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Cultural Capital: A meme market.

Sometime in the last 5 years meme culture made a shift. What began as collective observations of life evolved to commentary on the absurdity of our post-modern, post truth world. As meme culture became more prevalent on mainstream platforms like Facebook, memes flooded our feeds. Meme makers and culture creators from the depths of the internet, 4chan and parts of reddit, began to comment on the phenomena they were presented with: the de-valuation of memes as symbols with meaning resulting in a crash of the cultural capital market. A new freedom was unleashed. People realized that so much was being said, that nothing they said mattered. Memes began to take an absurdist look at truth and culture. Our inherently Post Modern art form began to make Post Modern comments on itself. When absurdity reigns and parody outnumbers reality, what do we do? Does it even matter?

#how bow dah #post moderism #fake news #nihilist memes

Harambe: The Truth

(Source: http://imgur.com/DrfyXjH)

There is nothing true about this Harambe meme, yet it imitates the look of truth because of the “Eyewitness News” appearance. It is comical, farcical simulacra that parodies a hyperreality of political conspiracies. Here we find a comment on the implosion of politics, morality, and objective truth.

#harambe #trump

Harambe: Great Leader

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Source: http://imgur.com/ZnoPxEN)

Harambe was a gorilla in a zoo. He lived in a cage, much like a prisoner. He had no political power to wield, yet here and in many other instances he was held up as a political hero. Heroes of objective morality are parodied and take on the same Nietzschean sense of being man-made myths.

#nietzsche #harambe

Harambe: War Hero

(Source: http://thoughtcatalog.com/jacob-geers/2016/08/the-50-greatest-harambe-memes-of-all-time/)

Impending troubles with North Korea has caused some anxiety, as well as plenty of satire. In this replication the idea of Harambe implodes with political anxieties, children’s media and mythified cinema characters once again masking and perverting reality (Poster, 1988).

Harambe: Bigger than Jesus.

(Source: www.reddit.com/r/Harambe/comments/4y3ql9/harambe_died_for_our_sins/)

His demise caused the internet to claim that he had died for our sins. For a moment, Harambe seemed to have more true believers than Christ himself. The parody/simulation surpassed the reality: Harambe is our savior.

#harambe

Harambe: sweet prince or arrant knave?

Harambe was just a gorilla. HIs untimely death was at best a necessary evil and at worst a sensational news story. Yet in the hive mind of the internet, he became a hero. This tragic story became an implosion of religion, culture, and politics. The memes made in his wake were a collective commentary on the shallow way in which we connect with the pillars of the modern era: truth, reason, democracy, religion. The next few posts will explore Harambe as an example of implosion, or click the hashtag for a full exploration of his glory.

#harambe

Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust

The over-saturation of simulacra creates the hyperreality and this hyperreality breaks down the boundaries of real/fake, social/political, private/public. Image and reality collapse on each other, creating what Baudrillard calls Implosion (1988).

Realness: You can’t see me (Cena, J. 2014)

#implosion #expanded brain #jean baudrillard #you can't see me

More Real Than Real?

A movement of memes are highlighting the disconnect between the hyperreality we are sold, and the world we actually interact with. Check out the examples below:

Source: https://www.wereblog.com/expectation-vs-reality

In media we are sold the simulation that marriage is a fairytale of finding fulfillment and acceptance with our partners. Yet, the reality is the divorce rate is high and people do not spend 30+ years together without fighting.

Again, we believe in and desire the simulation over the reality. Most people would not pick the bottom picture to be the real pirates. It doesn't matter if they are pirates or not: the real pirates are in the top picture. This meme calls out the hyperreality and the fact that meaning is messy in the Post Modern world.

(Source: https://www.wereblog.com/expectation-vs-reality)

#hyperreality #expectations #reality

#hyperreality

Hyperreality

Last weekend I went to the Grand Canyon. I was expecting to spend the afternoon in a serene commune with nature. Instead I found a bus tour, hoards of mid-western tourists that don’t know how to use public transportation, and hand rails separating me from the serenity I sought. Yet, this is the Grand Canyon experience most people were looking for: to see the view without the sweat or physical exertion. The reality of getting to see the Canyon without the National Park experience would be a lot of hard work and struggle. The simulacra, the bus tour and gift shops, is more desirable than the original. This is hyperreality.

#hyperreality grand canyon

#simulacra #jean baudrillard #finkle is einhorn

Real or Representation?

: There’s a new meme in town.

(source: https://onsizzle.com/t/google-earth?s=new)

This new meme makes a joke of the simulacra the post-modern world is facing. These memes raise the question of what came first: the simulation we regularly interact with via media like TV shows or video games, or the original versions that we may not ever really interact with. Think about Google Earth: have you ever seen the view of the world that Google Earth provides in real life? Which is more real to you? Does it matter? Reality, truth and reason take on a Nietzschean spin: myths created by man.

(u/qjakxi, 12 April 2017)

#real thing #meme economy #simulacra

Simulacra

One sign of a Post-Modern era is when the line between realness and simulations are blurred. We can no longer tell what the original was because we are so flooded with copies. These next memes expose the exploitation of a basic reality.

#john cena #jean baudrillard

We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning

Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation

#postmoderism #jean baudrillard #dank memes

Y u no indeed. While I am sort of joking with this homemade meme, we find that memes of the early era reflected a basic reality. This guy was replicated to show frustration in real life’s minutiae such as:

orange juice: y u no taste ok after I brush teeth?

Angry Birds: y u no has physics?

Check out the hashtags to find more sentiments like this one.

#y u no #y u no guy

Confession

There was a time when we were all spilling our secrets in size 14 Impact font super-imposed over a picture of a sad looking bear. The confessions were in earnest: people just looking to share something potentially embarrassing. The public latched on to these memes because of the feeling of humanity, vulnerability associated with confessing. Truth, humanity, honesty in connection. These are all values of the Modern Era. These types of memes served to negotiate sociocultural norms(Gal et. al, 2016).Everybody has some habit that is socially unacceptable or embarrassing, and often many people share the same one. I know you pick your nose in the car; you know I do too. Modern faith in reasoning and memes as a mode gave us a place to talk about it Click the hashtag to find more like this one.

Source: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/confession-bea

#confession bear

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