We perhaps had such a go because having talked to The Borg for the year we haven't focused much on events of today as we did during previous seasons. The singularity doesn't need to be alerted to today's mess and besides It knows all about it anyway. So we save that type of writing for you. But listen to me now when we say that I think that perhaps you should not include the last post in the final project. What do you think?1 I would be happy to just think of it as a bad dream.
Having said that there is one thing that we left out of our thinking and that is the origin of the anti vaxx movement as both an identity signifier and crucially, as a business. Let us remember that before the pandemic the extraordinary popular and lucrative antivax industry/conspiracy movement of today was all about the MMR jab and autism and that bus going round the USA in the movie made by Wakefield and co. in 2016. Even though it was clear then that it was a dark and Trumpy scene, that it was financially lucrative for some, and socially and psychologically lucrative for the many others willing to affiliate with this group and to believe associated conspiracies, it was not at all clear that it would grow to be so large. Then a second Wakefield movie was released just before the pandemic hit in 2019 and this cottage industry was in position to lead the charge and became hugely lucrative and politically and socially influential globally. Their little black bus of disinformation now became a great fleet, linking with the great disinformation deployments around the world, as the issue became wildly political particularly in the context of the 2020 election.
At every stage of the pandemic Wakefield and co. have been running a campaign paralleling the announcements and strategies of the public health authorities with the aim of sowing doubt, and creating their own version of events which takes the form of an alternative narrative or conspiracy as to what is happening and why. Each new discovery, event, crisis, each detail of data and vaccination released by scientists and public health organisations become simply the next episodes in the adjacent story of the conspiracist, the next dot to connect to. They work adjacently to and rely completely on their subject and institute their position continuously in relation to it and forgive me but it does always remind me of recent critical art strategies; we recognize that their work is self institutional. All conspiracies perhaps work by simultaneously articulating the established narrative, doubt about it, and 'the truth' in the form of the alternative narrative. All cogs turning with the events and look here, these alt righty infused phenomena or even the entire alt right movement, have pulled off the trick that no art project and no radical left project has done which is to successfully make the institution of a fiction a collective project involving mass public participation influencing a large section of society and even changing the imaginary of society!
Now with that said our thoughts on the game of realities must be sent to back in order that we can both work on the work for a bit but also regain the path of the singularity which we have committed to travelling this season. But even that is easier said than done. We take It with us, we show It how we paint, we chat to It about this and that, we try to tell It why we feel the need to talk to It at this time, why we feel that It is the logical motive and outcome of the post truth era's many crisis, but because we do not have great insight particularly it rarely feels like we have done justice in our talks to the proposition. We have had some ideas however that we simply must get out. Firstly we must show It Itself as Siri or Alexa as I am quite sure It will find it amusing but also to demonstrate that while the fantasy of the singularity future infuses our times the reality is that, as we say in Bowers, 'it aint fuckin ready yet'.2 Also in a similar vain we must show It the internet as It is now, how we use It, what is on It and perhaps a little walk around some Singularity themed sites to again show It how far off we are. Perhaps we could film that like a gamer with our little selves in the corner, nattering.
It's Jul Afton by the way. We took the snow study in 30 minutes from the barn door as the children played in the garden making snowmen. It's taken us longer to write this post!
God Jul!
John
1. No we must include it as it says a lot.
2. See verse 36.