~ Ştefan Bolea - Burn Your TV [versiunea originală]
~ Ştefan Bolea - Burn Your TV [English version]

Burn Your TV
[versiunea originală]

de Ştefan Bolea

Phase one. Mă uit la Atonement, sunt �ntr-o dispozi�ie depresivă, u�or romanticidă, u�or schopenhaueriană �i deschid televizorul �i pe MGM este un fim �n care o maimu�ă se bate cu un extraterestru. Maimu�a c�tigă. Phase two. Citesc Kierkegaard, sunt sub influen�a diatribelor sale, ascult Theatre of Tragedy �i deschid acela�i televizor, unde este o reclamă la detergent. Cele două realită�i se bat cap �n cap, se distrug reciproc, se făr�mi�ează, se rup. At�t timp c�t trăiesc �n mintea mea, sunt imun la realitatea cotidiană, mă �mbăt cu un drog care anesteziază "adevărata" realitate, cea �n care suntem angaja�i �i ne subvie�uim. Dacă m-a� uita direct pe MGM sau la reclama la detergent, nu a� resim�i �ocul de a trece dintr-o lume �n alta. Ar fi un somn perfect, �n care nu a� reac�iona la extrema trivialitate din jur. So where do I live in? In two boats, in two worlds, apprentice at two masters.

Oricum acesta este doar un aspect: lupta dintre două forme de media, �ntr-una din ele (cred că) de�in controlul, �n alta sunt controlat. Se tot spune că televiziunea viitorului va fi cea �n care ��i amenajezi un playlist (my choice: nba, snooker, cnn news, mezzo, mtv, filme, etc.) extins �i nu mai răm�i la latitudinea canalelor laim, care ��i deservesc filme imbecile �i �tiri anxiogene, ce depozitează gunoi �n creierul tău. Am putea spune că este televiziunea prezentului, mai degrabă. E mai respectabil să-�i �ii televizorul �nchis �i să adormi cu download-ul pornit, pentru că spectacolele de azi te antrenează pentru o formă a pierderii con�tiin�ei de sine, care este recreativă după munca abrutizantă �n care suntem angaja�i. Soma peste tot, nu doar �n medicamentele noastre, nu doar �n �igări, alcool �i m�ncare - soma la muncă �i la tv: "All the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects." Metafora anestezierii popula�iei este generalizată - absen�a con�tiin�ei merge m�nă �n m�nă cu apatia, care la r�ndu-i se manifestă printr-un minus de vitalitate, sentimente �i o tanatolatrie căruia �i corespunde numele modern �de "fericire". Fericire �nseamnă deci apatie, indiferen�ă, adiaforia, somn, dor de moarte: mă uit la televizor, �n timp ce sunt trăit, sunt devorat de o gazdă, care �mi r�ne�te din creier �n timp ce �mi oferă somn. S-a descoperit de mult că este un dualism �ntre fericire �i libertate - s-a aflat, de asemnea, că mul�i preferă să fie sclavi.

Dacă am rezista �n schimb? Dacă am alege solipsismul? Să ne creăm nu doar playlist-ul tv, să ne amenăjăm/ decupăm/ construim �i restul vie�ii, nu doar modul �n care ingerăm enterntainment-ul? Dacă ceilal�i ar fi ferici�i, noi am fim mon�tri. Ar cre�te cangrena �n corpul social, nu? Exi�ti doar dacă dovede�ti că e�ti capabil să consumi. Exi�ti doar dacă te ui�i la �tirile de la ora 5. Exi�ti doar dacă �tii cine candidează la pre�edin�ie �n Americă. După cum se vede, existen�a este o sumă de inutilită�i, pe care e�ti obligat să le preiei.

Totu�i inventivitatea, crea�ia �i for�a de expresie sporesc ca o consecin�ă a acestei rezisten�e. Descoperirea "adevărului pentru care să trăim sau să murim" (Kierkegaard) nu se face en masse. Nu este difuzată de trustul Media Pro. Nu apare �n Jurnalul na�ional. Este consecin�a reflexiei, ce dovede�te o via�ă con�tientă. Dar nici unul dintre stăp�nii lumii nu apreciază g�ndirea subiec�ilor lor sau reflexivitatea. Este mai bine să fii o bestie care nu �i face probleme, sau un dobitoc ce suspină la telenovele �i gole�te rafturile de la supermarket �n ordinea reclamelor pe care le-a �ngurgitat �n pauza publicitară. If no one cares about you, why should you? Acesta ar trebui să fie moto-ul democra�iilor totalitare din toată lumea. E�ti liber să consumi �i să taci. E�ti liber să dormi p�nă crapi. Dacă s-ar �ntoarce azi Diogene, ar fi arestat �nainte să fie internat.

