Seduced by the images of reality...

When I was flipping through magazines as a little kid, I always thought that somewhere there was a magical world where everything not only looked perfect, but was actually perfect. I could see the images of this world on the pages of these magazines, the slightly smoky air in the dimly lit rooms, and feel the drama in which the young models walked around in their designer clothes. I thought this would be the place where people could find the excitement and adventure, in the world where every room is immaculately decorated and every model's wardrobe is stunning and sophisticatedly chosen and coordinated. I decided I wanted to lead such an adventurous life myself and started looking for these rooms and models. And although I have since realized that romance and adventure rarely go hand in hand with the images we are presented with, I still often find myself thinking that everything would be perfect if only I lived in this self-contained, picturesque world.

Whatever we seek in our lives, we all tend to pursue our desires by chasing images of them, symbols of the things we desire. We buy leather jackets when we're looking for danger and adventure. We buy fast cars, not to be able to drive fast, but to feel young and dynamic (again). If we want world revolution, then we buy political brochures and patches. Somehow we assume that if we just have the right accessories, our perfect life will somehow come. And when we design our lives, we often do it according to an “image”, a pattern that is tailored to us: hippie, businessman, housewife, punk, etc.

Why are we so concerned with these “images” instead of actual reality, our own lives and our feelings? One reason why images have become so important in this society is because they are easy to sell. Advertising and marketing that exist solely to imbue products with symbolic value have reshaped our culture. Corporations have spread propaganda that makes us believe in the magical powers of their products: deodorant gives you popularity, soft drinks radiate youth and energy, jeans offer sex appeal. With our work, we trade time, energy and creativity for the opportunity to buy these symbols - and we continue to buy them because not even all the cigarettes in the world can offer us real “freedom” and satisfy our need for it. Instead of satisfying our needs, these products create more. In order to meet all these new needs, we end up selling part of our lives. We go backwards because we don't know any other way and hope that the new product (books, punk records, the RV, etc.) is exactly what will fix everything.

It's easy to get us to chase after these images because it's so much more pleasant and easy to change the decorations around us rather than changing our lives. How problem-free and, above all, less risky it would be if you could only have the perfect life by putting together the right accessories! People don't even need to take part in it! The image becomes the embodiment of our desires and we spend all our time and energy getting the details right for that image rather than directly pursuing our actual desires. Ultimately, it is easier to identify with a prefabricated image than with what you actually want to demand from life. But if you really want to lead an adventurous life, then the black military trousers will not give you any satisfaction. And if you're looking for real romance, dinner and a movie with the most popular girl/boy in your school won't be enough.

As fascinated as we are by images, our values revolve around a world that we can never actually experience. There is no way to get into the pages of glossy magazines, no way to become the ideal punk or the perfect CEO. We are just “trapped” in the actual world, forever. And we still look for life in its images, in trends, in spectacles of all kinds, simply in everything that we can collect and look at without experiencing it ourselves.

We seek life in His image

Watching from the sidelines...

The strangest thing about spectacle is how it makes us passive as spectators. Just like the image, it focuses our attention, our values and ultimately our lives on something outside of ourselves. It keeps us busy with something without us actually doing anything about it. It lets us participate in something without giving us control over it. There are a thousand different examples of this: television shows, action films, glossy magazines that reveal the latest rumors from the lives of the rich and famous, the sports show, the representative “democracy”, the Catholic Church,…

The spectacle isolates the people it captivates from one another. Many of us know more about the fictional characters on a TV show than we do about the lives and preferences of our neighbors - even when we talk to them, it's usually just about the TV, the latest news and the weather. In this way, we move further and further away from each other through the experiences and information that we share together as viewers and listeners of mass media. You can see the same phenomenon at big football games: everyone in the stands watching the game is “nobody”, no matter who they actually are. Even if they sit next to each other, all their attention is focused on the game. When they should talk to each other, it is never about themselves, but always about the game that is taking place in front of their eyes. And even though football fans can't take part in the events of the game, they watch it. They allow themselves to be influenced to the extent that they give their full attention to the events on the field and associate their own needs and desires with the outcome of the game. Instead of focusing their attention on the things that have actual meaning for their desires, they adapt their needs to the things they pay attention to. Their language even confuses the achievements of the team they feel they belong to with their own actions: “We scored a goal!” and “We won!” the fans shout from their seats and armchairs.

This is the exact opposite of how people talk about the things going on in their city or surrounding area. “They are building a new street,” we say about the new changes in our neighborhood. “What will they come up with next?” is what we say about the latest advances in science. Our language accurately reflects our role as spectators to our own society. But there is no “they”, the mysterious others. We created the world as it is. We, humanity itself. No small group of scientists, urban planners and rich bureaucrats could have accomplished all the work, inventions and organization that we needed to shape this planet. It has and will always take all of us together to achieve this. We are the ones who do this every day. And yet most of us seem to think we have more control over a football game than over our cities, our jobs and our lives.

We would achieve more success in our pursuit of happiness if we finally tried to start participating in this life. Instead of conforming to some preconceived images, we can have exciting and insightful experiences. Because ultimately, happiness does not come from what a person has or how a person appears to be, but rather from what a person does and how a person feels. Instead of the role of the spectator\in order to accept, every\Each one of us thinks about how he/she can take an active and meaningful part in the creation of the worlds around us. One day we may be able to create a new society in which we can all participate in the decisions that determine how we live our lives. Then we will truly have the opportunity to determine our destiny instead of feeling helpless and excluded.

Does it make sense to do something when no one is watching?

We all want to be famous, seen in the media and captured on celluloid because we have come to trust what we see more than what we actually experience. Images of reality seem more real to us than our own experiences and our own reality. To know that we actually exist, that we have meaning, we must see ghosts of ourselves shown in photographs, on video, and on television shows.

For example, when you go on vacation, what do you see? Hundreds of tourists with video cameras pressed to their faces, as if they were trying to absorb everything from the real world into the two-dimensional world of images and use their “free time” to look at the world through a small lens. Secure! Transforming everything that one might experience with one's five senses into recorded information and later observing it from a distance creates the illusion that we have control over our lives: we can rewind and replay everything again, over and over again, until everything just seems ridiculous to us. But what kind of life is this?

What's the point of watching nobody do anything?

Nietzsche Guevara

Translated by Arsen 13