The End Of The Year Show
Reflecting upon what by any yardstick has been a crowded and extraordinary 2020 – viewed in two tranches from the inside of supposed lockdowns but otherwise generally (as usual) from my habitual sedentary position in front my television and computer screens – I have been struck repeatedly time and again over the past twelve months by the preponderance of people in all walks of life featured either in the “organised” press/television stations or social media pleading either “special case” needs for themselves and those around them and/or taking diametrically opposed views on a daily basis as to whether the Government is “doing the right” thing in all the circumstances.
Two immediate thoughts have occurred to me.
The first is the extent to which modern means of communication – both ‘official’ and views expressed on the internet and/or via smartphone, laptops or computer – dominate (and to some extent) govern our lives. Images of people walking the street, largely oblivious of others, with phones glued to their ears and/or apparently “talking to themselves” but in fact on the phone via Bluetooth and smart earphones spring to mind.
Anyone who buys a physical newspaper these days tends do so for the feature articles, arts sections and TV/radio guides, or alternatively the simple pleasure of handling newsprint pages. Nobody needs to do so in order to catch up on the news because on a daily basis at least 50% of “the latest” has moved on and/or been overtaken by events since the newspapers went to press overnight.
Since the first lockdown in March I have not travelled on public transport but my distant memories of doing so are filled with carriages and bus decks filled with people using laptops or smartphones to communicate and/or pass the time playing video games, chess or patience.
My second “thought bubble” is that what the Covi-19 crisis and modern means of communication have brought home with bells on is the impression that the world is diminished by the fact that every man (and women) jack among us – well, save of course for those unfortunate enough not to be able to afford modern means of communication – has the means to express an opinion to the world upon everything and anything … and (on the face of things) have it given as much weight and credence as anyone else’s.
There is no reliable “assessor” or “quality control” filter involved. 21st Century news and facts can be anything that anyone wants them to be. Or claims they are.
Echoing the adage that “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king”, those whose special talents and experience lie in presentation, marketing and communication are at a premium in terms of value.
They don’t even have to believe in the nature or truth of the ideas and “facts” they are peddling to the world – to an extent, perhaps governed in some instances by whatever degree of integrity and moral probity they possess, these are irrelevant.
Such people are simply guns-for-hire, selling their expertise to anyone who will pay them (sometimes the most that the market at any particular time can produce).
My comment is nothing new, of course.
Marshall McLuhan first put the theory to the world through his 1964 book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man.
For those who might be interested, he followed it up with a short 1967 tome co-created with graphic designer Quentin Fiore entitled The Medium is the Massage: An inventory of Effects, presented in a deliberately experimental style, some pages printed backwards and/or with the text superimposed upon visual images (and vice versa).
Apparently by then McLuhan had accepted that his original “The medium is the message” theory was now a cliché and wished to have some fun with it but – the relevant Wikipedia entry suggests – the title of this follow-up arose from an error at the printers: it came back to him for approval in proof form with the word “Massage” in the title instead of “Message” and his reaction was “That’s perfect – keep it as it is!”
Many of the news stories I read overnight have been on two topics – (1) the current furore over whether the Government’s “Have Five Days Off At Christmas” policy should be dropped given the escalating virus infection rate across the nation; and (2) battalions of theatre/acting profession luvvies and hospitality industry grandees complaining bitterly that the latest Tier system (under which London and other south-east counties/areas have just been put in Tier 3, the most onerous) has laid their best-laid plans – at their optimum profit-making time of year – to waste (again).
Ho hum.
