Logorama: An Amusingly Bleak View of a World of Commodities

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Academy Awards, commodification, Francois Alaux, Herve de Crece, Logorama, Slavoj Žižek

There is something deeply disturbing – if wildly entertaining – about the 2010 Academy Award winner for Best Animated Short Film, Logorama, by Francois Alaux and Herve de Crece (the whole thing is available in a number of places [legally, I hope], including over at TwitchFilm, an excellent source for news of film projects from outside of the United States mainstream).  The official site for the film can be found here.

An image from Logorama

The film is a short, sweet little action adventure that takes place in a fictional(?) Los Angeles where everything, the people included, are corporate logos.  There are a number of ways to look at this slice of visual genius; we can view this as nothing more than a laugh, but there is more to the film’s central conceit than this; there is something chillingly plausible about this world, which looks more than a little like some parts of the United States today. In a world where so many people are willing to shell out extra money to buy a T-shirt with a corporate logo on it, and a world where kids on the other side of the world dress and act as if they were in an American hip-hop video (all the time talking about how they are ‘keeping it real,’ of course), this degree of commodification seems just around the corner, even as the financial edifice that such a commodification has helped to build crumbles around us.  This leads to a question that may seem to be defeatist, but which is worth taking seriously: is this  ever more dominant aspect of the world entirely immune to criticism?

‘At the level of consumption, this new spirit is that of so-called “cultural capitalism”: we primarily buy commodities neither on account of their utility nor as status symbols; we buy them to get the experience provided by them, we consume them in order to render our lives pleasurable and meaningful … This is how capitalism, at the level of consumption, integrated the legacy of ’68, the critique of alienated consumption: authentic experience matters’.[1]

That the companies whose logos are put to use here have not blocked the release of the film is surprising, or perhaps  merely an indication of how comfortable they all are with the current state of things, and how frustratingly little such small acts of protest really are.  I am reminded here of Starbucks’ cooperation in allowing their products to feature in the early scenes of David Fincher’s visionary Fight Club, as scathing a critique of contemporary consumer culture as Hollywood has produced in the decade since its first release.

‘The pressure “to do something” here is like the superstitious compulsion to make some gesture when we are observing a process over which we have no real influence.  Are not our acts often such gestures?  The old saying “Don’t just talk, do something!” is one of the most stupid things one can say, even measured by the low standards of common sense’.[2]

Logorama is strong, subversive stuff, or at least it should be.  That it may be prevented by the structure and the ubiquity of that which it critiques from being received as anything other than its glossy surface and its pitch-perfect homage to Pulp Fiction is  a deeply troubling thought.

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[1] Slavoj Žižek, First as Tragedy, Then as Farce (London: Verso, 2009): 52-54.

[2] Žižek, Tragedy, 11.

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Brainwashed into believing in a Moral Dictator called ‘God’: Caprica

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artificial intelligence, Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, globalization, monotheism, Zoë Graystone

The Battlestar Galactica prequel series, Caprica, really started to hit its straps at about Episode 4: ‘Gravedancing’ (for more on BSG-related topics from Tyrone and Eric, visit here, here, and here).

Caprica is set on the planet of the same name, a planet possessing technology a decade or so more advanced than ours, and on the brink of developing artificial intelligence. The planet Caprica is controlled by global business and a world government, exercising effective political control over the other eleven of the twelve colonies, and wielding a  powerful law enforcement and intelligence service called the Global Defense Department (G.D.D.). The parallels to our own political situation (in descending order of power: global business, the U.S. government, and the F.B.I.) are obvious.

The only apparent threat to established power is posed by the terrorist group, Soldiers of The One, whose monorail bomb explosion in the first, pilot episode killed Zoë Graystone, daughter of artificial intelligence entrepreneur, Daniel Graystone. The dominant religious belief within the twelve colonies is polytheism, one more or less based on the ancient Greek pantheon. This polytheistic religion is practiced more nominally and with less literalism on Caprica than it is on other planets, such as the more fundamentalist Gemenon and Tauron. By contrast, the religious innovation of the Soldiers of The One (S.T.O) is monotheism, belief in one God, a belief that sets them against the secularizing and nominally polytheistic Caprican government.

