Kanye, Trump, NPCs and The Simulated Age of Self Aware Memes
Our generation has single handedly killed sincerity. In this hyperreality of self aware simulacra, we have become meta references upon references, unable to distinguish reality and fiction, so much so that any show of genuine and sincere emotion is viewed as cringeworthy, corny or fake. Any time someone opens up with genuine feelings, we are appalled. Our sincerity needs to come with a side of irony. Nothing is more disgusting than someone being emotional, and meaning it. That's why memes are so important in our culture, we need to reference our shared realities and the absurdities they offer.
In modern media and life interactions, we have self aware elements referencing the inherent absurdity and cheesiness of sincerity in reality. Memes and art directly reference life but now everything is also self referential, even the memes have gone meta. A meme is a fad that spreads from person to person on the internet and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme, not to overly intellectualize Dat Boi.
Trump has mastered the meme. Trump is a showbiz billionaire and one of the greatest marketers the world has ever seen. Trump is a caricature of himself, literally everyone can do a Trump impression, tweet like Trump or say his well known catchphrases. He's tan with fake hair, he is an absolute character off the rip and he knows how to play into it. Trump has used this innate ability to meme and got himself all the way into the White House, effectively making what is real and what is fiction seamlessly blend together so that there is no clear distinction between where one ends and the other begins. The president of the strongest military the world has ever known is a self aware meme come alive, like some twisted internet version of ‘Night At The Museum.’
Donald Trump is a reality TV show star and wrestler, which are self aware mediums with fictional elements that exist in their own hyperreality where reality and fiction are blended. The President tells convoluted lies where mainstream media, who are known to lie, and the President himself has dubbed ‘fake news’ constantly call him a liar. At the end you don’t know what's real or fake and the whole system becomes too convoluted, self aware and too meta to wrap your brain around.
Due to our phones we live as ourselves, and outside of ourselves, constantly hyperaware of how we are perceived in real life as well as on this other version of us that lives in our pocket which needs constant maintenance and upkeep, with new profile pictures, cover photos, selfies and tweets that depict a certain version of yourself and life to the world. We are constantly self aware and rarely experience life exclusively as the subjective experience, but as objects, because that's how we appear to others.
If you’re in a park alone you perceive the park as the objects in it, the park shows itself to you. You see the squirrel and the trees as objects and pass judgement on things appearing in the distance through the subjective lens, suddenly someone else comes to the park and instantly, you understand you are being perceived, so you act as an object, according to how you would like to be viewed, that is the constant condition of modern man. We are unable to escape the watchful gaze of those around us and pass judgement on ourselves as objects, because we are aware that's how we appear to others, so we constantly curate who we are.
Our postmodern generation exists after thousands of years of human literature, art, communication and connection where we’ve consumed all of the best descriptions and scenarios of human life, repeated time and time again in every possible form. We have been stripped, and in turn, stripped ourselves of genuine sentimental bullshit, because we’ve seen and know too much. There’s something beautiful and profound about stripping away all of the walls blocking the sincerity.
Behind your ironic dad shoes, your quirky shirts and your self aware memes, there’s a person who was once a baby, crawled on its knees and grew up to be this person with thoughts, opinions and a personality they’ve formulated from years of consuming external information. By associating heavily with our external persona, we lose touch with that inner kid that never needed to be sarcastic, ironic or meta. The one that rarely sought external approval, validation or praise. That’s what sincerity centers you around. Sincerity brings the awareness that It's okay to feel the way we do and then express it, because ultimately we are human and that's what we do.
Self awareness is great but our constant awareness makes us curate our real personalities to fit this mold that someone has told us is the “right person.” We constantly pre plan all of our moves, thoughts and emotions like computer scripts instead of dealing with emotions and scenarios as isolated incidents at hand. Brain automation is really helpful and it's the way neuroplasticity works, which helps make life efficient. Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to form and reorganize synaptic connections, especially in response to information intake. But some times we automate too much of life and instead choose to follow ideologies that program us to blindly follow as opposed to analyze issues and scenarios emotionally and critically.
Brain automation takes us away from that essence whose shadows flicker on the ironic walls that surround it. We are slowly becoming a generation of NPCs. NPCs are Non Playable Characters. A generation of seemingly humans that are unable to think and express honestly, objectively, creatively and with nuance, which are exclusively human traits. We exist in a simulated hyperreality and some humans take on the role of NPCs, spouting "opinions" they are programmed to spout and repeating them in a cult-like manner.
The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of the world. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, and our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind.