Homo Sapiens to Homo Videns
The electronic media, with its dominating images and passive viewers, is creating a new form of human, according to a recent book. Academic Mario Pereyra tests the hypothesis.
The Bible has no problem defining the human: “In the image of God he created them,” asserts the ancient book of Genesis.
Ever since, scientists have coined phrases and constructed taxonomies in order to define who and what humans are.
In 1758, Carl von Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist, introduced the “system of human nature” that established the classification of species following an assumed evolutionary pattern. He catalogued the Homo (human) species as a branch of the Hominids, two-legged creatures.
From there the search began for our presumed remote ancestors, including homo habilis (skilful man), homo erectus and, finally, homo sapiens. Evolutionists contend that the latter continued to evolve into the various kinds of contemporary men and women.
And now comes homo videns, a discovery by Italian sociologist Giovanni Sartori. His book, Homo Videns: Teledirected Society , has been a bestseller in Latin America, and its Italian version sold out in months.
Sartori’s thesis (although based on a questionable world view), deserves attention.
He argues that evolution has turned backward since the 1950s, since homo sapiens is being dethroned by homo videns. The former is characterised by a large brain, an ability to walk perfectly on two feet and work skilfully with hands, the use of language and other cultural aspects described by anthropologists.
Sartori agrees with the philosopher Ernst Cassirer (1874-1945) in affirming that humans are characterised by their symbolising activity—“the ability to communicate by means of articulated sounds and meaningful signals,” says Sartori.* From this it can be deduced that the human’s “thinking and knowing as a symbolising being are built in language and through language.” So it is that spoken and written language are not only the base of culture but also the essence of the nature of homo sapiens.
neo-kulcha
With the appearance of TV midcentury and the establishment of the television industry, Sartori maintains, human development was interrupted and even reversed, for image perception began to replace abstract thinking. This process of “involution” was accentuated with the coming of cybernetics in the 1980s and with the appearance of the computer and multimedia technology. TV allows us to see at a distance things that are real, but the PC shows us virtual or simulated reality.
Thus, seeing is privileged above speaking—the image is affirmed above the word. And with the prevalence of vision, the symbolising creature becomes the seeing creature.
Sartori says he doesn’t seek to attack television as a means of communication or the computer as an information system.
His concern is with our dependence upon them. He argues that television impoverishes and makes us more credulous, naive and inactive. It also atrophies our gift for abstraction and understanding of problems, as it stimulates the concrete thinking linked to the image on screen.
An example is our classification of words by denotation and connotation.
The first category includes words referring to observable things such as book, house, dog etc—words that denote or point to specific objects or facts of which we have a mental image or representation. They’re the basis for concrete thinking.
Other words refer to ideas, such as nation, sovereignty, justice etc. These expressions aren’t “visible,” but rather are concepts linked to abstract mental processes.
Abstract language and thought is responsible for the development of civilisation and science over the centuries—that which characterises the human species. Sartori suggests that TV produces images and destroys concepts, and thus atrophies our capacity for abstraction.
At the core of his argument is the “video-child.” Statistics suggest TV has replaced the babysitter and become the child’s primary school. Watching TV before learning to read and write produces a negative mind-set for school learning. In addition, undue early exposure engenders a phobia against schoolbooks and a tendency to respond only to “shows,” strident music and the sensational. Children are dominated by impulse.
TV, asserts Sartori, “softens” the brain.
Reading , on the other hand, requires solitude, concentration, discriminating ability, appreciation for conceptualisation and reasoning. Homo videns “tires of reading, prefers the abbreviated flash of a synthetic image. It fascinates and seduces him. He renounces to logical links, reasoned sequence and reflection.
By contrast, he yields to the immediate, heated, emotionally involving impulse.” The TV addict rejects persistent effort, tenacious action, and research—in effect, the cultivation of one’s thoughts and actions.
Now you might be tempted to think that these ideas are exaggerated. Sartori replies: Look at places where television dominates, and what do you see? Dwindling reading scores, a scarcity of critical thinking, difficulty in comprehension and composition . . .
But, worse, this image-based thinking has increased with the introduction of the computer, the Internet and video game. As with TV, the impact of the PC depends on the use it’s put to—instrument, entertainment or mania? Generally, people who surf the Internet tend to passive dependence more than interactive, productive work and, as research has shown, increases the level of depression and loneliness.
culture of the spectacular
Homo videns dwells in the world of the spectacular, dominated by the famous.
From Tokyo to Buenos Aires, from Moscow to Washington, from Paris to Kuwait, no matter the culture, it’s popularity that dominates the market. Why is success defined in almost the same way anywhere on the planet? How do we get the impression that TV is the same everywhere? Every country in the global village has converted society into an audience, and the population into couch potatoes hypnotised by the spectacular.
There are programs, magazines and newspaper supplements devoted to promoting the spectacular. Not long ago those supplements were published only on weekends. They contain entertainment, artistic events, theatre plays, movies and the all-powerful TV programs, the stars that shine in the splendid firmament of popularity. Now it’s published every day.
The entertainment industry sells products that are the fashion of the day. The market of notoriety absorbs more time, structuring the values of homo videns.
The industry of the spectacular isn’t only omnipresent, but omnipotent. It hoards, manages, directs or manipulates everything.
