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The supremacy of form over function, appearance over substance has been a dominant feature of our society for a long time. From the mid 90s: """ Just visit L
by nonrandomstring 2y ago
The supremacy of form over function, appearance over substance has
been a dominant feature of our society for a long time. From the mid
90s:
""" Just visit Los Angeles. Just walk down the walk of stars at one
o’clock in the morning, and ask yourself “Are these people really
here, or is this central casting?” And it isn’t a funny
question. And as our society develops in this telematic way, it’s
not going to be funny to ask it around the Christmas dinner table
about Uncle Henry, "Is that Uncle Henry, or is it just someone
playing Uncle Henry?" The further postmodern insight is: what
difference does it make! See, that’s the thing Reagan's handlers
understood. It doesn’t make any difference! They’re buying it! """
-- Rick Roderick
- cb321 2y agoSome might say this observation/trend/etc. is much older than the 1990s, as perhaps exemplified by Oscar Wilde's The Importance Of Being Earnest in 1895 (where literally all that matters is some one's name being "Earnest"). (Apologies if Shakespeare or the Greek Comedies or other got there first - feel free to cite!)
- nonrandomstring 2y agoAbsolutely. I think it's human nature for some to get stuck on superficiality and appearance. Thanks for the reminder of Wilde.