Nu neg că ignoran�a/ incon�tien�a/ somnul are capitalul lui de beatitudine sau că �n doze mici uitarea este utilă, dar cine descoperă abnega�ia rezisten�ei nu mai �ndură asemenea nimicuri. Ca să-l parodiez pe Kierkegaard, orice datorie absolută este o datorie fa�ă de mine �nsumi. Po�i observa empiric că tu e�ti cea mai importantă persoană din via�a ta: dacă dispare actorul, este scos din func�iune �i regizorul. Atunci, dacă societatea, statul sau ceilal�i te doresc o vită fără vitalitate sau con�tiin�ă, o fiin�ă fără ego sau spirit, un nobody without a face, ai două op�iuni: fericirea sau libertatea. Ce alegi? Calea către tine �nsu�i sau calea către nivelare, conservare �i subzisten�ă? Vei escalada piscurile sau vrei, mai degrabă, să fii �nhumat de viu �n textura zidurilor?
Mai importantă dec�t calea urmată este con�tiin�a faptului că există o alegere. "Anything is possible. Just try it for a week."

Burn Your TV
[English version]

by Ştefan Bolea
[translated by Aida Mihai]

Phase one. Watching the Atonement, being in a depressive, gently dreamy and Schopenhauerian mood, I turn on the� TV and on MGM a movie is on with a monkey fighting� an allien. The monkey wins. Phase two. I'm �reading Kierkegaard, being influenced by his diatribes, I'm listening Theatre of Tragedy and turning on the same Tv, where a detergent advertisement is on. The two realities are not matching, are mutually destroying themselves, crumbling themselves, broking themselves. As long as I live inside my head, I am a daily reality immune person, I get drunk with a "real" reality anaesthetising drug, to which we are hired and �addicted one another. If I would watch straight on MGM or another detergent advertisement, I wouldn't suffer so much as a sequel of passing one world to another. It would be a perfect sleep and I wouldn't have any reaction to the extreme obscenity around. So where do I live in? In two boats, in two worlds, apprentice at two masters.

However, this is only one of the aspects: the fight between two mass media appearances, one of them is controlled by me ( I guess) and the other controls me. It is said that the television of the future will allow you to arrange an extended playlist (my choice: nba, snooker, cnn news, mezzo, mtv, filme, etc.) and you are not dependent anymore by the laim channels' presentations of idiotic movies� and anxious news which stores your brain with scum. Actually, we could say it's the television of the present. Because the nowadays shows train you to some sort of loosing self-awareness figure, which is entertaining after the brutalising work to which we are engaged, and it becomes more respectable to keep your Tv off and to fall asleep with your download on. Soma is everywhere, not only in our medicines, cigarettes, alcohol and food- but soma is at work and on Tv. "All the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects". The metaphore of population anaesthetisation is generalised- the lack of awareness goes hand in hand with apathy, which manifests itself by a deficit of vitality, feelings and a Thanatoslatreia (of Greek origin word, meaning worshiping death, to have a cult for death) equivalent with the modern name for "happiness". So happiness means apathy, indifference, adiaphorous, slumber, deathsickness: I watch Tv while I'm lived, devoured by a host who cleans my brain while offering my sleep. Long ago it was discoverd that there is a dualism between happiness and freedom- it was also discovered that a lot of people prefer being slaves.

What if we would resist in return? What if we would choose solipsism? What if we would create not only our playlist but also arrange/ cut/ build the rest of our life, not only in the way that we ingurgitate the entertainment? If the others would be happy, we would be monsters. The canker of the social environment would aggravate, wouldn't it? You exist if only succedd� in proving you're a consumer. You exist if only watch the 5 o'clock news. You exist if only have knowledge of who candidates for the USA's presidency. As it can be noticed, the human living is an amount of futilities which you are forced to assume.

Though, as a consequence of this resistance, the imaginativeness, creation and strenght of expression are more powerfull. The discovery of " the truth we live for or die for" (Kierkegaard) is not en masse phenomenon. It's not broadcasted by the Media Pro Trust. It's not published in Jurnalul national. It is the consequence of reflection which proves an aware living. But reflection or the subjects' muse is not appreciated by none of the world's masters. It is better to be a beast who doesn't care, or an idiot who sobs when watching soap operas and empties supermarket's stands in the same succession he ingurgitated the adevertisements during the break. If no one cares about you, why should you? This should be all totarian democracies' motto of the entire world. You are free to consume and free to shut up. You are free to sleep until you die. If Diogene returned nowadays, he would be arrested before hospitalised.

I do not deny that ignorance/ unconsciousness/ sleep have their asset of bliss, nor that small dosage of forgetfulness is helpful, but who discovers the resistance's self- denial doesn't bear such noughts. To parody Kierkegaard, I would say that any absolute duty is a personal one. You can empirically notice that you are the most important person of your life: if the actor disappears, the producer is out of function too. Happiness or freedom are the two possibilities you have if the state or the others wants you to be a deprived of vitality or awareness brute, a self-estimelessness person, a nobody without a face. What do you choose? The inward journey or the standardisation, conservation and subsistence one? Will you choose to climb the edges or rather to be beared alive inside the walls?
More important than the taken journey is the awareness of a choice.
"Anything is possible. Just try it for a week."