Friday, 18 October 2024

On self immolation...(metaphorical and actual)

Those who have set themselves ablaze over one specific conflict, among hundreds currently going on in the World, demonstrate one thing, a fundamental lack of comprehension over our current historical period, the age of advertising.

Rather than detaching from the world of public relations and seeing it for what it is, -an immense, unceasing conveyor belt of seductive, spectacular representations, designed to influence the perceptions, emotions and choices, of those who also cannot see the wood for the trees- the most firmly interpellated within the world of PR, fulfil their manufactured destiny by leaping thoughtlessly into the production process themselves, thereby drowning in the raging torrent of images, sounds and ideology they themselves willingly make themselves a part of.

Instead of reflecting on how this raging river seeks to drag them under it's many shimmering surfaces, or struggling to perceive how it seeks to deprive them of not only breath, but the space to breathe; they offer themselves up to the endless flow, so becoming a part of the very force which seeks to deprive us all of clean oxygen.

There is no greater example of this than the act of self immolation, people destroying themselves to make a point, but in this shimmering twilight of images and performances in which they struggle to join the shining stars above us, no sooner has one shooting star caught our attention, than another equally, if not more appealing shining spectre, has distracted our eye and refocused our attention.