This clash in worldviews – and again the parallels with life on Earth in 2010 are obvious – produces some fiery religious dialogue, punctuated with the usual half-truths, ignorance, fear, and prejudice. When the G.D.D. confronts Amanda Graystone (Zoë Graystone’s mother) and proceeds to force a search of Zoë’s possessions for evidence of her links with the S.T.O., the confrontation produces one of the best lines of the season to this point:

Amanda Graystone (Zoë’s mother): What do you think you’re going to find here?
Jordan (GDD Agent): I really don’t know. Maybe who she met with. Who brainwashed her into believing in a moral dictator called ‘God’…

The GDD agent then delivers a line which nicely captures the inevitable conflict which arises when a political power and a rival religious power each claim absolute authority – and the resulting systemic violence from the political hegemony, defended as though it were benignly protecting the existing order from unaccountable violence:

Jordan (GDD Agent): I’m sorry if we have to take your daughter’s life apart in order to put other terrorists behind bars. But if we have to, then so be it.

After Zoë’s involvement with the S.T.O. is made public, the Graystones are invited on a comedian’s talk show –  the media form in which most Caprican young people receive their news. The theme of religious conflict is further developed on the show. Amanda Graystone is asked why she didn’t report her daughter as a terrorist, and replies that she never knew:

Amanda Graystone: When was I supposed to call the cops?
Baxter Sarno: Well, I don’t know, maybe when she started worshiping the big Destructo-God-In-The-Sky, maybe?
Daniel Graystone (Zoë’s father): We didn’t know, there weren’t any signs.
Baxter Sarno: You said she was ‘troubled’.
Daniel Graystone: See… she was angry. That’s a better word. My wife’s right.
Baxter Sarno: Well, ok, ‘angry’, but I would also like to add – “morally blank”. Because the virtual world is a poor teacher and doesn’t provide boundaries…
Daniel Graystone: You know who would completely agree with that – that is Zoe. And that’s exactly how the S.T.O. [Soldiers of The One] got to her… She saw things in the virtual world – ritual sacrifices, games like New Cap City, and she felt the absence of moral guidelines, just like you do, like a lot of folks do. And into that absence steps the S.T.O., offering this marvelous ultimate moral arbiter. It’s quite appealing – for a teenage girl especially.

This exchange captures something Bruce Lincoln notes in Holy Terrors. The typical response of the U.S. to Muslim terrorism was to deny that the terrorists operated from religious motivations; to instead paint them as amoral agents acting merely for political – or even selfish – purposes. Such a slant is completely contradicted by the nature of the instructions which each of the 9/11 bombers were issued and followed before the attack – which stressed the religious rationale for their actions at almost every step of the way, and which was couched in language which emphasized their overall goals of holiness, cleansing, and purity. If any religious element was mentioned in official U.S. media reports, it was painted as a variety opposed to “true Islam” – as though the religion the 9/11 bombers practised was somehow not a valid form of religion. But while it is certainly not a valid form of Islam for the vast majority of Muslims, it does constitute “genuine” Islam for some.

Before her death, Zoë created a virtual copy of herself, the program for which becomes the prototype for artificial intelligence and the creation of the Cylons.

As the Mother of an entirely new species, her name, Zoë, takes on a special significance. It means “Life” in Greek, for which the corresponding Hebrew name is חוה (Ḥavvah): “Eve”.

Peter Lineham comments on Destiny Church

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Brian Tamaki, Destiny Church, Peter Lineham

Thanks to Erica for noting this. In this TVNZ interview, Dr Peter Lineham attempts to make nuanced comments about the precise sectarian nature of Destiny Church, while the interviewer keeps repeating words such as “dangerous” and “cult” to keep the ratings up.

“I don’t feel very comfortable about this word cult, because we use ‘cult’ as a sort of slang word to mean something really over the top. The fact is, there is no precise point at which you move to a total rejection of other connections.”

(Peter Lineham, TVNZ News at 8, 29 October 2009)

Is Destiny Church Becoming a Cult? Nope.

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Brian Tamaki, Catholic Church, Destiny Church, Garth George

Bishop Brian Tamaki: Member of a Cult?

