Sunday, January 20, 2013

Fictional Identities

Today Daniel Greenfield writes about Fake Authenticity. It is a subject I have become more and more interested in, as our nation has been "led" by the likes of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Elizabeth Warren, and Bill Clinton. This week, of course, there is the example of Lance Armstrong. Greenfield writes,

Politics thrives on that same fake authenticity. Mitt Romney, a fake authentic politician of the old school, back when politicians were working with magazine covers, snapshots and a 30 second clip, couldn't compete against the truly fake Barack Obama, who in truly modern media style doesn't just fake 30 seconds or 30 minutes in front of the camera, but fakes his entire life going back decades.

Greenfield continues,

Seventy years ago the only people who needed this degree of image investment were top movie stars. But the politician or the athlete of today needs the same level of image building as movie stars used to. And image building is just pervasive fakeness, it's the process of thoroughly fictionalizing an identity and then marketing the final fictionalized product as the real deal.

What must be understood about this sort of politics is that media overexposure actually increases authenticity for younger low information voters. Simply bombarding them with coverage of a public figure increases their acceptance of that public figure's legitimacy, so long as that coverage is mostly positive.

Competition is no longer performance based, it's feelings based. It's why Obama won in 2012. In 2008, his qualifications didn't matter. In 2012, his performance didn't.

A brand is more than the sum of a product. It is a transcendent emotional connection to the public. It is more than taste, nutrition, quality of fabric, reality of performance, integrity of workmanship or durability of materials; it is how it makes people feel. Most products can be the same Made in China crap produced by slave labor at minimum wages and with a minimum quality that ensures you will have to buy another one before too long, but that's okay because brands aren't made to last. They're meant to make you feel good about the transaction at the point of purchase. That's all.

When everything can be deconstructed into a lie, then you embrace the lie that feels the most fakely real, even knowing that it will one day be exposed on another episode of Oprah as a lie.

Read more here: http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-authenticity-of-fake.html

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