Virilo's arguably wrong about one thing: "the first global mass media-enabled emotional synchronization event" was the aftermath of John F. Kennedy's assassination. This was my description of it, written in the '80s:
"That day, and the days that followed, television became our tribal bard, weaving an unforgettable visual ballad out of live coverage, news photos, the frames of Abraham Zapruder's home movie. The smiling, waving motorcade. JFK's elbow flying up as his hands clutch at his throat. Jackie crawling over the trunk of the car, reaching out for help in her blood-spattered pink suit and pillbox hat. Lyndon Johnson's stunned swearing-in. And then the drum taps, the riderless horse, "Hail to the Chief" played as a dirge."
I don't believe there were images of JFK's elbow flying up or Jackie crawling over the limo that weekend. The zapruder film was not show publicly until the late 1970s. TV was carefully censored then. Oswald's assassination was only shown because it happened live. It the internet is a reformation, the three networks controlling media during those years were the mideval Church.
If Wikipedia is right (I never use it in professional research, but this article seems thorough and sober), frames from the Zapruder film were published within a week of the assassination. “The November 29, 1963 issue of Life published about 30 frames of the Zapruder film in black and white. Frames were also published in color in the December 6, 1963 special ‘John F. Kennedy Memorial Edition’, and in issues dated October 2, 1964 (a special article on the film and the Warren Commission report), November 25, 1966, and November 24, 1967.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapruder_film
And the effects on the "sixties generation" were like what you describe: "These were the images that finally fused us into one ... We had watched events en masse before, but now for the first time we became conscious of our unity—and our vulnerability. ... as the world came apart, we began to come together."
In the pre-internet days, a publication of the frames from the Zapruder film was not accessible at a click, as it is today. While I heard of the film during the 60s, and later learned of the Life magazine publication, the difficulty of finding that magazine was overwhelming, if one even knew to look for it. The shock of actually seeing the film on a show hosted by Geraldo Rivera stunned all of us. (Shot from behind? Really?) Seeing the film and learning about the assassination attempts on Castro etc. during the Senate hearings chaired by Sen Frank Church made me understand how much we are being deceived by the media. Only the availability of other outlets (such as Tablet) breaks this Ministry of Truth control over the national conversation.
You couldn't click to see those stills, but LIFE magazine was the crude equivalent—it was on every newsstand. When you first questioned the timing, I wondered if my memory had conflated something seen much later with the immediate aftermath of the shooting. I was relieved to discover that, no, it didn't. A week has now shrunk to a few seconds, that's all.
It wasn't on TV in 1963. The stills were among those published by LIFE shortly afterward. Of course, it's a different experience when it's in a physical magazine that you had to go to the newsstand to pick up or wait to come in your mailbox. Such things were actually viscerally more powerful on a printed page that you held in your hands. But you also had far more time to absorb them. The sense of images rapidly flicking by became more widespread in the 1980s, with the rise of 24/7 cable TV, the immediate precursor to the public Internet.
Ha ha ha. The signs are in English because the CIA sponsored NGO's want the signs in English. It's not accidental. It's like watching supposedly spontaneous crowds of Latin Americans carrying English signs demanding freedom. Sure.
I thought this was going to be about how a war that we know is going on, and that dominated people for weeks (I still see Ukranian flags -- one hung upside down -- in my neighborhood) has become a weird version of "last year's season." It doesnt' seem to be real anymore, although I know perfectly well that it is. Everything seems to be fake these days.
Virilo's arguably wrong about one thing: "the first global mass media-enabled emotional synchronization event" was the aftermath of John F. Kennedy's assassination. This was my description of it, written in the '80s:
"That day, and the days that followed, television became our tribal bard, weaving an unforgettable visual ballad out of live coverage, news photos, the frames of Abraham Zapruder's home movie. The smiling, waving motorcade. JFK's elbow flying up as his hands clutch at his throat. Jackie crawling over the trunk of the car, reaching out for help in her blood-spattered pink suit and pillbox hat. Lyndon Johnson's stunned swearing-in. And then the drum taps, the riderless horse, "Hail to the Chief" played as a dirge."
I don't believe there were images of JFK's elbow flying up or Jackie crawling over the limo that weekend. The zapruder film was not show publicly until the late 1970s. TV was carefully censored then. Oswald's assassination was only shown because it happened live. It the internet is a reformation, the three networks controlling media during those years were the mideval Church.
If Wikipedia is right (I never use it in professional research, but this article seems thorough and sober), frames from the Zapruder film were published within a week of the assassination. “The November 29, 1963 issue of Life published about 30 frames of the Zapruder film in black and white. Frames were also published in color in the December 6, 1963 special ‘John F. Kennedy Memorial Edition’, and in issues dated October 2, 1964 (a special article on the film and the Warren Commission report), November 25, 1966, and November 24, 1967.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapruder_film
And the effects on the "sixties generation" were like what you describe: "These were the images that finally fused us into one ... We had watched events en masse before, but now for the first time we became conscious of our unity—and our vulnerability. ... as the world came apart, we began to come together."
In the pre-internet days, a publication of the frames from the Zapruder film was not accessible at a click, as it is today. While I heard of the film during the 60s, and later learned of the Life magazine publication, the difficulty of finding that magazine was overwhelming, if one even knew to look for it. The shock of actually seeing the film on a show hosted by Geraldo Rivera stunned all of us. (Shot from behind? Really?) Seeing the film and learning about the assassination attempts on Castro etc. during the Senate hearings chaired by Sen Frank Church made me understand how much we are being deceived by the media. Only the availability of other outlets (such as Tablet) breaks this Ministry of Truth control over the national conversation.
You couldn't click to see those stills, but LIFE magazine was the crude equivalent—it was on every newsstand. When you first questioned the timing, I wondered if my memory had conflated something seen much later with the immediate aftermath of the shooting. I was relieved to discover that, no, it didn't. A week has now shrunk to a few seconds, that's all.
" JFK's elbow flying up as his hands clutch at his throat. Jackie crawling over the trunk of the car" were not on TV that weekend.
It wasn't on TV in 1963. The stills were among those published by LIFE shortly afterward. Of course, it's a different experience when it's in a physical magazine that you had to go to the newsstand to pick up or wait to come in your mailbox. Such things were actually viscerally more powerful on a printed page that you held in your hands. But you also had far more time to absorb them. The sense of images rapidly flicking by became more widespread in the 1980s, with the rise of 24/7 cable TV, the immediate precursor to the public Internet.
Ha ha ha. The signs are in English because the CIA sponsored NGO's want the signs in English. It's not accidental. It's like watching supposedly spontaneous crowds of Latin Americans carrying English signs demanding freedom. Sure.
I thought this was going to be about how a war that we know is going on, and that dominated people for weeks (I still see Ukranian flags -- one hung upside down -- in my neighborhood) has become a weird version of "last year's season." It doesnt' seem to be real anymore, although I know perfectly well that it is. Everything seems to be fake these days.