mechanized consumer zombies: turn on, tune in, drop out

2010-04-20T02:23:00.001-07:00

'Turn on' meant go within to activate your neural and genetic equipment. Become sensitive to the many and various levels of consciousness and the specific triggers that engage them. Drugs were one way to accomplish this end. 'Tune in' meant interact harmoniously with the world around you - externalize, materialize, express your new internal perspectives. 'Drop out' suggested an elective, selective, graceful process of detachment from involuntary or unconscious commitments. 'Drop Out' meant self-reliance, a discovery of one's singularity, a commitment to mobility, choice, and change. Unhappily my explanations of this sequence of personal development were often misinterpreted to mean 'Get stoned and abandon all constructive activity'. -- Timothy Leary

Coined by Timothy Leary in the 1960s, "turn on, tune in, drop out" was a metaphor for revelatory self-discovery, for cultural detachment and the rise of counterculture. The phrase was originally intended to promote the hallucinogenic drug LSD, as it would help people "turn on," but it came to signify a new system of meaning created by one's ability to "turn on" their own way of thinking, to "tune in" to themselves, and to "drop out" of society.

For Leary, this process was not unlike a religious experience: "Like every great religion of the past we seek to find the divinity within and to express this revelation in a life of glorification and the worship of God. These ancient goals we define in the metaphor of the present -- turn on, tune in, drop out." Drugs, then, were a vehicle to divine understanding, to the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Like religion, they allowed people access to a reality beyond the limitations of the empirical world. Exterior knowledge could only be found and understood from within.

The 1960s saw a change in American culture, a change that was, as Bob Dylan noted, blowin' in the wind. The commodification of culture brought about the simulacral existence of consumerism, whereby people were (and still are) willing to give up their autonomy and agency for a slice of the American Dream pie.(*) Friedrich Nietzsche stated that "God is dead," and it was society who made Him irrelevant. This becomes more prominent in consumer culture as God is replaced by commodities -- television, in particular. In the 1990s, when the effects of consumer culture could be observed, theorist Jean Baudrillard marked it as the era of decline, one in which authentic reality is replaced by simulacral hyperreality, wherein the world is a copy of a non-existent reality (or a reality that never actually existed). Everything is artificial, from building facades to human interactions, so that society duplicates itself despite having no origin.

This notion becomes of particular interest in the 2000s when "reality TV"(**) becomes the main form of entertainment television. Because of low budget costs and the Writers Guild strike of 2007-08, more reality shows were being created than serial narrative shows. This allowed viewers to "turn on" the television, "tune in" to the programming, and "drop out" of reality -- hence the 'Truman Show' syndrome. Television thus replaces LSD and God as the agent of self-discovery. The big difference is, of course, that television is hardly revelatory or enlightening.

The "boob-tube" is often regarded as a corporate-driven machine that turns people into consumer zombies, mindless product whores in search of happiness. It thinks for them so they don't have to. It produces artificial needs and fills the void an absent figure (parent, educator, friend, etc.) leaves behind. In short, it is the root of all evil.

Or so the nay-sayers say. Whether television is a positive or negative force in American culture remains to be seen (and is not a particularly interesting debate), but television undeniably produces real-world effects that shape and inform our understanding of the world. For every 'Jersey Shore' there is an 'American Idol.'(***) For every 'According to Jim' there is a 'Cosby Show.' For every 'Dawson's Creek' there is 'Freaks and Geeks.' The flickering lights and editing of television allow us to "turn on" and activate our "various levels of consciousness," to "tune in" to our social understanding of archetypal characters and constructed narratives, to "drop out" of reality and enter into a hyperreality that, while not real or authentic, can still feed us fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Television is both LSD and God.

It is the aim of this blog to draw attention to films and TV shows that provide for us a vehicle of transcendence, a means of extending our experiences of the human condition beyond the realm of the real and into the space of hyperreality. So turn on, tune in, drop out.

(*) It tastes like freedom.
(**) Most pop culturalists agree that "reality TV" is a misnomer. People/Contestants are put into unrealistic situations, like in Big Brother or The Real World, but for the most part are unscripted, minus The Hills and anything out of Simon Cowell's mouth. TV shows are inherently not reality, as they are edited with time lapses and commercial breaks.
(***) Perhaps interesting to note is Chris Daughtry, 4th-place Season 5 finalist on 'American Idol,' performed with country star Vince Gill at the ACMAs, which was hosted by Season 5 winner Carrie Underwood.

Robot Zombie: Deadicated to Film and TV

mechanized consumer zombies: turn on, tune in, drop out