Everything Is Staged: The World As A Spectacle

The Ubiquity of Staging

It's no surprise that we're on edge, frustrated by our dependence on falseness and excess, longing for what can't be commercialized or profited from, and thus no longer exists except in the shadows. Everything is staged, and thus everything is fake. The near-zero cost of posting content digitally has led to the realization that staging isn't just for high-profile political events, parades, or Hollywood sets. Since the whole world is a stage, everything can be staged, from every social media selfie to every YouTube video to every public display.

The Artifice of Spectacle

Staging brings spectacle, spectacle brings self-serving artifice, and artifice brings excess. The allure of staging lies in its mimicry of authenticity for self-serving purposes. We stage films to imitate "real life" to entertain the audience and make a fortune. By staging a political event, we stir up passion to aid our rise to power. By staging a selfie in a posh bar while sipping an expensive cocktail, despite living in a cramped, overpriced apartment, we fulfill our desire for a digitally distributed illusion of a status we can't possibly attain in our actual lives.

The Parody of Authenticity

Now that everything is staged, there's a competition to stand out in a sea of endless "content," necessitating excess. Everything is so sensationalized that we've become desensitized. Consequently, everything boils down to self-parody, making parody impossible because everything is already a parody of itself. The practice of mimicking authenticity to make a sale is now so pervasive and commonplace that irony is also lost. We're living in a reality where young women fabricating glamorous and luxurious fake lives to increase their visibility are now competing with digitized imaginary young women who are idealized versions of the sexually appealing female.

The Attention Economy

Engagement is the currency of the Attention Economy, and traditional media and social media have merged. Everyone's competing for engagement because it's everyone's source of income. Despite the fact that Big Tech platforms take the majority of the engagement revenues and a handful of influencers reap most of what's left, the crowd is fervently dedicated to collecting the pennies scattered on the sand-covered floor of the Coliseum. In my opinion, engagement is a polite term for addiction, the core value proposition in Addiction Capitalism. As every dealer knows, there's no more reliable source of revenue than an addict, and promoting screen addiction is incredibly profitable.

The Loss of Authenticity

The intense competition for visibility has created a self-reinforcing feedback loop of faking authenticity better than other spectacles. The goal isn't to present "real life," but to stage the scene so cleverly that it looks real. However, authenticity can't be profitably exploited for long; we caught on long ago. The transformation into sensationalized, self-parodying staging makes a mockery of authenticity. As everyone crowds onto the world stage seeking visibility and the money that the right staging brings, authenticity dissipates into dark energy, present but invisible, undetectable, a fleeting shadow lost in the turbulent wake of spectacle.

The Society of the Spectacle

French philosopher Guy Debord's 1967 book, The Society of the Spectacle, illuminates this transformation. He wrote, "The vague feeling that there has been a rapid invasion which has forced people to lead their lives in an entirely different way is now widespread; but this is experienced rather like some inexplicable change in the climate, or in some other natural equilibrium, a change faced with which ignorance knows only that it has nothing to say." French writer Michel Houellebecq echoed this sentiment in an interview, saying, "I have the impression of being caught up in a network of complicated, minute, stupid rules, and I have the impression of being herded towards a uniform kind of happiness, toward a kind of happiness that doesn't really make me happy."

The Consequences of Fakery

The constant staging and spectacles have unhinged us. The mood of the crowd is quickly turning nasty; even the winners of the staged games are being booed. The audience's attention span has dwindled to the point that few even wait for the outcome of the contest to demand someone's blood. The crowd is no longer satisfied by gore or drama, and even the comedic interludes no longer mask the sense that the crowd is one spark away from venting their anger and frustration on each other. The vicarious thrills are no longer enough. This is the result of relying on fakery, of believing that no one can tell the difference between authenticity and staged simulacra. The audience craves something real, and what's served up as "real" is just another self-serving scene. It's no wonder we're restless, on the brink, frustrated by our addictions to fakery and excess, and yearning for what can't be commercialized or made profitable, and thus no longer exists except in the shadows.

Bottom Line

The world we live in is increasingly becoming a stage where everything is a spectacle, and authenticity is lost in the process. The constant pursuit of visibility and engagement has led to a society where fakery is the norm, and realness is a rarity. This raises important questions about the value we place on authenticity and the lengths we're willing to go to achieve it. What are your thoughts on this? Do you agree that we're living in a world where everything is staged? Share this article with your friends and start a conversation. Don't forget to sign up for the Daily Briefing, which is available every day at 6pm.