Feigning Reality-- The Desert of Post-modernity-- Post Blog 10/7

on

  1. “The media are part of the event and part of the terror.”

In my lifetime, I think the marked difference between the modern and the post-modern occurred on September 11, 2018. The falling of the towers viscerally imprinted itself on the collective American psyche.The horrors of 9/11 are not isolated to the falling towers, but rather the horrors are sustained in the actions and ideology reflected in American politics, media, and society after the terrorist attacks of 2001. 
The decision to go to war in Iraq is a real life instance of the “Desert of the Real.” The inceptions of the war were deeply affected by media coverage geared to generate support of the war in Iraq. War, and the decision to pursue it is deeply affected by the administration in office, and particularly the media. According to Zizek, in order to anticipate the policies and the actions of the government in the case, members of the Pentagon corroborated with Hollywood executives.
Furthermore, Hollywood acted as an outlet of America’s anxiety to terrorism. Consumers looked to Hollywood as an escape into fantasy. Films and media depicting terrorism featured the indomitable spirit of the American, and mirrored the interventionist foreign policies. Brown men with beards and women with burqas were painted as the enemy, and Jack Bauer fought them all. He eased the anxiety of collective America and seamless foreign politics of the U.S government at the time. Certain scholars also assert there is a unspoken pact between the United States government and Hollywood, where nationalism and blind patriotism ruled. 

The fantasies portrayed by the media (both news and entertainment) pertaining to the War in Iraq are dangerously semblant of reality— the simulacrum was seamless fashionably, as images and videos were circulated singularly by one body, feigning reality and obfuscating the understanding of spectators.


https://www.google.com/search?q=war+in+iraq&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiX7prglvXdAhUD7lMKHSGyCowQ_AUIDygC&biw=1403&bih=808#imgrc=gMzJKEIb5kDsvM:

Comments

Post a Comment