Mark My Words 2.2

“In the world of imagined communities, the struggle for survival is a struggle for access to the human imagination. Whatever events therefore succeed in gaining such access (street battles before and after football matches, hijacking of planes, targeted or haphazard acts of terrorism, desecration of graves, daubing offensive graffiti on cult buildings, poisoning or contaminating supermarket food, occupying public squares, taking hostages, stripping in public, mass marches or city riots) do so first and foremost in their semiotic, symbolic quality. Whatever the damage actually viewed upon the intended or accidental victims of display, it is the symbolic significance that counts – the capturing of public imagination. As a rule, the magnitude of the latter effect is but feebly related to the scale of the ‘material’ devastation that the spectacles could accomplish.”