Everyone's talking about Will Smith hitting Chris Rock at the Oscars. Opinions vary, but how has it made us feel, and was it part of a ceremony that just feels increasingly meaningless? #WillSmith #Oscars #ChrisRock
Will Smith smack
jaina. I love you. I jane can't wait to see. It
if you come from a cultural perspective outside of the racial perspective actually where you consider uh the hair of women of color to be a sensitive. Issue then that comment. Is loaded. In ways that perhaps people outside of that cultural lexicon may not appreciate and. I would have to. Include myself. In that
so me watching that just as a casual observer. I feel
oh like
chris rock he's a man without malice. In any large degree you know some comedians you can tell they operate on a level of attack and. I would say the medium. Itself requires a certain amount of consent like comedy you have to go okay. I'm coming here for a person to tell jokes at a time where there's. Increasing censorship around what can be said we're not querying what can be seen where an act of let's call. It what. It was violence.
Will Smith has admitted that himself can be broadcast around the world along with some quite aggressive. Invective at a time that people are very concerned around what jokes are able to be said. It's. Interesting what. Is forbidden and what. Is allowed who's allowed to do what who's allowed to say what when these are all questions that have been ossified. In the kind of cyclone of this event oh richard oh wow. I suppose. If we want to understand this as compassionate human beings we should for a moment place ourselves at the vantage point or. In the position of each of the three protagonists how would you feel. If you were.
Will Smith and someone said something offensive and sensitive about your partner likely you would feel angry maybe you would feel motivated to action how would you feel. If you were
jada and someone made a comment about something that you were sensitive about. I suppose you would feel hurt and wounded how would you feel. If you were
chris rock and you were doing your job which. Includes making a joke which have to walk a particular line of provoking a response and then somebody hit you. In the face. I. Imagine you'd feel. Incredibly unsafe threatened and challenged so. I suppose how you see this yourself might be a result of what your personal experiences have been what your cultural racial social alliances are not saying that you might be members of a specific group just how you see yourself aligned. I'm talking. In particular about the kind of context that have emerged around the cultural war now my personal opinion. Is that we have to try and find transcendent perspectives and here. Is mine when. I saw that. I felt really sad. I felt sad but someone that. I really like
chris rock has been hit. In the face by someone else.
I really like.Will Smith two people. In an already extraordinary situation this bizarre pageant the Oscars an extraordinary celebration. It has to be said of excess and to a degree for frivolity there's always conversations around these events about how much people should talk about.
Issues that really matter and use.
It as a platform to draw attention to the war. In ukraine or whatever particular. Issue. Is defining that time but let's face. It. If those things are really what's. Important to us we wouldn't actually have an oscar ceremony at all when. I saw that. I felt like oh no the bubble cannot sustain. Itself the spectacle as ghee de boer would call. It the spectacle by which we are all distracted you should read baudrillard on the golf war series his essays on that that we live now. In a confection of reality rather than reality. Itself that the oscars. Is a kind of pageant a celebration of a certain set of values which can't sustain themselves that were unable to sustain themselves. I felt the seeping encroachment of the real world crept. Into the oscars like the presence of the ukrainian conflict the awareness of the last two years of pandemic the sense of a broken and fissured culture could not be kept at bay even with all of the sequins and velvet and celebration. It slipped. In. In the form of a slap now. If you think that's kind of highfalutin remember for a moment that each. Individual. Involved. In that situation that even the people that devised the oscars a century ago or whenever. It was all have an unconscious mind the reason there's consistent. Imagery. In culture. Is because we have common cultural and unconscious references that we access and express and. I feel like those forces somehow made themselves present. It's like that event broke the framework of the oscars when.
Will Smith like and again. I've got no judgment. I can. Imagine a situation where. I would slap someone around the face. If. I was offended. I can. Imagine a situation where. I'd make a joke and then think oh god. I shouldn't have made that joke. I can. Imagine a situation where someone would say something about something. I'm sent about. I can. Imagine any one of those situations so me personally and you can do whatever you want to do. I'm not going to nail my colors to the mast of a particular outcome because you know like. If. I meet .
Will Smith. I've met him before. I would like to be able to go all right well that was a bit mad or.
jada. I'm. In no position to judge anybody. I've done a bunch of stupid things. In my life what. Interests me. Is the phenomena of the oscars why are we even having oscars don't you think what this shows us. Is our reality can no longer sustain. It you know. It's like. If you're. In a broken marriage trying to put on some weird carnival. In the back garden or. If you're suffering from cancer or something so come on let's enter a ballroom dancing competition don't you think we should focus on the lymphoma no forget the lymphoma put some more lipstick on. It's like the gala can't hold. Itself together anymore what. Is your reality think about this for a moment. I bet you like me were sort of fascinated by. It someone goes did you see that thing .
Will Smith oh oh man poor
chris rock oh my god what's going on. I didn't even like the swearing to be honest. I didn't even like seeing.
Will Smith going keep my wife's name out your mouth oh my god what's happening this. Is like the oscars this. Is a festival of meaninglessness why. Is. It suddenly being. Invested with such forceful and priapic meaning so when. It actually spilled. Into violence what. I felt was oh wow this reality can't work anymore this reality. Is over now obviously. I bring personal baggage to that because. I've been to the oscars. I've hosted award shows. I've been a celebrity. In my life and my personal experience of. It. Is not this. Is not judgment of the. Individuals. Involved. I mean amazing brilliant gifted people. In that world but as a system one wonders what. Its function. Is now what. Is the function of this furthermore think about this. I bet you like me were fascinated by. It but ask yourself really how much do you actually care do you really care about .
