“the ancients had visions, we have television. But the civilization of the spectacle is cruel. The spectators have no memory; because of that they also lack remorse and true conscience. They live tied to what is new, and it doesn't matter what it is so long as it is new. They quickly forget and scarcely blink at the scenes of death and destruction of the Persian Gulf War or at the curves, contortions and tremulos of Madonna and of Michael Jackson. Commandants and Bishops are condemned to suffer the same fate: they also await the Great Yawn, anonymous and universal, which is the Apocalypse and Final judgement of the society of spectacle.
    “We are condemned to this new version of hell; those who appear on the screen and those of us who watch. Is there an escape? I don't know. One must seek it.”

-Octavio Paz, “The Media Spectacle Comes To Mexico,” 1994