The Year of Living Dangerously: 2020
Clarifying the Paradox in Paradise
Mimesis Unhinged
In the language of art, mimesis is a formal or technical term denoting representation or imitation of the real or natural world in art and literature. Used in criticism and philosophy, the term refers to mimicry, expression and the presentation of the self. When the springboard or foundation of imitation and access to reality or “nature” is lost or ignored, then mimesis becomes unhinged and paranoia, expressed in fantasies, conspiracies and self-victimization deconstructs (re-interprets) the unmoored self’s point of view. He, she, they, them has nowhere to stand.
Cognitive dissonance occurs when you hold two mutually exclusive beliefs without noticing the inherent opposition and you function … blindly:
I can drink, drive and ignore police roadblocks or cast away the benefits of the mask because El Viro equals hoax despite comments by Death, a certainty.
Functioning consciously despite holding two opposing ideas is the sign of a first-rate intelligence said F. Scott Fitzgerald: Wear a mask, avoid contamination, get vaccinated despite the grim reaper. Maintain sanity despite Social Media. (See “Social Dilemma.”)
History
History scholar Richard Hofstadter published “The Paranoid Style in American Politics,” Harper’s Magazine (1964) and refers to the Right-Wing embrace of conspiracy theories, which some express as racism, anti-mask nihilism and allegations of fraud re: the most secure elections ever (according to Chris Krebs, director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, CISA). Fifty judges agree.
Conspirators mumble “yes” to the cabal of science and technology (but) drive cars, fly airplanes, dibble the internet and stare at the screen. They scream “no” when talking about biological Zombie-maker COVID-19 or extreme weather per human effects on climate. Deniers detach civil liberties from social responsibility in favor of narcissism, alienate the mind and body from the physical world of biology. The Calaveras dance.
In the past, anti-Vaxxers or Qanon types targeted international bankers, Jews, Catholics, Goldbugs, Spanish Flu (1918) and Covid (2020), Masons, Illuminati, Mormons, Tri-Lateral Commissioners, Communists, John Birchers, Hippies, Yippies, Black Panthers, New Dealers, Big Dealers, Fair Dealers, WPA Marxists, KKK Supremacists, Las Gorras Blancas, Parciantes, Penitentes, Pizza Party Providers, Military-Industrial Complexities, RINOS, DINOs, Rotarians, Comic books, Rock’n Roll, and “them, too.” Conspiracy will always be with us.
The Geatest Generation ( WWII) sent their sons and daughters during the ‘60s to Vietnam, based on the official mitote, fact and false news about communists. The conspiracies originated in Washington D.C. — until Daniel Ellsberg posted the Pentagon Papers, accompanied by “Faux Causus Belli” (like Bush-Cheney et al in Iraq).
If infection fits, you must defect. Swallow Lysol, bleach, Chlorox to disinfect.
Hofstatder: “We are all sufferers from history, but the paranoid is a double sufferer, since he is afflicted not only by the real world, with the rest of us, but by his fantasies as well.”
When a Reality TV star mistakes reality (elections and governing) for drama and reverts to tantrums because the laws of physics, mathematics and human political behavior underscore the natural and social unities or causes, effects and limits, his Mimesis is Unhinged
The Antidote Resurfaces
Commerce substitutes kitsch for art.
Taos Plaza features garish super lights as El Norte’s farolitos and luminarias fade from memory. Clutter on lampposts obscures natural imagery and the imagery of art.
But beauty resurfaces, the cosmos, composed of stars and moon, soars above the mountain as the sublime spirit settles like solitude on the villages and Pueblo in the dwindling twilight, only to experience rebirth at dawn and call attention to the blue sky above and emerging snow-covered peaks below; the beat of the drum, the sound of moccasin clad feet re-emerges from the earth in endless appeals to the daily sun, wherein beauty rises above the absurd and takes its sublime place in the valley and on the mesa between mountains and Río Grande … right in front of our eyes.
And the blues vanish. (Read Albert Camus of Algeria and Rick Bull of SecoSalto. Listen to Coltrane.)
Look! Beauty will always be with us.