I was wandering around the net and visited the page of Copyranter. He usually mocks the inept advertising of various agencies around the world. A while back he posted a mockery of a CK ad for male clothing. In this ad, it showcased a beautiful black model nude and dressed in CK clothing. I added a comment to Copyranter's blog stating it looked like a rip off of Riefenstahl's Nuba photography.
In the small part of my brain, I remembered a discussion of fascist aesthetics in my college film class while we studied "Triumph of the Will". There is no denial that Riefenstahl was a visual genius. She forgoes intellectualism and speaks straight to our darker and deepest genetic desires. The desire to mate with perfection. The desire to be and for our children to be perfect beings of humanity. This ideal was perfectly described by Susan Sontag in her landmark essay "Fascinating Fascism".
Although the Nuba are black, not Aryan, Riefenstahl's portrait of them evokes some of the larger themes of Nazi ideology: the contrast between the clean and the impure, the incorruptible and the defiled, the physical and the mental, the joyful and the critical.
Susan Sontag, "Fascinating Fascism" on Riefenstahl's work "The Last of the Nuba"
As I thought about these connections between ads, Riefenstahl and fascist imagery, something about SL screenshots seemed to hold an eerie relation. By and large SL screenshots worship Gods and Goddesses, almost perfect examples of humanity. In SL everyone can be a part of the perfect genetic family. In fact the whole perfection mystique, which is forced upon us in popular culture through diet, fashion and surgery is indeed a fascist trope that is ever present in society. Fascism is about transcending the dross and achieving purity. To live in a kind of bodily Valhalla over other human beings. And unfortunately this mindset does exist inside Second Life.
Sontag points out in her essay why Riefenstahl is so dangerously attractive compared to the other now forgotten fascist artists. While the unknowns were rather amateurish in presenting the ideology in their art, Riefenstahl was talented. Her images are devoid of amateurism and ineptitude. They are timeless, which is why her photography and films look good to us now just as they did when they were initially released. I suppose the real question regarding Riefenstahl is how much did the fascist aesthetic cleave on to Riefenstahl's work and how much a true believer she really was regarding the movement's ideals. Her extensive work with Hitler's government showed her craven enough to grab opportunities to further her artistic vision. And her obsession with the perfection of man is in tune with Fascist ideals.
And on this angle, Sontag wisely separated the fascist ideal from Nazism. Riefenstahl was no longer a Nazi when she created her landmark photographs in Africa. But she still celebrated the bodies of her Nuba models in exactly the same way she did the German athletes in her Olympia film. It is Sontag's idea that fascist aesthetic lives on and separately from fascist movements that fascinates and disturbs me. Throughout societies these ur fascist ideals float haphazardly until a new movement harvests them.
The tech world in which Linden Lab, it's world and it's residents live in is not a culture that celebrates freedom. It gives mouth to democratic ideals but it doesn't live by them. The tech industry lives by their EULAs. In which they straitjacket their customers into living their way or the highway. A nascent movement infused with fascist aesthetics is taking shape with in the tech world...called Singularity. In this movement, it's adherents think they will achieve immortality by creating super human intelligence. And that by merging with this intelligence the human race will transcend it's "meat based" (the horrific term techies use to describe their bodies) origins.
But the real heart of the Singularity is the idea of better intelligence or smarter minds. Humans are not just bigger chimps; we are better chimps.
What is Singularity? Website
Another dark heart lying inside this movement is that not all humans will achieve this singularity. Only the smartest and the richest will be allowed to pass. Hence by their purpose of "selection" the singularity fascists wish to create a super race.
The singularity fascist aesthetic lives inside Second Life and is nurtured. Inside Second Life we are all a race of the super beautiful. Some of us have even conned ourselves into thinking we are quicker than the average computer user because we "get" Second Life and that its more than a game. There is no old age in SL unless a resident wears an old age skin as a kind of joke. The fascist aesthetic ideal of purity extends to our sims. In which the nature sims are incredibly popular compared to the rest. As in my own example above, its more prevalent on the SL flickr sites to see avatars gamboling about in pristine nature settings then it is to see them in Blade Runner Sci Fi sims. Again it is important to hark back to the separation of fascist aesthetics from fascist movements. Therefore SL is not obsessed with tall and blond super gods. That is not the point of this particular ur fascist aesthetic. However I do notice a liking for the tall, dark and handsome for both men and women. Another strange note is that the avatars are overwhelmingly caucasian or of mixed race. But whatever avatar a resident wears, it must be beautiful. Its rather hard to create a truly unattractive avatar in SL and more daunting to wear it.
Since I swim in this world, I have to question my own screenshots. Is there such an aesthetic that lies dormant in my own brain? Is this aesthetic inherent in all human beings but only buds when exposed to fascistic environments? Since Philip Linden is a fan of Singularity, it leads me to question his company's methods of interacting with it's customers. It leads me to suspect even more that SL was a test bed for something more than a place to allow customers to create their own geegaws. And its obvious to even the most obtuse that we fell short of some kind of measuring stick. It all indicates that this movement needs to be closely scrutinized. And I believe one way will be through the creations of it's residents...including my own.
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