The conspiratorial comedian, Owen Benjamin (who I like again now that he has stopped being a fundamentalist Muslim and has started sporting an array of splendid hats), made a very interesting point on Twitter the other day.
On 'X', Dominic Cummings, (a recent recipient of a Greg Wallace-style character assassination), describes how the Government's Cabinet Office meetings are staged. The mandarins prepare a folder, The Chairman's Notes, the PM's script. Other senior members of the cabinet are also given their scripts with which they respond and the conclusions are noted in the pre-drafted report.
The Greg Wallace blanket coverage may have something to do with an unconfirmed now deleted tweet when he says he will oppose and expose the ludicrous Arla dairy scheme to stop cows belching.
The right question to ask further would be: What is the role Dominic plays and who has written the script he follows?
The first thought I had when "The Greg Wallace blanket coverage" started: What did he refuse to do (or prommised to do) to deserve this character assasination?
Same with Taranatino’s films. Our kids are now at a late-teens age where we’ll let them watch them. They recoiled in horror at Pulp Fiction and its endless use of the N word. ‘How was this allowed in a film?’ they asked… a good question which I still don’t have an answer for (well, one which won’t reinforce their current view of me as being slightly unhinged on certain issues…)
It’s true that we cannot control other’s behaviour; we can only control our own response to it. Learned it from Byron Katie’s The Work and trying to teach my kids this.
James Delingpole’s podcast with Owen Benjamin led me to his show Must be Nice which happily led to much needed LOLs at a number of un-PC sketches.
The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.
Ah, but isn’t this the paradox of existence? To play the role so convincingly, to immerse oneself so fully in the story, is both the brilliance of the performance and the source of the forgetting. Dissociation could indeed be seen as the actor so consumed by the role that they lose sight of the stage, the audience, and the scriptwriter. It’s the forgetting of the "I am" behind the character.
Yet awareness from Oneness offers a different lens. Imagine sitting in the audience, fully aware you’re watching Martin’s journey unfold on the screen, yet not detached or dismissive of it. Instead, you embrace both the actor and the observer, knowing they are not separate. You’re not lost in the forest, nor avoiding it; you are both the forest and the one walking through it.
The late-night meeting with the devil or the Blair Witch? Perhaps those are metaphors for the moments when the veil grows thin, when the actor is forced to confront the stagehand pulling the strings or the camera capturing their every move. The key is not to avoid the forest but to enter it with full awareness—knowing you are both the wanderer and the path.
So, perhaps the question isn’t whether actors forget who they are but whether they can remember that they are more than the roles they play.
The screen-based simulacrum also extends beyond live action scripted role play. Similar deception and distraction middleware to manipulate our perception goes on across so-called social media in the written form all day long, every day.
Just because we don’t see the people behind the posts doesn’t mean we aren’t watching (reading) a performance. And soon enough, we’ll be herded to their TikTok or EweTube or next podcast where we can see them turn their 1D faceless text into 2D feigned cinéma verité.
All the world’s a page, stage and moving image parlour trick to control thoughts and suck time.
“Destroy your screens now” is what Rik really meant to say.
Alex Jones is a very talented comedy actor but I preferred him in his Bill Hicks role https://youtu.be/THnrX2Uy3qI?si=Iz2Jv-Wu3E8b2ch3
I was disappointed to discover this but the truth must be faced.
Same!
On 'X', Dominic Cummings, (a recent recipient of a Greg Wallace-style character assassination), describes how the Government's Cabinet Office meetings are staged. The mandarins prepare a folder, The Chairman's Notes, the PM's script. Other senior members of the cabinet are also given their scripts with which they respond and the conclusions are noted in the pre-drafted report.
The Greg Wallace blanket coverage may have something to do with an unconfirmed now deleted tweet when he says he will oppose and expose the ludicrous Arla dairy scheme to stop cows belching.
https://x.com/banthebbc
The right question to ask further would be: What is the role Dominic plays and who has written the script he follows?
The first thought I had when "The Greg Wallace blanket coverage" started: What did he refuse to do (or prommised to do) to deserve this character assasination?
Same with Taranatino’s films. Our kids are now at a late-teens age where we’ll let them watch them. They recoiled in horror at Pulp Fiction and its endless use of the N word. ‘How was this allowed in a film?’ they asked… a good question which I still don’t have an answer for (well, one which won’t reinforce their current view of me as being slightly unhinged on certain issues…)
Is the real reason because it's inexplicable and needs to remain that way because we don't want anybody getting 'hurt'?
You sound like a lovely person 😂 Thanks for the constructive comment 👍
Thanks, I’ll try better next time 👍
It’s true that we cannot control other’s behaviour; we can only control our own response to it. Learned it from Byron Katie’s The Work and trying to teach my kids this.
James Delingpole’s podcast with Owen Benjamin led me to his show Must be Nice which happily led to much needed LOLs at a number of un-PC sketches.
Story based simulacrum for the win!
But are we not all actors performing our given script in this staged reality?
You reminded me of this Zappa-attributed quote:
The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.
We are all, indeed. The name of the character is written in the birth certificate by capital letters.
Our signature on a paperwork make this caracter "alive and real".
The role of a character called martin totally immersed in the movie and forgetting I am in the audience watching his role
Ah, but isn’t this the paradox of existence? To play the role so convincingly, to immerse oneself so fully in the story, is both the brilliance of the performance and the source of the forgetting. Dissociation could indeed be seen as the actor so consumed by the role that they lose sight of the stage, the audience, and the scriptwriter. It’s the forgetting of the "I am" behind the character.
Yet awareness from Oneness offers a different lens. Imagine sitting in the audience, fully aware you’re watching Martin’s journey unfold on the screen, yet not detached or dismissive of it. Instead, you embrace both the actor and the observer, knowing they are not separate. You’re not lost in the forest, nor avoiding it; you are both the forest and the one walking through it.
The late-night meeting with the devil or the Blair Witch? Perhaps those are metaphors for the moments when the veil grows thin, when the actor is forced to confront the stagehand pulling the strings or the camera capturing their every move. The key is not to avoid the forest but to enter it with full awareness—knowing you are both the wanderer and the path.
So, perhaps the question isn’t whether actors forget who they are but whether they can remember that they are more than the roles they play.
I see the BBC are now giving Steven Bartlett a big push. What’s his role I wonder.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gpz163vg2o
The screen-based simulacrum also extends beyond live action scripted role play. Similar deception and distraction middleware to manipulate our perception goes on across so-called social media in the written form all day long, every day.
Just because we don’t see the people behind the posts doesn’t mean we aren’t watching (reading) a performance. And soon enough, we’ll be herded to their TikTok or EweTube or next podcast where we can see them turn their 1D faceless text into 2D feigned cinéma verité.
All the world’s a page, stage and moving image parlour trick to control thoughts and suck time.
“Destroy your screens now” is what Rik really meant to say.
https://youtu.be/JtrgIj7dqsQ
The link below isn't directly relevant to this article but it's an affirmation of the ideas you share with us.
https://www.jchristoff.com/blog/the-weaponization-of-bad-behavior-and-the-massive-government-firings-that-are-coming
Take care and keep safe,
Hugh