SW Simulacra

I liked having a new prospective in class on Thursday with Professor McClendon.

When he brought up the notion of reality I started to think the reason we have the knowledge we do is because we have accepted it as being real. Sure mathematically there are many things we can prove, but what about things that are less scientific.

The ideas of beauty, power, wealth are often things people strive after in our society. But what is beauty? What is power? What is wealth? We define beauty as a certain look (of course this changes depending on what culture you are surrounded by) be it by to tone of your skin—tan versus pale—color of you hair (blondes have more fun?), eyes, height, weight and so forth. I think power is often thought of being able to get people to do what you want. And wealth I think is too often thought of as a direct link to happiness, as well as material possessions.

When in fact when we look at beauty do you always define a beautiful person based on the ideologies of the society in which you were raised? Every single time? Does a beautiful person have every feature that parallels the ideal beauty? A select few, yes, but this is far from the majority.

Power—it isn’t seen as a good thing, unless you are the one with it. But why is power seen as a bad thing in most cases? Perhaps it is because those in power do not choose to do something positive, or for the good of the people. We are taught that those with power get to make the decisions, and those decisions don’t have to be good.

Wealth. I’m not saying don’t go out and buy your BMW/Mercedes SUV.. okay, don’t buy the SUV.. get a sedan(I am so on the environmental train..)… but why do we have so many people in debt? Facing foreclosure and bankruptcy is all too common in America today. All to keep up with the Jones’? When you are 70 are you really going to look back and say, “I am so glad I drove an expensive car, had all the right clothes, the right house. The right whatever I was told I needed to have in order to be happy? Well if you are like many American’s you will still be working when you are 70. Because instead of investing and padding your bank account you went out and tried to prove to the neighbors that you have money(which you very well may have), and are somehow worthy of their envy. Just because you have money doesn’t mean you need to spend it…. WHAT A CONCEPT!

We are told to be beautiful, to be powerful, to be wealthy. Yet how often are we told to love. To find happiness. Or to sit back and enjoy life? Oh we hear it but by the time we listen it is often to late. The idea of bigger, faster, better—will get us in the end.

None of these things are real. And they are not the hyperreal. Sure they are imagined.. but we can’t have the hyper with the imagined. So having no real, and the imagined leaves us with…? Simulacra. We have constructed this reality we want to believe in.

"Scarlett Wishes"