Optics is the word

IT was ludicrous. There they were, high government officials and the media all solemnly watching the boxes of vaccines being unloaded from a plane, then transferred to waiting freezers and then the procession of vehicles moved through the streets escorted by police cars with wailing sirens.

But the funny thing is, the boxes of vaccines were empty. There were no real vaccines. It was all for show. It was a drill. A dress rehearsal for the real thing. Then the government official officiously evaluated it as a success!

Day in and day out, our news programs are full of footages showing simulations of vaccination. Officials keep promising readiness.

What makes it painfully laughable was that while we were doing it, the people of Bangladesh and Laos and other less developed countries like ours were already being vaccinated. Even our neighbors in the Asean were f lying in boxes and boxes of vaccines.

In the Senate, we learn that there are no signed agreements yet with vaccine manufacturers.

Somebody commented laconically: optics. In our lingo: pakitang tao, pakitang gilas, ampao, porma. In Shakespearean language: So much ado about nothing.

I am reminded of the quip by John Adams, one of the American founding fathers, when he talked about catching horses: “I have often caught a horse by holding an empty hat, as if it was full of corn.” That’s what we are getting. Being fed with great theatrics that are in reality empty and hollow.

Speaking of hollow, TS Eliot warned us in one of his poems about the “hollow men… shape without form, shade without colour.”

To confound it, we now have another eye-deceiving development called the Hologram, which sounds like “hollowgram.”

Through the new technology of holographics it’s now possible to recreate a dead person and projecting him as alive again. This was reported sometime ago when event organizers employed a hologram of a long dead political leader delivering a very famous speech. You can now order a hologram of your dearly beloved departed and play it at any time you want to see him or her. Call it holographic resurrection. The said technique can also be used for a living musical performer who can’t be physically present on stage.

In this age of CGI, virtual events and happenings, I am not surprised that this development has come. Event producers are now starting to do a lot more large-scale event holograms, not just for in-person experiences, but also for live-streaming for TV broadcasts, for press campaigns and the like.

Whether it’s simulations of preparedness or holograms, it’s all illusion and manipulation or distortion of perception. It’s not real, not true, not authentic. But as one cynic says, “who cares?”

Alas, we are in the Age of Optics, which embraces illusion and manipulation. It’s trompe-l’oeil meaning “trick of the eye,” an art technique that uses realistic imagery to create an optical illusion of depth.

This is why my wife and I avoid films with awesome realistic imagery faked in post-production designed to deceive the eye. Truth to tell, I have turned to films that are made in the neorealist tradition, using real settings and non-actors.

Even in food, optics is used to hook the gullible. I remember in Japan they have a term “surimi ,” which refers to food items displayed outside restaurants that are so lifelike and real but were really molded and sculpted out of plastic.

Interesting to know that “optics” was originally a scientific term. “Optics” is the branch of physics that is dedicated to the behavior and properties of light. However, a different use of the word optics has been used in politics for many years, meaning “appearance” or “perception.” It has been adopted by people in public relations and marketing communications.

Remember the “perception is reality” buzz phrase in the 70s and 80s? Optics is the new buzzword.

Put simply, in politics, optics is a shorthand for public perception; how the man in the street sees the strategies and actions of those in power. It is employed when a person or organization worries about the public perception of a decision or an act more than the substance of the decision or act itself. Optics operatives even go to the extent of faking visuals to give a positive spin on anything that will serve to enhance the image of a client.

When writers refer to “the optics of a situation” they are talking about the way a situation is perceived by the general public; how an event, course of action, and so on, would look to others.

In this age of internet media and 24 hour news coverage, visual scan make or break a given political campaign or a big political event. Imagery, even if faked or contrived, is all that matters in our era of perpetual optics. Optics, reinforced by trolls, is what drives headlines, makes news, and wins elections and drives ratings in the polls.

Optics is the high art of stagecraft. Donald Trump won election as the 45th president of the United States by studying American political stagecraft and learning what helped previous candidates succeed and doomed others to failure. He was just an odd ball in campaigns for many years. But when he glided down the Trump Tower escalator on June 16, 2015, and declared his candidacy, Trump took his place, permanently, as an actor in the greatest spectacle of presidential politics.

An operative who is creative and skilled at employing the tools of optics can actually help direct a celebrity’s daily story by creating scenes that most media people can’t resist turning into news packages and front page photos.

No wonder deception and dishonesty are running rampant practically everywhere you go. The gullible are bound to be disappointed. Sooner or later the politician or the celebrity idol who deceived them with optics turns out to be dishonest and inauthentic. This is the deep trauma my friend Del went through when I broke to him all the sordid post-mortem revelations of the voracious sexual escapades of a popular religious guru whom he idolized and looked up to.

Today, it is being used extensively in brand image management. What we used to call visual identity is now called optics. Both basically mean the same thing.

To the public, though, the frequent deployment of optics may end up having the opposite effect. People are getting smarter and can smell something fake or contrived. This is why netizens got riled up by optics showing empty boxes being transported and delivered. It was all for appearance’s sake. What people want are the real vaccines, not simulations and drills of inoculations.

By all means, stay away from the need to use the word “optics” in your business or in any endeavor for that matter. People can get away with deceptive business practices and shady dealings for awhile. but eventually, customers won’t come back and employees will leave because they don’t want to be part of the untruths. In the long run, honesty is still the best policy.

In our private lives, we need to keep in mind what Shakespeare said: “To thine own self be true for as night is to day thou can’t be false to any man.”

So while we begin to embrace virtual reality in our daily life because of digital migration, i hope wed on’t throw out the real and the authentic altogether. The movie Matrix warned us about a world made up of optics: hollow images, visuals without substance.

Let us resist the hidden secretive cabal of manipulators to overwhelm us with optics and then be left with nothing but “the hope only of empty men.”