An Open Letter on Visual Culture

From the dawn of the written alphabet and on through the Reign of the Printed Word our species has tended to be hyper-visual. Written words ARE pictures. Very dense, concentrated images which require a profound extension of the brain's eye-power in order to follow and grasp these pictures -- and convert them almost directly into meaningful concepts.

So it has been.

When we say today "culture is becoming more visually-oriented" we actually mean exactly the opposite. The neuro-ocular specialization is slipping, being scaled back. People are today less comfortable with ultra-visual efforts and more interested in cruder images, simpler symbols, and political "colours." We prefer was is easier to see because we are becoming less visual.

Why?

Electronic worlds are vibratory, wave-like, echoing, resonant, chattering, beeping & streaming through stereophonic space.

I call the acoustic nature of electricity by the name aurality.

We see news upon the Internet and then claim that we "heard" this or that story. News behaves like village gossip. We can hear about things that are too far away to see. Our ears have become thirsty for Walkmans, iPods and personal sountracks. MTV was NOT the visual takeover of music but the sonic takeover of video.

In stereophonic space, in the great theatrical echo chamber of the digital world, we are devotees of reverberating sound-bites, rhythmic moods, and the all-at-once feeling that we experience when listening deeply with closed eyes. As electronics came upon in the 19th century we witnessed a dramatic effect on the visual arts -- a move to impression, blurs, abstract color chunks replaced the hyper-detailed realism of previous centuries. The eye is losing ground to the ear. The "focal point" is less interesting than the "resonant field."

The simplistic observation that we are getting more visual (as opposed to wordy) is a confession that we are getting less visual, simpler in our visual processing. This "more" is really the aurality that is subverting imagery.

The Politics of Serfdom

I will call it the politics of serfdom when people advocate the interests of old-school paternal capitalists... regardless of their own sense & benefit. Hence their is a predictable disingenuous aspect to their political theatricality.

A serf was an agrarian slave who worked the land and was entitled to family-rights & the promise of military defense in exchange for his emotional fealty to the local oligarch. After centuries of practice this mode of living becomes a deeply entrained habit which provokes strong political responses even when its reality has passed away.

Today, I call the true conservatives green-necks -- because their organic localism, community spirit & instinct for old-fashioned farming is situated on the planetary stage.

Redneckery is the politics of serfs. It is a regressive trend, precipitated by emotional pathology & religious indoctrination, which occupies the social position of the Right Wing only as a mockery or a symptom of danger.

A redneck is a Medievalist in his or her political emotions. Such people are not only ill-educated, in general, but actively spurn "the data" & also their own well-being whenever these things appear to threaten the symbolic reign of old-school military-corporatists (barons). It is not suprising when the regressive Right Wing ignores their own contradictions, changes positions fluidly, sacrifices their loud morality for victory, and advocates laws which empower a handful of military & commercial oligarchs -- often in direct contradiction to the safety and prosperity of the nation.

This is called "defending their rights," or "standing up for God's law," or "not being fooled by the contemporary propaganda." The ideological position of the Medieval conservative is that the Baron's interests ARE his own interests. Thus he constantly surrenders what is most dear to him while threatening to do "whatever is necessary" to defend his personal interests.

The serf mistakes the paternal Baron for himself -- or herself.

Today -- as in the American Republican party of the last few years -- the Serf Politics are weak. They actively attempt to eject their most broad-minded members & emotional-sexually relaxed members... all the while they are hemorrhaging supporter to the emerging Planetary Conservatives.