by John Moore
A former advertising agency owner for over 35 years, today John D. Moore is a branding consultant focusing on teaching, mentoring and advising small business owners. (716) 631-2023. john@jdmpromotions.com . He is also a singer/songwriter with Americana musical duo BluesRoot. He currently has a CD, “Live. Real. In the moment.” in international distribution. . www.bluesroot.net. rootmaster@bluesroot.net.
What in the world have we come to? When did “faux” and “virtual” take over our world? And, more importantly, what happened to real? Real is getting pretty hard to find it now days. Pretend, “look like”, and “simulated” have pushed “real” to the edges of the society, to the far distant places that folks like us from the 60s Generation remember as the “real world.” And folks, I don’t know about you, but “almost” will never be the same as “is”.
Maybe society’s obsession with experiencing life from a distance instead of grabbing onto the real thing has become the norm. Maybe our “multitasking, multi job, eat out of a bag, microwave lifestyle” has changed things. It could be the effect of hundreds of television stations at our fingertips, or the internet, or instant messaging, or debit cards. Who really knows? But I don’t like it. Give me the “real deal”. I want the actual thing not some techno-simulation!
What we call things, and the things the words describe, aren’t even real any more. Hey, there’s “faux cake”, “faux fur”. “faux wood”, “faux brick” , and “faux grass”. For goodness sakes there’s even “faux crabmeat”! Ads for all of this stuff tell us that they are as good as the real thing. Folks, faux means false. Think about it!
All of this faux stuff gets me to my next example of our race away from our “realness.” I hate the word virtual. We have “virtual dating”, “virtual sports”, and “virtual store ”. We can even create “virtual identities”, and live a “virtual life” in a “virtual world.” It reminds me of our one cat, Bert, who likes to spend her day inside the house in warmth, security, and the near proximity of her food dish, while “virtual hunting” the squirrels and birds on the deck outside our sliding glass door. She’s purringly happy with living life through the looking glass. I love Bert, but don’t want to be her! Virtual is not the real thing. After all, the word means “not in actual fact.” Life is, in the end, about the real thing. Life is for testing, experiencing pain and joy and not simply “trying it out.” Nothing virtual about a mid winter head cold!
Now as bad as “faux” and “virtual” are, there are more troubling signs of the same disease out there….like strands of mutated viruses hiding and quietly waiting for the chance to alter our reality. Here are a couple of examples. The term “gaming” has taken on a new life of its own. There’s a video game for every conceivable personal interest. If you want to become a par golfer, get a Wii and get swinging. If you want to play in the NFL, don’t worry about years of practice, weight lifting, straining, and head knocking, simply hook up your Madden. Want to be a bad guy, a cop, a super hero? No problem, there’s a real-life-like video game just for you. You don’t even have to leave your couch to tussle with the bad guys. And, that of course, is part of the problem. The world is not at the end of our thumbs, it’s outside our door waiting to be experienced. No wonder we’re becoming an obese society.
On my college’s football fan message board, I’ve noticed a trend that is another splash of cold water to my real world face. First, these fan boards are filled with zealots for their teams. I understand that, in fact, I’m one of them. I catch my alma mater’s games as often as I can. I dissect the plays. I enjoy it. My memories come rushing back. I also understand from personal experience what it’s like to compete on real grass, with real big guys trying to push you back onto the bench. As a result, my criticisms are grounded in the “reality” of what goes on in the heat of a “real game.” However, now I see all the expert analysis from a generation of “virtual players.” I’m talking about the folks who spend hours a day pressing buttons and watching the computer simulations carrying out the “almost real” play calls on a crisp, clean 32 inch screen. These folks even talk about their “vast virtual coaching” experience when critiquing the latest example of “poor coaching” by the real coach in the real world.
Most disturbing is the observation that their opinions do pass (as in get accepted) as “expert” to a growing legion of message board posters. Hey, until you’ve been part of a whole bunch of folks working together day after day for the chance to compete one day a week, then no amount of Madden ball will put the same kind of sweat marks on your video game watching pajamas!
And, of course, there are the “war games”. You’ve seen the ads and heard the comments. A voice over proclaims that the action is so real you’ll swear you’re right in the thick of things. As any of my fellow veterans will attest, war is not a game, and you don’t want to be in the thick of it.
Then there is the music world today. As most of you know, my wife and I are lucky enough to travel around the country playing old time rock and roll music under our stage name of “Papa and Mama Root.” We keep it simple with acoustic electric guitar, a little harp, and plenty of real, in the moment, vocals. Some nights it all comes to gather better than others. That’s why it is live music. It’s real. While we strive to keep things our music simple to the root, it’s not easy. With technology and society’s “faux” and “virtual” mind set, our brand of live music is becoming harder to find. Real music is being replaced by some unfamiliar hybrid mixing pre-recorded tracks, synthetic sounds, fake choruses, special effects, and drum machines. We watched a young fellow performer recently as he strummed a tune along with his “virtual band” made up blinking lights, wires, and foot pedals. Frankly it looked, and sounded, bizarre to say the least…one guy with the sound of a seven piece band booming from the P.A. system. Why not just buy the CD and sing with it? Whoops, they do that already. They call it karaoke!
Seems that in almost every nook of our society there is a reality gap between the 60s Generation and today’s new world. The gap isn’t a virtual one. It’s not faux. It’s real. I tell a lot of our younger friends to walk outside and experience what the world has to offer. Learn to do real things, then do them again and again. Mastering a craft, a job skill, or a “get your hands into it hobby”, has real benefits, not faux ones.