The economy is dependent on the media.
A negative comment by some well-known journalist, whether or not they’re informed, will cause a fall in stock values or ruin an industry. Politicians must be good TV actors if they want votes. Everybody wants access to the wide stage of fame.
The law of the spectacular that comes to the fore in homo videns, rules at every level.
The main object is to be an actor, to be seen, to pretend, to play a role, no matter what the arena. Charisma, loquacity, the histrionic touch, the magic of collective hypnotism constitute the key to success.
The principal value is no longer morality, holiness, unselfishness, intelligence or art—but fame. The famous who shine in the powerful spotlight of popularity can taste with satisfaction the honey of glory.
In previous times, one had to do something for the public good, to discover, invent, or write something important.
One no longer needs excellence, intelligence, wisdom or even money. It’s enough to have an attractive figure, to seduce or exhibit oneself.
Hollywood was the first to discover the economic power that is built on fame, creating the celebrity industry. The fascinating power of fame transforms almost anything into something and moves fortunes.
Models on the billboards, actors, singers, sports celebrities—anyone in the “fame sphere”—has become an advertising endorsement for consumer products.
No matter the quality of the product, people will buy it because Elle McPherson, Michael Jordan or Bruce Willis or some television show personality uses it—or say we ought to. Ultimately, they themselves are the product. That’s why the famous are besieged. The TV industry, journalists and photographers pursue them mercilessly.
Industries are built on the foundation of their fame.
reversing involution
It’s evident that we live in the Age of Image, supportive of fame and the spectacular.
After rushing home from work, millions find their principal occupation in curling up on the couch and playing with the remote control. Others sit enchanted in front of their computer monitor, and surf their fantasies.
For Sartori, the most important danger in all this is that homo videns is easy prey for experts in manipulation of the collective will. Wanting in abstract and independent thinking, hindered in achieving one’s own identity, homo videns is easily seduced by the magic of the technological panoply.
The Italian sociologist is particularly alarmed by video politics, the manipulation of the power of images by politicians and government. He notes that television “strongly conditions the electoral process, whether in the election of candidates” or in “governmental decisions” by distorting the proper functioning of democratic systems.
Odina and Halevi assure us that fame is “the new gold standard by which everything can be measured” ( El Factor Fama ), reducing “our ideals to the devouring desire to be illuminated, though it be for an instant and only through simulation by the media spotlight.” Certainly the advent of the image culture has installed in today’s mentality the hegemony of seduction and simulation.
Real events and objective facts have been relegated to second place.
What has become important is their representation on the screen. Reality has shifted from the real world to the monitor screen, becoming virtual “reality.” We are now in the age of “seeing” rather than “being.”
Fame is derived from this context. It walks on the stage of appearances. It’s a luxury vehicle for transporting fascinating aesthetics, but with an ethical vacuum. It relegates one’s person to a world of simulation full of falsehood—a big lie. Dustin Hoffman, in launching one of his movies, ironically stated that politics and the movies are one and the same, causing one to believe that which is not true.
It is a glimmering mirage, a shell game, that magnifies the figure and exalts the ego to a ridiculous degree. There lies the death of certainties, of rational thinking and of eternal values of the spirit. The eager seekers after fame have lost the human aspiration for religious transcendence, because the desire for notoriety does not bring with it that kind of metaphysical profundity.
That is why, as Umberto Eco says, today more than ever we need to rediscover the sense of being over and above the fallacies and “strategies of illusion” ( Las Estrtegias de la Ilusion ) and to find the certainties of the essential values.
What are those higher goods that guarantee authentic fulfilment of one’s being? They are the courage to forge a personal identity based on the eternal values of love, faith, truth, integrity and justice. They consist in learning: To listen to the voice of God. To perceive the sublime touch of beauty, the mysterious call to a life of service. To swell into fullness the stream of vital energy and to take risks for the joy of living. To develop moderation, patience, authenticity, to not be carried away by anger. To learn that there is a place for tenderness, for hugs, for the human touch, even in small things. To open the gate to the land of hope. To lift aloft the banner of a new ideal. And so many other tangible and substantial realities of the humankind, in place of the artificial games and fatuous splendour of the famous who are at the service of homo videns.
Many who reflect seriously on contemporary cultural trends lift their voices in alarm over what they see in lost capacity for analysis, for autonomous decisionmaking.
They are frightened at a population being “tele-directed” by extravagant charlatans, people who triumph in the TV world, who lead us to lose our vision of the higher values of the mind and of the spirit.
They call us to return to books, to cultivate the habit of reading and develop critical thinking, to become not mere refractors of the screen content, but thinkers with minds of our own.
And to these, add a return to the Holy Scriptures, which not only favours thinking, but establishes those ethical principles and transcendental values so essential to real life. § Reprinted, with permission, from Dialogue magazine.
If you’d like a free introductory copy, contact the publisher: email: rodrigueze@gc.adventist.org or fax 301 622 9627.
*Giovanni Sartori, Homo videns: La sociedad teledirigida, Santillana, SA, Taurus, Madrid, 1998.
Home - Archive - Topics - Podcast - Subscribe - Special Offers - About Signs - Contact Us - Links
 |
 |
|
Copyright © 2006 Seventh-day Adventist Church (SPD) Limited ACN 093 117 689
