3 posts tagged “daniel boorstin”

Let's begin with some words from Malcolm X taken from his speech, "The Black Revolution" (delivered June 1963):

I read in a poll taken by Newsweek magazine this week, saying that Negroes are satisfied...But this is dangerous. This is where the [media] does himself the most harm. He invents statistics to create an image, thinking that that image is going to hold things in check. You know why they always say Negroes are lazy? 'Cause they want Negroes to be lazy. They always say Negroes can't unite because they don't want Negroes to unite. And once they put this thing in the mind, they feel that the Negro gets that into him and he tries to fulfill their image. If you say you can't unite him, and then you come to him to unite him, he won't unite because it's been said that he's not supposed to unite. It's a psycho that they work, and it's the same way with these statistics.

Beware of those armed with "knowledge" and statistics, even the preimenent genius of modern times, Albert Einstein, said that “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” Our friend Daniel Boorstin (see previous posts) spoke of pseudo-events, his same theory can be applied to constructed images of people and/or groups, i.e. African-Americans. Is the African-American/Black Man/Negro/Nigger/Nigga a pseudo-person? The same characteristics that define pseudo-events when applied to people reads as follows:

1. Pseudo-people are dramatic. Sambo? 50 Cent?
   
2. Pseudo-people, being planned for dissemination, are easy to disseminate and to make vivid. Slavery? Reconstruction? Historically Black Colleges & Universities? BET?
   
3. Pseudo-people can be repeated at will. Look around ... BET?
   
4. Pseudo-people cost money to create. The "Hip-Hop" market
   
5. Pseudo-people are planned for intelligibility. Niggas? Did I mention Slavery? How about diversity initiatives?
   
6. Pseudo-people are sociable, conversable, and convenient to witness. I won't use Hip-Hop, Slavery, or BET again. But I will add pro/consumer sports to this batch along with the police dispatch call logs.
   
7. Knowledge of Pseudo-people become a test of being "informed."  [See #6] The debate over the "N Word"
   
8. Pseudo-people spawn other pseudo-people. Pseudo-Blackness has given birth to pseudo-whiteness.

Who's watching CNN'S BLACK IN AMERICA for a reason other than Soledad O'Brien? Please tell my why...not that I'm against the special, I just need to be prepared with some forethought before viewing it.

"NOW the language of images is everywhere. Everywhere it has displaced the language of ideals. If the right "image" will elect a President or sell an automobile, a religion, a cigarette, or a suit of clothes, why can it not make America herself--or the American Way of Life--a salable commodity all over the earth?"
from the chapter, The Search for Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
The Image, Daniel Boorstin, 1961

We have made The American Way of Life a salable commodity ... hasn't it always been? Hasn't that been the premise of our great expansionist nation since we ran out of land to manifest our destiny?  Come one come all, Lady Liberty's torch is the great lighthouse of the globe beckoning to the hungry, the starved, and the glutinous, you can pursue happiness as long as you're willing to pay for it. You can buy the American Dream, especially with the euro.

Commercial Oligarchy. The dispersement of democratic rights is controlled by a small group of our most highly respected citizens, The Corporation. America's about that paper and so long as the people who are chosen to protect the masses continue to get paid by Corporations, the ideal of the Dollar has become as cheap as the items that a single dollar can buy. Corporations maintain a high public standing above the humans who create and work for them because Corporations do not have real concrete personalities. They're basically boring people ... that's what happened to the ideals of America ... they've become less appealing than language and the ideals Corporations have created for our consumption.

We don't have to get rid of corporations, but we must take control of the language that defines the ideals of our communities and our nation. The debate should not be between candidates, it should be a conversation among citizens. Don't attack the cigarette companies, if you're that angry about people who smoke cigarettes you should go to war with the smokers ... or leave it alone. Then we can talk about WHY we desire a certain President, drive an automobile, prefer a specific religion, smoke or choose not to smoke cigarettes, or purchase clothing AND not allow it to define our nation or its people.

The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-events in America by Daniel J. Boorstin is my artistic-intellectual bible. It has been for the last 4 years ... I'm re-reading it for the 20+ time.  Let's start at the basics. The following is a summary of characteristics that define pseudo-events:

1. Pseudo-events are dramatic.
2. Pseudo-events, being planned for dissemination, are easy to disseminate and to make vivid.
3. Pseudo-events can be repeated at will.
   
4. Pseudo-events cost money to create.
   
5. Pseudo-events are planned for intelligibility.
6. Pseudo-events are sociable, conversable, and convenient to witness.
7. Knowledge of pseudo-events become a test of being "informed."
8. Pseudo-events spawn other pseudo-events.

Although this book was written in 1961, its relevance to the state of American Culture / Popular Culture has never been more apparent. Perhaps its the absurd amount of pseudo-events that continue to multiply like gremlins that makes us more aware of their creation and proliferation. How many real events are we, the people, informed about?