Image and Illusion
Image and Illusion Essay
In Christopher Hedges article the “Empire of Illusion” he stresses that America's present culture
and society have drastically declined in many ways. Hedges overall view is that America has been
“dumbed down” through feel good illusion, replacing reality with fiction, and literacy with images.
Celebrities have replaced Gods and religion, television has replaced a large amount of reading and
writing, and politics have been replaced with “junk politics”. And the mainstream media stands at the
forefront of all of these topics.
In the movie “The Century of the Self” it shows the media unconsciously
manipulating young women who smoked cigarettes which gave them more of an appealing character
than someone who stood for peace, during a time when it was not lady like for women to be smoking in
public. A hand selected group of rich debutantes were told to light up cigarettes during a Easter day
parade simultaneously, when a signal was given, the media was there to capture this. Adding a clever
twist to the wording, the media put out a headline stating “Torches of Freedom” with woman smoking
the cigarettes symbolizing the torches. It instantly boosted the sales of cigarettes amongst women
throughout America, and the plan to tap into the unconscious aggressive mind of the masses was
successful. In my opinion this was a “textbook” example of how to unconsciously and persuasively
control the masses through illusion, surely one of the first in America and a foundation for others to
build off of.
“We are a culture that has been denied, or has passively given up, the linguistic and intellectual tools to cope with complexity, to separate illusion from reality. We have traded the printed word for the gleaming image. Nearly one third of Americans are illiterate or barley literate. But the average American watches at least four hours of television a day”(Hedges pg. 44).
American society
In Christopher Hedges article the “Empire of Illusion” he stresses that America's present culture
and society have drastically declined in many ways. Hedges overall view is that America has been
“dumbed down” through feel good illusion, replacing reality with fiction, and literacy with images.
Celebrities have replaced Gods and religion, television has replaced a large amount of reading and
writing, and politics have been replaced with “junk politics”. And the mainstream media stands at the
forefront of all of these topics.
In the movie “The Century of the Self” it shows the media unconsciously
manipulating young women who smoked cigarettes which gave them more of an appealing character
than someone who stood for peace, during a time when it was not lady like for women to be smoking in
public. A hand selected group of rich debutantes were told to light up cigarettes during a Easter day
parade simultaneously, when a signal was given, the media was there to capture this. Adding a clever
twist to the wording, the media put out a headline stating “Torches of Freedom” with woman smoking
the cigarettes symbolizing the torches. It instantly boosted the sales of cigarettes amongst women
throughout America, and the plan to tap into the unconscious aggressive mind of the masses was
successful. In my opinion this was a “textbook” example of how to unconsciously and persuasively
control the masses through illusion, surely one of the first in America and a foundation for others to
build off of.
“We are a culture that has been denied, or has passively given up, the linguistic and intellectual tools to cope with complexity, to separate illusion from reality. We have traded the printed word for the gleaming image. Nearly one third of Americans are illiterate or barley literate. But the average American watches at least four hours of television a day”(Hedges pg. 44).
American society