The Ghost in the Collective Machine

Originally published on February 27, 2019

Descartes talked a lot about dualism-how our minds and bodies are intertwined yet separate, with the mind hypothetically taking precedence over the body. Here’s Wikipedia on the mind-body problem. This paradox of dualism (how do two things exist seemingly independently when they are symbiotic?) is not likely to be solved by anyone. That didn’t stop Arthur Koestler from trying. In his well known book The Ghost in the Machine Koestler argues that our body has varying degrees of primitive algorithms that are competing for our body and mind’s attention-the output of the algorithms comprise the titular Ghost in the Machine, our every thought a dynamic equilibrium between the warring algorithms.

That same mechanism of warring algorithms, various underlying processes fighting for the attention of the mind while in many cases seeking to sabotage the greater body, exists in the media and the collective conscious of our society.

How society as a whole pictures someone is largely a function of how the various ghosts in the societal-perception-machine function interact. The largest ghost remains the public media, with social media amplifying the second biggest ghost in the hidden Titanomachian struggle. The outcome of this hidden turmoil is a public creature, or rather a perception of a public figure, that represents something quite distinct from that person.

In one of my previous careers I got to know a lot of decently famous people. Let’s call the average semi-famous to famous day to day character, personality, traits, quirks, loves, hates of our subjects Persona A. While there is no such thing as a true self (Chuck Klostermann has done a great job of dismantling the “true self” in “The Visible Man” which I highly recommend), we can reasonably curate a view of a person as the sum of their daily actions. Persona A is the day to day action and character of the famous subject, with nothing left out. Good friends of the person will know most of the quirks and character of someone, significant others almost all. It will vary some, between business, family and personal, but there is a typical underlying thread of behavior.

Then, we have the widely accepted public perception of this person. Let’s call this Persona B. Persona B, in my experience is usually manufactured by the media or social media latching onto one or two character traits of someone and then building out a mythology around those traits. When the real life person behind Persona A does something to violate the public’s corpus of knowledge of the subject (for better or worse), they are often mocked, belittled, or exalted.

What I am proposing is that this contrast between Persona A and Persona B is merely the mind-body problem transposed into a different realm: that of public and private. Sometimes Persona A and Persona B are reasonably close, but often they are not. When a public figure violates their Persona B, the reason for the vitriol directed at them, is that Persona B not only has a prescribed action set that is allowed, but often has evolved into the point where it is, like a meme, practically its own living organism, with a set of expectations, actions, and virtues.

A great example of this is the recent (and not so recent) idea of “shipping” a couple. I’m an old man now and recently discovered this phenomena which means I will be explaining it wrong (a fractal example of the mind-body problem if you really think about it). In essence, fans of famous performers or actors often see a sign of public affection and decide that those involved should be in a relationship. Bradley Cooper ( a highly successful actor), croons to Lady Gaga (a fairly successful actress) in a pantomimed love song from a movie where their characters are in love, and the crowd clamors for them to get together. What the crowd is really doing is separating each of them from their imago dei. It is fundamentally de-personalizing them and creating a mythologized version of the two actors, who are required to act in a manner consistent with the ascribed mythology, regardless of its relationship with real life. Persona B has become a monster, out of control and untethered nearly completely from persona A. I say nearly completely because the actions of Persona A can still somewhat influence it, although often in unpredictable ways. Donald Trump, whose Persona A I am guessing is quite different from his Persona B, has figured out how to tame the wild beast and essentially solve his individual mind body problem. Same for Cardi B. It’s important to remember that both of them are granted power because the medium is the message, and they understand how to properly choose the dosage of medium and which parts of Persona A they inject into the machine.

But if you violate your status as a modern day god by doing something with Persona A that is not acceptable for your persona B, and the public finds out, you can expect a Promethean punishment. Leading, as always, to a Girard-ian sacrifice and a cycle of violence.

As I mentioned before, I got to know a lot of semi-famous people. Public perception, their Persona B, varies from more-or-less right but simplistic, to completely and totally off.

The implication of this is simple. Privately disregard the public’s view of anyone and everyone that you don’t know personally, while choosing to create a persona B that acts largely in concert with your persona A. Or, better yet, live a quiet life and work with your hands.