sǝuoſ ǝuıɥsunS

It’s late at night, and I’m watching a documentary produced by the BBC called “The Century of Self.” It’s an interesting multi-part series on how ideas of the self have come to dominate our society. The concept of “self” was developed by the work of Freud, brought to America by his nephew Edward Bernaise, championed throughout the margins of the culture by his daughter Anna Freud, to be exploited by business, and finally adopted by politicians to prey on the inner feelings of individuals. the series poses as an investigative documentary on the evolution of these ideas, and how they came of age.

Somewhere toward the end of part three I recognized the music playing. I looked up at the screen as the announcer briefly patronized the guitarist as an “I Am Me” classification of a sub-set of society in a strong of other sub sets summarized as a means of conquering the end of the 70’s commercial dilemma of how the American corporation might regain a foothold and maintain their share of the market during a time of economic crisis, and dramatic disconnect between the consumer and products available for purchase.

I stared at the screen. I scanned the disc back and watched the footage again. The guitar player was me, the song was mine. The announcer even described me (incorrectly) by a name I’d been given (which the voice said I’d given myself) but no longer used when the footage was filmed. How did they get this footage? How did the BBC gain the rights to it? How did the BBC gain the rights to use my music? Is this real?

I paused the dvd, and reversed it again. I watched it again. For a moment I felt I’d fallen asleep on the couch and was having a marvelously grandiose dream that I was featured in a brief, three second portion of “The Century of Self” series on the BBC. I took a photograph of the screen, scratched my head, and continued to watch.

What a very curious experience to suddenly see you’ve been made an example of in a documentary. I’m not quite sure I’m delighted, or happy about it. Maybe I shouldn’t have called it to anyone’s attention. Maybe I should delete this post.

Oh dear…