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In most cultures it makes sense to say “real life happens at home” (== “life as visibly performed is theater and everybody gets that”). It doesn’t in the US. The tiniest aspects of domestic life turn into theater fodder.
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Like take cuisine. In the US “home made” versions of classic dishes (chili, barbecue, apple pie) are first-class members of public identity theater. If you have a great chili recipe you’ll likely enter contests or otherwise become known for it.
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In India, sure every family tends to have a recipe for say sambar or garam masala and part of invisible life is passing these around etc backstage. There is a clear distinction between “restaurant” versions of recipes and home-made ones. And the latter are not “on stage” as much.
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Okay, but long-winded point of this. Covid is a weirdly hard challenge for such kayfabe cultures because the logic of tackling them lies backstage and doesn’t lend itself to on-stage performance scripting. I mean the best Trump could Do was weakly aim for “masks are patriotic”
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OTOH you can’t tackle them backstage either because a) you won’t admit there IS a backstage b) the backstage is a barren cultural desert, with everything making it lovable culturally strip-mined for theatrical use
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And here’s the funny thing. The US tends to solve it’s “backstage” problems that require human culture by filling roles with non-anglo immigrants. But the moment these immigrants get acculturated they want to get on-stage too. Because they recognize that’s where the power is.
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So the “Victorian” mindset of pretending the theater is the whole thing is contagious. It’s a virus in its own right. A pretty powerful one. For a century the Anglo-middle-class victorian-roots virus spread across the world, creating hypocritical kayfabe middle classes everywhere
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But nowhere did it get as strong as in its native lands, and nowhere did it exterminate the backstage as a cultural zone as completely as in the US/UK. And nowhere else did the theatrical frontfalse consciousness become the *only* available consciousness to inhabit.
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Now let’s ask: does Stephenson’s original extrapolation still work? I think it doesn’t. Covid is the first of many systemic backstage challenges to come, and they’ll only get trickier. The frontstage/backstage cultural architecture with front denying the back is untenable.
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What about places like NZ, Australia, and Canada? We might be less bought into symbols, but perhaps also more sincere about social obligations (which seems Victorian?). Is it relevant that the main civic ritual of NZ & AU commemorates military catastrophes, not victories?
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Perhaps the home-bases of Victorian signalling have gone too far in that direction, while other places have not (yet). Are we reading the Diamond Age Neo-Victorians the same way? I see them as trying to ressurect important social obligations through what you're calling theatre.