October 2008 Archives
As mentioned here at the beginning of the week, "there must be millions of cleverly individualized videos like this one circulating now."
-thumb-120x201.jpg "It's all about Sarah, but not that one.")
But whether it's the "novelty of personalization" achieved through "multiple layers of Flash animation" or the "third order of simulacra," PalTalk got there first with its faux presidential candidate Sarah Wheaton. Watch the video.
... there is one candidate that may be able to make the difference. Wheaton has surprised both Democrats and Republicans with a grass roots effort. This candidate has made many wonder: Who is Sarah Wheaton?
And today The New York Times catches up with the phenomenon, explaining it all in a little story signed by -- yes, Virginia -- Sarah Wheaton.
Look at what the wind blew in ... a news story about the arrest of a couple of neo-Nazi creeps who "talked of 'killing 88 people and beheading 14 African-Americans," and topping that off with a drive-by of Barack Obama. From the NY Times:
The two men each had "very strong views" about Aryan white power and "skinhead" ideology, the federal officials said, and the numbers 88 and 14 have special significance in the white power movement.
Those details called to mind an unfinished thriller I began writing several years ago about a tabloid photographer who discovers a link between white supremacists and a rock star. Here's an excerpt:
When the editor of Snoop, pulled up Jerry's Web site on her laptop, a slide show disclosed items of Nazi paraphernalia ...The most striking details were the delicate little numerals tattooed below Rod's earlobes on both sides of his neck: "83" on the left and "14/88" on the right. ... Rod Bangs wasn't just a Grammy-winning, platinum-selling rock star with a huge boomer following. He was a White House favorite. He'd done benefit concerts for the president's election campaign. Two weeks earlier he'd received a medal at the Kennedy Center Honors, the nation's highest civic award for career achievement in the performing arts. Afterward, at a private reception, the president had singled him out as "a man of the people" and "the very best in American culture," more or less ignoring the other five honorees. He swaggered over to the roped-off photographers and posed separately with Bangs. He even buttonholed a Washington Post gossip columnist to make certain that his admiration for Bangs was well publicized. Carlotta tapped her mouse. The clicks enlarged Rod's tattoos. "That's the really cute stuff," Jerry said. "What's so cute about 14/88?" "Fourteen means the 14 words. They're a rallying cry: We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children. Count 'em: 14. They're David Lane's words." "Who's he?" "Founder of The Order, one of them anyway. Aryan crackpots. They call themselves a resistance group. Based in the Northwest." "So?" "So remember Alan Berg? The Denver radio host?" "I don't have the faintest." "Assassinated. 1984. The Order did it. And a synagogue bombing. And a number of bank robberies. And --" "Where's Lane now?" "Prison. 190 years." Carlotta took a bite of her Danish and sipped her second cup of morning coffee. "How nice. What's the 88?" "Shorthand for Heil Hitler. The eighth letter of the alphabet is H. The 88 stands for HH. Real simple." "So 83 is HC?" "Heil Christ. It's the greeting used by white supremacists who claim they're Christian. 83" "Well, Jesus H. Christ."
Or as William Burroughs once remarked, "After one look at this planet any visitor from outer space would say 'I want to see the manager.' "
Postscript: Oct. 29 -- Here's a twist: White supremacists are for Obama.
PPS: Oct. 30 -- Much more credible: Out of the shadows?
I know because I saw it on my video screen:
There must be millions of cleverly individualized videos like this one circulating now. In other words, "all reality is an imitation," as a friend of mine, Bill Osborne, says. He cites Baudrillard.
Third Order of Simulacra: The present age -- dominated by simulations, things that have no original or prototype (though they may parallel something). Era of the model or code: computers, virtual reality, opinion polls, DNA, genetic engineering, cloning, the news media make the news, Nike sneakers as status symbols, Disneyland. The death of the real: no more counterfeits or prototypes, just simulations of reality -- hyperreality. Information replaces the machine as the basic mode of production.
