Every time I hear people talking at length about their “favorite programs” on television and getting their legs worked up over the fate of a reality TV contestant or the love misadventures of another who exposes his intimate life on the small screen, I always say to myself, inevitably: “We will never make a country with this world”.
Bread and games, you say? Certainly. Add to that stars, celebrities and countless wannabes. This is all that is needed today to dull and stupefy a people, disinterested in its own future, even in its survival, while giving it the false impression of a whole, full and satisfying life. And by involving him, in addition, in a process of eliminating candidates, it gives him a feeling of belonging, of transcendent communion, a semblance of importance, of direct power, of real power, which could not be more ephemeral. .
Last November, among other examples, nearly two million viewers in Quebec watched the final of Masked singers, where “the Inseparable, the Black Turkey and the Wedding Owl” apparently clashed. Uh, what the fuck.
While we believed human stupidity at its height, at its zenith, at its paroxysm for a long time, it is in fact similar to the universe, in constant evolution, in perfect and continuous expansion. We can always discover new “planets”, phenomena constantly pushing back the limits of the incredible, the mind-numbing absurdity, the extraordinarily distressing.
Why would a people rise up against inequalities and social injustices if they are stupidly busy voting for their “favorite mascot” on TV? Why would citizens go to the polls in their own constituency, when they are already voting for the candidate or singer of their choice on television? Especially since they are certainly more likely to “win” this way, than in real reality, our current electoral voting system (which Mr. Legault had nevertheless promised to reform) dropping many voices and votes in the process.
While the “old political parties” are dying, while the forces of the opposition are fragmenting and weakening, while the CAQ government still dominates in the polls, why would we then speak of the future of our country, of nationalism, of Quebec’s independence, if the sense of belonging and pride of a society is nurtured, perhaps even filled, by simply bringing together a few million faithful to the television station.