I'm intrigued and attracted to vintage film of live events. I'm not sure why. Perhaps it gives me perspective on the way things were and the way things are, and how people differed in their interpretations at the time of what was and how we differ in our interpretations in the present of what is. And what would I have thought and felt had I been present at the past events?
I do recall what I thought when I, as a young child around seven years old, witnessed on TV girls fainting and screaming and the hysteria when the Beatles toured. I thought, "Why do they act like that?" It was foreign to me. My sister is seven years older than I, so she would have been an early teen. I don't recall her going into a frenzy over The Beatles.
Last night, as Hubby and I watched the documentary, I was again fascinated at the crowds' responses to the Beatles' presence. It reminded me of the religious frenzy I eye-witnessed in the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements in the late 1970s and things I've read about religious hysteria from earlier movements. I think of other group "rallies," such as business and political, but people aren't fainting and screaming at those events.
I'm currently reading the book, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump compiled and edited by Brandy Lee, M.D. One of the main things I'm finding beneficial, maybe more so than how the presented theories relate to Trump, is how those theories relate to my personal experiences with The Way and group-think, with my sociopathic ex-mental health therapist, with my own self deceptions, and with my own coping mechanism of denial which I continue to use in regard to my chronic illness. (Maybe it's not full denial, because I am aware of it. Maybe it's ambiguous denial.)
Just so happened, after watching the documentary, that my next chapter in the book was Trump and the American Collective Psyche, in Part Three: The Trump Effect, contributed by Thomas Singer, M.D. The chapter doesn't focus on Trump's "psychopathology," but rather on "the interface between Trump and the American collective psyche." Or, in my words, how the two (a leader and a group) dance. An interesting chapter after viewing Beatle-mania.
Singer makes some confrontational statements (including to me) regarding one side of America. To me, it's an unhealthy side. And it's not limited to America.
From page 283 (in my book) Singer writes:
What is it about Trump that acts as an irresistible magnet with ferocious attraction or repulsion? Is Trump the end product of our culture of narcissism? Is he what we get and deserve because he epitomizes the god or gods we currently worship in our mindless, consumerist, hyperindulged cult of continuous stimulation and entertainment?
To me, that last sentence describes well what seems so predominant in current modern culture. I too am guilty, though I'm not into consumerism. But it takes conscious, deliberate effort for me to not imbibe in the continuous stimulation of the internet.
Directly after the above paragraph, Singer quotes the following from the book Empire of Illusion written by Christopher Hedges.
An image-based culture communicates through narratives, pictures, and pseudo-dramas. Scandalous affairs, hurricanes, untimely deaths, train wrecks - these events play well on computer screens and television. International diplomacy, labor union negotiations and convoluted bailout packages do not yield exciting personal narratives or stimulating images...Reality is complicated. Reality is boring. We are incapable or unwilling to handle its confusion...We become trapped in the linguistic prison of incessant repetition. We are fed words and phrases like war of terror or pro-life or change, and within these narrow parameters, all complex thought, ambiguity, and self-criticism vanish. (Hedges 2009)
"Trapped in the linguistic prison of incessant repetition." I've been there too often. And I don't agree with Hedges that reality is boring. One's personal experiences (reality) can be stressful and, on the flip side, exhilarating. But I get his gist.
On the flip side to the above, there is the healthy America. The down-to-earth America seen in people going to work everyday (whether paid or not) and caring for their own and others. The beautiful America, seen in everyday generosity to help a fellow human in need. Everyday 'small' kindnesses that never make the news on electronic screens. Though some of these good deeds to go viral online, I have mixed feelings about that too. It can inspire and remind us of the goodness in humanity, or perhaps can promote more unhealthy narcissism; ie: people doing supposed good with the goal of viral online recognition (though I typically don't assign such motive).
I am of the opinion that the internet is like a mirror of who we are as humans. Our good traits and our dark traits have always been in us. Before the internet, we expressed them via venues that weren't so readily accessible. Even though I don't think the internet creates our darker traits, I think it can catalyze them to boil over. Kind of like the immune system. A person may be born with a predisposition toward allergies or other diseases, but those will only manifest under the right environment and stressors.
I've read that the information age of the internet is unprecedented, and my novice opinion agrees. But wouldn't folks have thought similarly of the printing press? To think that something could be typeset and then multiple exact copies could speedily roll out the end of a wheel to be distributed to the masses? Must have baffled their minds.
I often endeavor to recall my life before the internet. Life before 300 channels on the TV. Life when I was a teen. What did I do without internet or 300 channels or accessible constant contact?
I'm not anti-technology. I use it everyday and I'm thankful for all it provides us. I am pro-margin. As humans we need space. Too much information can fill in the margin and squeeze our own creativity and spontaneous thoughts to the thin edges.
We are surrounded by information overload, choice overload, opinion overload. Just one of those can produce fatigue; times three equals over-fatigue. Maybe we need more boredom which can lead to more daydreaming and perhaps more creativity, and less fatigue.
A couple weeks ago someone asked what my Twitter handle is. I told them and added, "But I seldom opine or get in discussions on Twitter. And I'm boring."
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