"So," says Osborne, "the war In Iraq never happened for the vast majority of Americans. We perceive it only through the simulacra of the media (embedded or not) -- a plastic-wrapped CNN, MSNBC, NYT hyperreality coming right through the screen you are staring at at this very moment. Asses that we are, we click the hyperlinks and Google for more info and analysis." He continues:
Colbert imitates O'Reilly, and is thus an imitation of an imitation journalist. When reality becomes mediated by the media, and thus a simulacrum, we take comfort in the simulacrum that parodies the simulacrum. This explains shows like The Onion, Jon Stewart, and Colbert. We think we are being realisitic when we create simulacra that make us laugh at the "real" simulacra. Unfortunately, this has gone on for so long that we no longer remember anything but imitations. What we call reality is just a somewhat older imitation, like Harry Reasoner or David Brinkley.
"In short," he adds, "we laugh at the comic simulacra in order to feel we are being realistic, but they only add to an ever-spinning historical vortex of imitations of imitations of imitations. Humor about journalism has long since become but one more part of the simulacra.
"And Lucy, Jerry, and Frasier become our friends, even our home life.
"And of course, I too am just more video screen bullshit. The real William Osborne was never there."
A counter-argument comes from another friend: "To be honest, I never much liked Baudrillard or the 'everything is simulation' school of thought," says Supervert. "Maybe it's because I don't watch TV. The 'fiction' that I read and admire always has a fundamental sort of reality to it. The same with music -- it offers the opportunity for experience, and therefore seems very real to me."
More broadly, the whole question of "reality" and what it is has never struck me as very interesting. I don't know why. I feel real, and I feel that my experiences are real, so it's nothing that troubles me. Even if you were to object that music, for example, is just a sign, I would reply that my experience of the sign is real and therefore has little to do with simulacra. I guess the problem would be if you internalized the simulacra, so that your response to external signs was like a mirror looking at a mirror.
Meanwhile, it's nice to know the Gasbag is "resting comfortably now," after being rescued from his campaign bus. "We bought him some black licorice and a book of puzzles," his spokesman said, "so that ought to keep him busy for a while."
John McCain Accidentally Left On Campaign Bus Overnight
(Crossposted at HuffPo)
Here in New York, the City Council backed Bloomberg's bid to run again.
The logic went like this: It would have been undemocratic to deprive voters of the chance to elect the mayor to a third term, despite the fact that voters had twice approved a two-term limit for elected officials. So the City Council did the democratic thing. It overturned the term-limits law.
This not only allows the mayor to run again, but enables two-term council members to keep their jobs by allowing them to run again, too. Let's see, 23 of the 29 who stood up for democracy would have had to leave the council otherwise.
Can't stomach the political campaign? The media spin? Neither can The Onion. Have a look:
Gunman Kills 15 Potential Voters In Crucial Swing State
Quick take on who won, besides Joe the Plumber.
CNN poll: Debate watchers say Obama wins.
Time magazine: McCain Threw the Sink -- and Plumber -- But Obama Doesn't Falter.
CBS poll: Uncommitted Voters Say Obama Won Final Debate.
So anyone who believes the kind of horseshit being dished up by George Stephanopoulos that the Gasbag did well in the opening minutes or put Obama on the defensive, as Newsweek had it (per AP), needs a new plumber.
I mean McCain of course. Seems to me that Andrew Sullivan, live-blogging last night's Nashville encounter between Obama and the overheated Gasbag, got it just about right:
9.51 pm. Why is McCain wandering around the stage .?. It's weird. He looks like an old man pacing aimlessly.10.33 pm. This was, I think, a mauling: a devastating and possibly electorally fatal debate for McCain. Even on Russia, he sounded a little out of it. I've watched a lot of debates and participated in many. ... All I can say is that, simply on terms of substance, clarity, empathy, style and authority, this has not just been an Obama victory. It has been a wipe-out. It has been about as big a wipe-out as I can remember in a presidential debate. It reminds me of the 1992 Clinton-Perot-Bush debate. I don't really see how the McCain campaign survives this.
And the editorial cartoon Josh Brown posted this morning on his weekly visual blog Life During Wartime puts the exclamation point on it. Thanks, Josh.
One disclaimer, though. Methinks Sullivan places too much faith in the honky booboisie.
It's no surprise that Ralph Nader makes more sense than anyone else in politics. What's surprising is that, at 74, he is as smart and as principled as ever. Watch the video. It was recorded last week in San Francisco at The Commonwealth Club of California and runs a little more than an hour. Skip the first four minutes and forgive the production values. You'll also need some patience. The interviewer starts by going over old ground (i.e. the 2000 election). The good stuff begins about eight minutes in and then sails on right through to the end.
