1.23.2011

"Modern Slavery: The Spectacle of the Self" By Ali Lari

Modern Slavery: The Spectacle of the Self

“The slaves remained at the race-course, some of them for more than a week and all of them for four days before the sale. They were brought in thus early that buyers who desired to inspect them might enjoy that privilege, although none of them were sold at private sale. For these preliminary days their shed was constantly visited by speculators. The negroes were examined with as little consideration as if they had been brutes indeed; the buyers pulling their mouths open to see their teeth, pinching their limbs to find how muscular they were, walking them up and down to detect any signs of lameness, making them stoop and bend in different ways that they might be certain there was no concealed rupture or wound; and in addition to all this treatment, asking them scores of questions relative to their qualifications and accomplishments.

All these humiliations were submitted to without a murmur and in some instances with good-natured cheerfulness - where the slave liked the appearance of the proposed buyer, and fancied that he might prove a kind 'mas'r.'”1



We live in a time where the self has become everything. Society does its best to feed it and people cannot seem to have enough. The self has become a spectacle and the better the show, the better the sense of satisfaction that people receive while showing that self to others.

The capitalist world is based around this spectacle and does its best to promote the self being a spectacle as much as possible. Capitalism has created a new form of slavery in the modern world where one no longer needs to be captured and put on a ship to be sold; rather people themselves run around seeking to be slaves. People strive to become slaves. The academic system and the way it is structured, the job market and how employment works and spending and its intricacies are essential parts of this system of slavery.

In the modern academic world, academia trains one to be productive, pragmatic, hardworking and rational. This system has turned the human into a machine and has sucked out a sense of purpose from the human. The human is no longer perceived through its location within attitude, justice and spirituality... through a sense of being; rather the human is seen through a system of doing. How much can one do? How much does one have? How much? The human has become numbers and quantities. The human is nothing but noise.

Once one undergoes this rigorous rational and pragmatic disciplining, one then begins to present one’s self to see how much one’s worth. The more one has done, the more one has respect. The one more one has gathered of this world, the more one has dignity. The more one has... the more one is. Each station of gathering and collecting is celebrated and cherished as a reminder that this is what is good and as a motivation to keep doing what is good.

These doings are collected and gathered to be shown and presented to the master. The human has no sense or objective of knowing one’s self and identifying one’s self beyond what one does. That is the source of one’s being... a sense of doing. The master looks at what is presented and either accepts it or does not. If it is accepted, one feels a sense of joy that the master has accepted his slavery and work. One prides one’s self for having become something now. That sense of becoming is, again, associated with doing.

As with every machine, something goes wrong sometimes. It gets tired and we oil it or give it a little rest. In the capitalistic society, a mechanism has been created to fix our moments of sorrow and tiredness. It is like the oil that is rubbed on the machine to get it working again. It might not really fix the machine’s problem, but it makes it somehow work again. That oil in the capitalistic society is feeding one’s temptations. It is feeding one’s self. Whether the mechanism is drugs, alcohol, sex or purchasing more products to get bigger, better and more presentable to the master or to society, the idea is that these things make one feel a sense that perhaps this tiredness is worth it. Perhaps one is getting tired for more food, drugs, sex, alcohol and stuff and yet these same exact things are what ease that pain of doing.

One becomes lost between becoming a spectacle for others. Whether that other is the master or society, one is constantly doing and feeding one’s self to become more presentable. What is left of the human? The human has become a series of things done, gathered and collected to please the spectators. The human is a theater of things. Whoever can write the best story with the most exciting beginning, ending and everything in between is awarded the most and cheered for the most. We keep circulating these stories of success in doing to encourage people to continue doing. One does not see a greater purpose beyond just doing and pleasing... whether that pleasure is for the master or society, they all lead to pleasing the self’s temptations.

In the modern capitalist world, slavery has evolved. Humans have become slaves with their own wanting... with their own doing. Capitalism has done a good job in concealing this slavery. It has eliminated all thoughts on what being really is or could be outside of production in fear of retaliation. It justifies the continuous slavery by saying that life is easier this way and makes us fear what could happen if we did not have all these things. It shows us images of what could be if we do not follow this system. It feeds our most animalistic desires, and thus the human becomes like a donkey. Between fear of being hit by the stick and the temptation of receiving more, one is completely lost and controlled.

Even the sense of identity that people have has been turned fake and empty. People gain recognition and satisfy their selves by associating themselves to more things. Whether these things are materially produced things like bigger and better cars, food, clothes or houses, eventually, the human continues to constantly feeding the self and increasingly become a spectacle for others to admire. In a sense, the human is turning its self into an idol that is seeking to be worshipped and praised by others. In fact, what the human does not realize is that people are actually praising the material products that this self has gathered. Idol worshipping has entered a new era... the modern era.

Between slavery, turning the self into a spectacle of things and idol worshipping, the human is constantly distracted from thinking of whom one really is. When one starts to lose something and falls into depression, the state where one begins to actually think and feel sorrow over being lost, one is looked down upon for being in that state of sorrow. Everyone tried and attempts to stop that person from going into sorrow to think and reflect. That reflection is eased with every possible way, but that person should not feel sorrow, think and become. People no longer believe in becoming, thus when one enters that sorrow, one feels like there’s nothing else, and either death or the numbing of one’s thinking abilities become the only solutions that the capitalist society presents one.

With nothing existing beyond life and the general belief that the self enters into obscurity and oblivion after death, life is all one has. People are tricked into thinking that life is all about gathering and experiencing temptations. The more is able to work and produce, the more one is rewarded with pleasing one’s temptations and boosting one’s ego. The thought of death is always ignored. If anything, death is used as an excuse to further dig deeper into one’s temptations as to not miss out on what life has to offer: more things, more self promotion and more spectacles.

“Yes I know my enemies.
They’re the teachers who taught me to fight me.
Compromise, conformity, assimilation, submission, ignorance, hypocrisy, brutality, the elite,
All of which are American Dreams…”2



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1 "Slave Auction, 1859", EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2005).
2 Rage Against the Machine




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