“Amusement always means putting things out of mind, forgetting suffering, even when it is on display. At its root is powerlessness. It is indeed escape, but not, as it claims, escape from bad reality but from the last thought of resisting that reality.” — Horkheimer and Adorno
If a tree falls in a forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Well, that would be for sounds in a forest. In a concrete jungle, or rather the digital depiction of a concrete jungle, does a revolution happen only when there is a social media post and hashtag?
“Get my good side. This is my revolutionary side.”
Strike a smoke stick. Strike a pose. Out of control? Viva La Revolución? No — Viva Cola?
So we should ask, “Are we cosplaying revolution?”
Facebook is a multi-billion dollar corporation that owns Instagram, and Twitter is worth a couple of billion dollars itself. The revolution will be televised … on the corporate platforms of multi-billion dollar entities that perpetuate a fabricated set stage that is populated by posed, photo-generic artistes — cosplayers play-pretending revolution.
Strike a smoke stick. Strike a pose.
In a time of informational warfare, the arms dealers are the ones profiting. Billionaires and millionaires speak for us — for all of us — on a platform that generates billions and millions of dollars. If millionaires are lecturing you on inequality, you already exist in systemic inequality, and any post, comment, or picture is nothing more than pretense. Until we reconcile a seeded desire to live in opulence and a desire for true equality, until then, we playact on a platform that acts like our very own public relations firm. The instant gratification of streamed revolution reinforces simulacra — the instant archive of our revolution documented and published for the masses.
Where in the past we strove to become the celebrity millionaire, now we strive to be the celebrity millionaire activist. Rather than pose next to our million-dollar auto to simulate celebrity, we now pose in revolutionary cosplay to simulate celebrity.
Or maybe that guy on all the mass-produced t-shirts and hats and stickers and socks and thousand dollar interior design decorations is wrong about revolution having to come from the poor people rising from the bottom up?
If you have a luxury apartment in Trump Tower with a monthly rent worth more than double the yearly income of a four-person household, you do not want a revolution. If you are wearing an engagement ring worth more money than the lifetime of three generations of a family, you do not want a revolution. Like lemmings, we follow, we like, we retweet, and we hold these figures as the vanguards of revolution because they have the means of producing culture — the culture industry of revolution.
Strike a smoke stick. Strike a pose. And cosplay revolution.
