Faux You

It's going to take me a while to get my mind wrapped around this (and even longer to get around to reading the book), but check out the interview with Thomas De Zengotita in Salon regarding his book, Mediated: The Hidden Effects of Media on People, Places, and Things. He surmises the obvious, of course, that we have become what we buy and act how we think we should act according to the persona we wish to become, so much so that we are no more than method actors, not people:

"The basic idea with method acting, as it was developed by Stanislavski, James Dean, Marlon Brando, and since then practically everyone, is that you don't act: You react, you "live in the moment," as they say, even though you are onstage or in a film. The techniques are a lot like therapy because the goal is the same—to get to real feelings and spontaneous expression. But the irony is that, at the very same moment that you achieve that, you turn real feeling and expression into performance. In the book I use this as a way to introduce the more complicated ways in which mediated people—because they are so reflexive and so aware of their options—actually perform their lives."

From what I understand, and correct me if I'm wrong, as I'm just zipping this off at lunch, De Zengotita feels we should embrace this notion of method acting in our lives for the time being and that, even if we do the right things (for instance, donate time and money to tsunami reflief or shop at Whole Foods) because it's hip or fashionable and because it's a requirement of our chosen persona, at least good things happen as a result.

But what if you choose the gangsta persona or some other unhealthy role? Plus, it goes against every tenant of mediation and self-realization that's been taught for thousands of years, namely living in the moment without filters. He admits that we spend our whole lives cultivating these roles, only to have them ripped open by accidents, illness, the death of those around us. But why not focus on the meaning of these "accidents" and what they're trying to tell us about our phony lives? Why not welcome these "accidents" as routes of freedom from our prepackaged roles? Because we are not ready and we do not have a solution to mediation, as it is a fairly new phenomenon De Zengotita concludes. But we have! (see meditation) And this is where it gets murky to me. Your thoughts, before I get a headache?