The twentieth century is, among other things, the Age of Noise.
Physical noise, mental noise and noise of desire -- we hold history's
record for all of them. And no wonder; for all the resources of our
almost miraculous technology have been thrown into the current assault
against silence. That most popular and influential of all recent
inventions, the radio is nothing but a conduit through which
pre-fabricated din can flow into our homes. And this din goes far
deeper, of course, than the eardrums. It penetrates the mind, filling it
with a babel of distractions, blasts of corybantic or sentimental
music, continually repeated doses of drama that bring no catharsis, but
usually create a craving for daily or even hourly emotional enemas. And
where, as in most
countries, the
broadcasting stations support themselves by selling time to advertisers,
the noise is carried from the ear, through the realms of phantasy,
knowledge and feeling to the ego's core of wish and desire. Spoken or
printed, broadcast over the ether or on wood-pulp, all advertising copy
has but one purpose -- to prevent the will from ever achieving silence.
Desirelessness is the condition of deliverance and illumination. The
condition of an expanding and technologically progressive system of mass
production is universal craving. Advertising is the organized effort to
extend and intensify the workings of that force, which (as all the
saints and teachers of all the higher religions have always taught) is
the principal cause of suffering and wrong-doing and the greatest
obstacle between the human soul and its Divine Ground.
— from Silence, Liberty, and Peace (1946)
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário