June 2022
Superbowl XVIII aired a once-only commercial for Macintosh, in homage to George Orwell’s 1984. Fortunately you can now watch it on YouTube, but it has remained burned into my memory:
In a gloomy dystopian setting, filled with gray-suited NPC’s being mesmerized by a giant screen, a lone female runner charges through the crowd carrying a sledgehammer. Dominating the screen is a talking head we assume to be ‘Big Brother’. At the pivotal moment with the police are closing in, she hurls the sledgehammer at the screen, destroying it and breaking the spell. The world would never be the same, as the narrator’s voice-over announces the new Macintosh.
In Cracks in the Imaginarium I described how we live in a managed reality show which, for all intents and purposes, represents a war for your mind. Knowing we are in it is half the battle, thus gaining perspective on the immersive lies, dazzling side shows, and propaganda. Yes there will be more crises, because that is what it takes to command our attention these days. I contend there is no point wondering about the why since it is all fake anyway. What we need to do is shatter it with a sledgehammer.
Continue reading “Shattering the Imaginarium”
