I would go so far as to say… for many of you, the reality expressed below will be more easily
labeled as delusional than intellectually accepted, and I cannot blame anyone
who (consciously or subconsciously) chooses to lock themselves into that
position.
Writers Charlie Brooker and Konnie Huq have presented the
human species with the ultimate reflection of our current cultural
existence. They achieved this with their
contribution to a UK television mini-series ‘Black Mirror’, specifically Season
1, Episode 2 entitled ‘15 Million Merits’.
I must emphasize now that to view Brooker and Huq’s art as a “television show” in the pop-culture sense would be committing a crime against the artists and, perhaps more importantly, inflicting serious psychological damage upon yourself. The most relevant art of our time is no longer produced with a pencil or paint brush. The cultural impact of such artworks has nearly been nullified by recorded images and audio. Film, television, photography, music… these are the artworks that drive our culture, and in turn, drive the future of our civilization. If you do not understand that culture is the dominant force shaping humanity’s future, it is time to open your mind’s eye and look more closely at the history of our world.
The story ’15 Million Merits” is one of those rare works of
art that expresses the truth of our time with such unflinching honesty that few
allow themselves to recognize it as the reality in which they daily
participate. The reason for this
unwillingness to view a television show as anything more than a fantasy constructed
for entertainment and profit is simple:
It hurts. The truth of humanity’s current condition creates
in us pain of a magnitude that we are unequipped to deal with. This causes most of us to psychologically reject
this valid work of art as a mere “T.V. show”, a medium which has produced an
ocean of drivel and only a few isolated ripples of brilliance.
Do not make the mistake of invalidating the philosophical
value of ’15 Million Merits’ simply because it happens to be a television show. Brooker and Huq’s story transcends its medium
in every way, as all culturally relevant art tends to do.
Set aside 1 hour of your life and view this story. Watch it not as a throw-away television show
that has been produced to kill sixty minutes of your time, but as a work of art
offering up a highly sophisticated mirror.
CONCLUSION
If you are unable to recognize the reality depicted in this artwork
as metaphorically identical to the
reality you currently exist in, it is because you are not mentally prepared to
see it. Give it time. Wait a few days. Think through it from different internal
perspectives. Watch the show again.
I will be deconstructing ’15 Million Merits’ in a future
blAHg, analyzing it as best as I can given the limitations of my own culturally
conditioned perspective. While I do
recognize this as an important and highly relevant work of art, I have myself been
a prisoner of this American culture for nearly 37 years. My process of demanding reality rather than a fabricated distortion of it is still
very much in progress—though I will say that once a particular psychological breakthrough
has been made, the process shifts from painfully slow to uncomfortably fast.
I would appreciate hearing from you in regards to your
interpretation of ’15 Million Merits’. One
of the most important aspects of advancing human knowledge is opening the mind
to as many cultural perspectives as possible.
The more perspectives a mind gains access to and understanding of, the greater that mind’s
ability to arrive at innovative and insightful conclusions about the reality of
their world.
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