The evidence is ample that our society has become more concerned with imagery than substance, with image-makers more than social and political leaders with the insight and experience to direct our society in a effective manner, so critical at this juncture. In musical performance, the focus is on a spectular surreal image-maker, Lady Gaga, or on music that need not be accompanied by singing of the lyrics; in Presidential politics, Dwight Eisenhower's deep executive experience would have little chance today, in the face of an inexperienced idealist with a gift for reading stirring phrases from a teleprompter, nor could Mamie hold a candle to Mrs. Obama's beautiful arms--it is difficult to imagine a partially bald man being elected; A&E Biography, which once detailed the heroic lives of those whose struggle and skills paved the way for us, now adheres to the success principal of featuring ONLY movie celebrities--whose lives, of course, consist of pretending to be other people. TV gives its Emmy Awards to a medical show that skims over surgery on their way to various places to have sex; the award-strewn male version is a show that is able to elicit laughs by depicting mindless fixation on physically beautiful women and endless transparent maneuvers to get them into bed.
These developments do not bode well for our success as a society. Ortega y Gasset, in Revolt of the Masses (1929), indicated that the increasing socio-economic leveling of democratic societies leaves control in the hands of the Mass-Man, who little knows nor cares about the governing knowledge and principles necessary to lead economies and societies to success. Slogans of liberation are sufficient. Our society appears increasingly satisfied with merely the fantasy of success represented by personalities with glamorous images. We cannot succeed domestically or internationally with that life-threatening delusion.
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