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Entering the last of the second Black Mirror trilogy, Charlie Brooker takes another look at technology’s relationship with politics. The only difference is that while the last time it was mocking the people in power, this time its more or less an attack on the British political system as a whole. And its represented by one single character : Waldo.
The Waldo Moment focuses on Jamie Salter (Daniel Rigby), a comedian who voices a popular CG bear named Waldo. With an upcoming by election, The character of Waldo is put forward as a candidate, all for a joke and a boost in ratings. But as the campaign goes on, Waldo increases in popularity and Jamie is thrown into a world that he may live to regret.
The first good thing to say about this story is the performance of Daniel Rigby. He plays a character who is stuck in a rut and with a hint of psychological problems and a messy past. Waldo to him is a wage and part of a variety of ideas for a late night sketch show. Jamie then strikes a relationship with The Labour Candidate Gwendolyn Harris (Chloe Pirrie) which gives Jamie a bolt of happiness in the story. But very soon, a misunderstanding not only changes Jamie’s relationship with her, but also unleashes the damage that Waldo inflicts on the small by election site, and slowly but surely wins over the electorate via Waldo’s anti politics personality and approach to the other candidates.
The whole idea of this story is social media’s relationship with politics. Its a good idea and one that Brooker writes with a sense of realism, but adding a touch of comedic satire too. The idea of Waldo representing that in a way is clever, and shows how society – especially young people – is influenced so easily by a brand or a cartoon that will attack the establishment or status quo that we’ve seen over and over again for so long. But with this, Brooker shows just how dangerous social media can be, which is the overall idea of Black Mirror as a whole. As the story goes on, and Waldo’s popularity grows ever stronger, the people behind the scenes begin to use Waldo’s identity for greedier ideas and thus they begin to use him as a marketing tool, completely shredding his original purpose of a protest vote. But the scary thing is that the people don’t see it, and by the end of the story, they have fallen in love with Waldo and forget about what he originally stood for. I think this mostly would affect young people, as when it comes to voting and politics in general, they are the most easy to manipulate because they have no major responsibilities in their lives. And once they grow up, they begin to connect with a party which gears towards their needs. So to many of the fictional voters in that town, Waldo was nothing. Merely a protest vote for those who had something to protest about. But once they grow up, and begin to mould their own lives and responsibilities, that’s when Waldo becomes meaningless to them.
To sum it up overall, The Waldo Moment is a great expose to British Politics and society’s relationship with it. Charlie Brooker is a writer with ideas and beliefs, and with Black Mirror, he creates alternate worlds that show us what we could become if we let technology run our lives as well as the idea that technology is moving too fast, to a point in which we cannot control it anymore.
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4 Comments
Media hypnosis may not be accurate as a term, but there is a kind of mass hynosis passing of as ‘consciousness’,'culture’, ‘communication’and ‘relationship. This virtual ‘reality’ is both the individual and collective ego – that is a kind of mask that becomes identified with and substitutes for reality – for consciously shared culture expressing true relations.
Technology is a mixed bag – because our mind is a mixed bag. The extended powers of communication and control are matched only by the ever mushrooming flood of distraction and misinformation along with a disappearance of privacy.
The illusion that has most glued to their internal screen is of the central character acting out an independence of power, prevailing over and succumbing to a current adversity in a never ending soap. It is a kind of tacitly shared unconsciousness in which a fantasy self can be indulged. But unconsciousness can hardly BE shared. It is a matter of all agreeing to ‘look away’ from what would upset our personal apple cart.
There is a degree of checks and balances within the game – that work to prevent or at least minimize the worst excesses of power. But these have increasingly been undermined by an ever more ungrounded mentality that is reflected in our current financial insanity.
The desire for unreal or fantasy experience – did I call it unconsciousness? – is provided for because it is demanded. One cannot make a horse drink. And the pattern of the mind in its passive aggressive split plays out as the victim and the victimizer, the controlled and the controlling – as a sort of war in which real communication is the first ‘casualty’ – because the desire to play the role is greater than the desire to be consciously whole in true relation. The stimulation of the dynamic of conflict is addictive and the addict lays waste to his or her life in a hollowing out of a madness given power over heart and mind.
Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror is one of the voices that doesn’t simply extend a mesmeric invitation to unconsciousness – but prompts the viewer to wake up. To shift from passive stupor of ‘accepted reality’ into a responsibility of discernment. The mind-in-its-illusion doesn’t want to wake up and will do anything to reassert ‘control’ – but the perspective of awakening is indeed freedom and is worth anything to abide in the full and hearty appreciation thereof!
Waking to fear is not all the way – the fear is an alarm to bring attention present and NOT a call to war. War is the mind in which communication has been usurped and denied. Just say no!
Speaking truth to ‘power’ is of a desire to heal and to share sanity. The insane are never wholly ‘out there’ for we are all subscribers to the fantasy channel but in various shifting alliances of a mask that keeps a true and present conscious-ness at at bay – on hold, out of sight.
These games always end in tears or in some prodigal wasteland.
But at least that cuts through at last to the heart that feels and reconnects with the stirring of truth remembered, beneath the great projection.
Look up, Narcissus! – one is not defined in reflected image and concept, but in love’s true sharing, in innocence revealed. None is special, to be left out, so release the wish of a ‘self-exceptionalism’ and its lens darkly, and uncover a totally different purpose active in all things.
Thanks for your attention.
Yep, what he said ;)
I enjoyed it, especially ‘the moment’ where he loses it in the debate, but it felt over very, very quickly. Whether there was too much of a build up or not, it just seemed to shift to the end really suddenly.
We are fascinated as well as interested in what you really are talking about right here.