New Zealand’s most American-styled Evangelical Christian faction, Destiny Church, held their annual conference last Labour weekend. In a “covenant oath” ceremony, 700 male members swore “a solemn oath of commitment that is binding, enduring and unbreakable… irrevocable [and] undissolvable,” and were required to pledge allegiance to Bishop Brian Tamaki. The retired editor of Challenge Weekly, Garth George, has attempted to argue that this is evidence of Destiny becoming a “cult”, which he defines not by examining any of the extensive academic studies of so-called “cults”, but by opening up his little old dictionary, which defines a “cult” – reflecting the popular usage of the word – as “a system of religious devotion directed towards a particular figure or object” and “a relatively small religious group regarded by others as strange or as imposing excessive control over members.”

But if we use Garth George’s definition then – apart from the largely irrelevant aspect of the size of the group – doesn’t this description of a “cult” apply to just about any religion?

Garth George: Member of a Cult?

As an example, let’s think about that potential cult, the Roman Catholic Church. Is there any religious devotion directed towards a particular figure or object in the Catholic Church? Well, this is just a little too easy. If memory serves, even the most wacky and out-of-touch of the Pope’s statements are considered to be infallible (when issued as a solemn promulgation of dogma). Furthermore, the Holy Father regularly attracts thousands of faithful adherents, who strain to hear his every (infallible) verbal ejaculation. So that’s a big tick on this part of the popular definition of “cult”. But how about “regarded by others as strange”? Oooh, this is just getting easier and easier. I won’t even comment on the life-long prohibition of sex for its priests and the alternatives that they end up exploring. Because Catholics believe that  bread and wine turns into the literal flesh and blood of Jesus (transubstantiation), that a virgin gave birth to God, and that earthly sins will be purged out of them over the period of many years following their deaths in a place called Purgatory. That’s some freaky shit. And how about “imposing excessive control over members”? Talking about “members”, if a man covers his Catholic member with a prophylactic, or attempts to procure an abortion for his raped daughter, he is automatically deemed a non-Catholic, excommunicated, and thus confined to the fires of Hell. Now that’s some pretty clear “cultish” excessive control. And although the size of the Catholic Church is relatively large, does it display that all-too “cultish” trait of offering exclusive salvation? You betchya. Even if you’re a baptized, born-again, and utterly devoted Protestant Christian – if you refuse to acknowledge the authority of the Pope, then the Catholic Church’s doctrine is clear: there is no possibility of salvation for you.

From an outsider’s point of view, and employing the populist definition to be found in the Oxford Concise Dictionary, it is impossible to distinguish a “cult” from a “religion” – without special pleading. It is sometimes said that ‘a cult is an unpopular religion, and a religion is a popular cult.’ And that has it about right.

But all this makes Garth George’s use of the term “cult” highly suspect. Massimo Introvigne points out that members of long-established religions often employ the term “cult” as a “stereotype-loaded term” with the intention of polemicizing against newer religions – as opposed to any objective attempt to define the nature of such religions. (In this regard, it is no coincidence that Garth George himself is a Catholic.) But as the above analysis shows, an outsider’s superficial polarization of Catholicism could equally conclude that it displays all of the main traits polemically associated with so-called “cults”. So the use of the term “cult” is largely meaningless and rhetorically loaded.

From his track history, I’m guessing that Garth George will continue to employ the popular prejudices and vacuous rhetorical blather encapsulated in throwaway terms such as “cult”. But he should consider the following comments by Benjamin David Zablocki and Thomas Robbins in Misunderstanding cults: searching for objectivity in a controversial field (2001:5):

“Historically the word cult has been used in sociology to refer to any religion held together by devotion to a living charismatic leader who actively participates in the group’s decision-making than by adherence to a body of doctrine or prescribed set of rituals. By such a definition, many religions would be accurately described as cults during certain phases of their history, and as sects, denominations, or churches at other times. The mass media sometimes make a distinction between ‘genuine religion’ and cults, implying there is something non-genuine about the latter by definition. We do not share the implicit bias that seems to be embedded in this usage.”

It is time for the mass media, Garth George included, to reach beyond their dictionaries and raise their analysis above the superficial and populist misunderstanding of so-called “cults”. Destiny Church is a religious manifestation that should be examined alongside other religious manifestations (such as the Catholic Church), and in light of its own particularities, without forcing it into any polemical box.