Will Smith and
chris rock and john the people oh yeah but. It's this. Issue and that. Issue sure those. Issues are. Important but do you care about. It more than for example your own dog or cat or your own nan or your own sister or brother or your own mates your own jobs or what you might have for dinner tonight we're all participating. In something that we don't actually care about at all when you think about. It would. It matter. If the whole thing just went away would you really care would you feel bereft now. I know that. If they went hey we're going to do an oscar ceremony for good youtube videos. I'll be down the tuxedo saluting saluting the dollar bills and the red carpet. I'm not condemning people for finding. It seductive that's what glamour does glamour. Is the synthesis of meaning the simulation of meaning we all willfully enter a simulation every day when we put our clothes on and pretend that our own reality. Is. Important but to see. It elevated amplified to such a gargantuan glitter colored turd of empty magnificence for me. Is something that's always been a little bit troubling you have an eerie haunting echo. In yourself that this don't matter ask yourself for a moment what really went on. In .
Will Smith 's mind .
Will Smith . Is an. Intelligent and brilliant man who's made for himself using the tools available to him a rather. Incredible life what did he really feel. In that moment what did
jada really feel what did
chris rock really feel because they're just human beings like you and me and on some level because.
I've been to these events everyone knows. It's kind of stupid but everyone knows that. It's kind of exciting. If someone passes you one of them statues or talks about you the same as. In our lives. If someone goes ah you know they think you're really good looking do they do they. Indeed well. I've always liked them like. I'll change my opinion of a person on for sixpence. I don't like that geezer. Is. Idiot no he says that he thinks you're really clever he's all right him. I like him. I like the way he sees reality he's a good guy all of us are out. In the world trying to sort of suck up values from meaningless stuff a pat on the back a gold coin a penny for the guy a moment of attention but there.
Is something real that's accessible the thing that's being synthesized the thing that's being simulated grandeur glory magnificence these things are accessible to us. In very humble simple ways. In the kind of ways that we see spoken about every day family values connection community principles what. I suppose.
I learned from that oscar spectacle. Is the reality that we are being. Invited to live. In the cultural reality because. It's not an objective thing. It's a construct you can see that right. It's falling apart. It's falling apart because. It needs to fall apart. It can't even sustain. Itself using. Its own limited framework. It's carving. Its own lapidary tombstone out before our eyes here lies show business here lies glamour here lies spectacle and distraction. It's over can you really stay. Invested. In. It of course we care when we see some little moment of humor drama the same way as. If. I looked out the window so someone smacked someone. In the mouth oh bloody hell but being. Invited to garnish. It with social and cultural meaning. Is. I think a kind of trick particularly. If as always. It's used as a trick to divide people against one another oh well you would say that won't you because you're from this background and you have these racial. Identities. I don't make no judgment on any of the. Individuals. Involved. I've done stupid things that probably line up with every one of those that say the three main players perspectives.
I wouldn't like to be smacked. In the mouth while. I was on stage doing some jokes. I wouldn't like to hear my wife abused.
I wouldn't like something. I'm sensitive about being ridiculed you know. I mean this. Is life this. Is life this.
Is the madness of life and you can join up with whatever tribe you feel most aligned with you know but what. I feel we should all get together on.
Is we are here now creating a reality you could have ceremonies for whatever you could have systems and. Institutions for whatever. Is. Important to you what are your values really. If we continue to live. In a kind of de facto reality effective snatch reality and outsourced reality that we're not participants. In where we're happy to tap away about other people's realities then.
I think we're missing the point of life and that's why. I felt most keenly when. I watched that this. Is sad something. Is over
we're not talking about cary grant and the old days where everything was kind of obeying and sophisticated.
It's gone. It's falling apart you can see. In music you can see. It. In sport you can see. It. In your supermarket the state of commercialism and commodification has reached a tipping point. It's reached the point where.
It can't sustain. Itself anymore the. Illusion. Is breaking down the oscars can't even get to the end of. Itself without smacking. Itself. In the mouth because.
It somehow. In some unconscious way knows that. It's stupid now. It knows that there's no point yeah but. It's a role model yeah but. It could be like yeah. I suppose. It could be we could say anything about anything this could be a metaphor for potential or emptiness or craft work or a little glass hat for a silly little bonnet but the fact. Is. Is.
It doesn't mean anything at all and that we have to make meaning and we should start being aware of the meaning we are making and the meaning we're not making this might be the best chance we get there.
Is a war. In ukraine there has been a pandemic there. Is. Incredible economic. Inequality there.
Is an attempt to create centralized technocratic forces that bypass national government control there's more centralization at a time where there needs to be devolution there are resource wars there are concerns about ecology there are concerns about the way we communicate with one another and for a moment these things were all epitomized.
In the tiny tundra of an admittedly well delivered slap so why bother judging the. Individuals any one of them could be wrong or right depending on your perspective your biases your experiences your alliances what ain't right.
Is continuing to live a life of distraction and casual unconscious destruction at a time where our entire ontology could be reviewed reawakened where we can change reality. If you can get to a situation where.
It's normal to have that oscar ceremony
surely we can create alternative realities and that's the journey I'm Interested.
In that's the journey. I want to go on with you. Is that the journey you want to go on let me know.
Is divided people how do you think. It's been amplified. Is. It does. It really bother you did you sort of get angry why didn't you say something why won't you say who you've so side you're on say whose side you're on. I'm on our side there are no sides. It's all an. Illusion. It's all a game wake up baby this. Is your chance. It's happening that's just what. I think let me know what you think. In the comments below. If you enjoyed this video then have a look at this one or this one. Indeed and please sign up to my mailing list. I can communicate with you regularly and let you know what the hell. I'm up to. I'm always up to something baby.
If you don't like my jokes just wander up to me and smack me. In their face we've got a lot to think about and a lot to discuss. It's very. Important to me that you stay free
me that you stay free