ix 09/26

Maybe Umberto Eco was being a bit conservative when he was limiting his title, “The City of Robots,” to the landscape/cityscape of Disneyland/World. Maybe he should have expanded the title to include the U.S and called it something like, “The Country of Viewing Automatons”—not only do we like seeing robots, but we ourselves are robots that like to watch.

“[T]echnology can give us more reality than nature can” (Eco 203). This to me is nowhere more evident than in television in general, National Geographic and Animal Planet, but probably most particularly through the media, who with 5.1 surround sound and “Now in Hi Definition” can relay to us the immediate, and remote world aurally better and visually more defined than we can ever hope to see.

These heightened formats, HD & 5.1, of presenting one’s news, specifically our local media, only emphasizes the aims of our media, which is that of entertainment, rather than one of information. And as Adorno states, “to be entertained we must be in agreement,” and this must be true since all local news compete vehemently for more and more of our viewership by overmanufacturing coverage of sensationalist banality. If we were not in consent—in other, lay capitalist words, if we weren’t “buying what they were selling”—they would change the content, the core of the product, rather than just giving it another “new” shiny color. But, since we want/need to know the weather tomorrow, despite meteorologists’ notoriety for mediocral or completely inaccurate forcastings, we tune in and watch like mindless automatons, partaking in the theme park ride, of thrills, chills, and laughs, that is viewing of media. And when we get off the ride—actually, when the ride is over, we don’t get off the ride, the ride gets us off (it rids us and we rid ourselves: jouissance). Despite the ride ending, we still have to get through the gift shops (commercials) in order to completely leave.

Thankfully, TiVo is helping us gain control of the theme park ride, allowing us to elect what portions of the ride we want to partake of and for what length(s). So if I just want the weather update for tomorrow, I don’t have to be subjected to any “thrilling” loops (car chase/gator attack) nor corkscrew twists (abductions/rape). I just zoom past all that, past even the “ooh and awe” satellite-zooming-in-all-the-way-down-to-you-are-here affect at 85 degrees Fahrenheit in Orlando. The bonus besides getting my autonomy back: no more having to exit through the gift shop. Now that should be a cause of jouissance.