We Are What We See
Although there are many words that can describe American society (almost all negative!) one that doesn't really pop up is vicarious. What does this mean and why don't we see ourselves as vicarious to the extreme? Being vicarious is to live your life through someone else. Parents push their children to succeed as if some of that success rubs off on them. Jocks and white trash people live vicariously through sports teams, often entering a clinical stage of mild depression when their team loses. Punks vicariously live through interviews of their favorite bands, hanging on every word. Americans live vicariously through their favorite stars, finding out any and all details about them so they can feel closer. Is it a coincidence that the LAPD works night and day to solve the Ennis Cosby murder when hundreds of black people are killed there every year with little or no ensuing investigation.
We worship our stars, we worship our sports. We live through these people as though we actually achieved the capitalist definition of success right along with them. You could be a drunk, abusive, welfare-receiving dead end loser but if the Bulls win somehow you're all right. We have made life a spectator sport in which we do not participate, but watch trained monkeys perform rituals that ceaselessly bring joy to our pathetic, TV lives. Shakespeare said the all the world's a stage but we have perverted this into a select few performing to a mass audience of non-participants. Where is the interaction between you and Michael Jordan? If you change the channel he disappears yet somehow you think you know him.
The degree to which our stars are compensated for their roles exemplifies my point beyond refute. Who makes the most money in American society and does not own a business? (besides PR machinery.) Actors, rock stars, and sports figures. These three professions make more money than any other non-professional career (I stress non-pro in the sense that they were not formerly schooled in a profession, hence the term professional) and coincidentally all involve entertaining the masses. These people make unbelievable amounts of money because we as Americans need these people to light up our own dreary, labor intensive existence. For a brief few hours at a concert, movie or sports event we seem to be taken away from reality and we fucking love it! We pay through the nose for this privilege. Why are their people that pay $3,000 for a Super bowl ticket or $1,000 for front row seats at a concert? Because that is their life! Their very existence hinges on the actions of others and they will pay whatever price to feel a part of this.
It is a sick fact of America that we have no intellectual pursuits that involve the collective participation of everyone. Instead, we watch as others do and hail their god-like status with the symbol of power in our society: money. We scream "Entertain me!" because synthetic deity forbid I tried something on my own. Why don't you go play basketball with your friends and worship your collective togetherness instead of someone you've never met on a 26' screen? Why don't you and your friends make your own movies instead of worshipping the commercial propaganda manufactured by this country? We don't need to live our lives through others! We can all lead interesting and fulfilling lives if we created an existence within ourselves and those around us, not by watching some clown on TV. Live life!
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