HYBRID HORROR – Jurassic World of Genetically Modified Simulacra - by Jay Dyer
http://21stcenturywire.com/2015/06/25/hybrid-horror-jurassic-world-of-genetically-modified-simulacra/
“Celebrity culture encourages everyone to think of themselves as potential celebrities, as possessing unique if unacknowledged gifts. It is, as Christopher Lasch diagnosed a culture of narcissism. Faith in ourselves, in a world of make-believe, is more important than reality.
Reality, in fact, is dismissed as an impediment to success, a form of negativity.
The New Age mysticism and pop psychology of television personalities, evangelical pastors, along with the array of self-help bestsellers penned by motivational speakers, psychiatrists, and business tycoons, all peddle a fantasy. Reality is condemned in this popular belief system as the work of Satan, as defeatist, as negativity…
An image-based culture communicates through narratives, pictures and pseudo-drama. Scandalous affairs, hurricanes, untimely deaths, train wrecks – these events play well on computer screens and televisions….Kings and queens once used their court conspiracies to divert their subjects.
Today, cinematic, political and journalistic celebrities distract us with their foibles and scandals. They create our pubic mythology. Acting, politics and sports have become, as they were in Nero’s reign, interchangeable. In an age of images and entertainment, in an age of instant emotional gratification, we neither seek nor want reality.”
-pg 49, Empire of Illusion - The End of Literacy and Triumph of Spectacle by Chris Hedges
