjectivity, without a heart surge for political agenda that demands the blood and prayer. Two words -- blood and prayer-- may be too dramatic for this era, when "democracy" turns into acrobat  in devil barrel, deftly circling from the bottom to top - top to bottom - a forever motion. The actors -- who do not have their own words -- will lose the role if they break out of the barrel.

This Devil Barrel Democracy can be neat and lure a lot of people. This may also "aesthetic political process," Ästhetisierung der Politics, favored by Hitler and Mussolini. But it will not be able to face a fundamental problem. Outside the devil barrel, justice and freedom still continuous to be seized with a fierce and expanded. Meanwhile, inside, "the parliament has been abandoned by the people".

When Benjamin wrote these words, he intended to show how technology was taking the role of parliaments. For me, it means politics in parliament will be empty of the meaningful conversation and struggle. So, it is not impossible if the winner will come from the violence. The stars will come from the boredom, and the dictatorship will come from the imbecility.
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[CZ-lacalifusa040114/Yes, I'm worried about him. My favorite bald man from France. Greatly.]