In the book The Message in The Bottle by Walker Percy, he brings out many topics that really make one question their vision of the world and themselves. One big argument he brings up in his second chapter, “The Loss of the Creature” is that as individual beings, humans are losing their sovereignty. Sovereignty is our ability to think independently, to make our own assumptions and to be in control of own our perceptions of things. He believes that many individuals have lost their sovereignty due to preconceived ideas they have built up, such as the ideas derived from the television and its symbolic complex.
The symbolic complex are thoughts or ideas formed through visuals or sounds that are created by those we think are “experts or planners. ” When this symbolic complex comes into play, individuals who are exposed to anything new in their life, already have preconceived notions of what their experience is going to be. These outside sources really influence one’s opinion to the extent that, they can alter people’s life experiences. Percy’s argument is quite valid, and I strongly agree with him; everyday we are losing sovereignty, especially when technology is factored in.
Technology such as television is constantly idolized by humans. When the television was created, it was seen to be made as a social pastime; a social gathering for family and friends meant to bring everyone together. Families like my own tend to watch television for hours a day as a medium of entertainment, news and much more. However, when doing so, no one really acknowledges how television can affect one’s perception (“value P”) of many important topics and how that can change our experiences. What we refer to and see as “free entertainment” actually comes with a greater price.
As we are browsing through the channels we are actually losing ourselves through the ideas built through the television. Without realizing it, we are constantly being influenced by the things we see on the regular day to day television sessions. It can influence our perspective in regard to topics on politics, fashion, stereotypes and a countless amount of other things all in one sitting. I know for a fact when I was younger I was exposed to the television, and I tended to watch it all the time.
All I knew was based on what I saw on television; I only knew what the T. V. wanted me to know. One example of how the television can influence individuals is through advertisement. While watching television, one is constantly being exposed to advertisements which can be shown through product placement in a movie or that two minute commercial break. Advertisers try to get the viewers to believe in what they are selling; these people would pay millions of dollars to get you to believe in what they are trying to sell to you.
When the viewers see this, they are subconsciously being influenced to believe what the advertiser’s “experts and planners” want them to believe. Many of the times this is highly effective, and the individuals would believe into what they are being sold. Once this idea is presented to the viewer or “consumer” they only feel satisfied if their experience measures up to what was presented to them. Percy states, “the consumer is content to receive an experience just as it has been presented to him by the theorist and planners” (Percy 55). They are dependent on what they are told and expect to experience as such.
When watching television, the ideas on television have been seen as “normalized,” yet we forget the fact that these advertisements are scripted. One personal example happened to me when my whole family decided to go to Las Vegas. I was excited and could not wait to go. However, when I got there, it was not what I expected. Surely my idea of what I thought Las Vegas was, was completely different; it was nothing like what I saw on television. All those movies, advertisements, and shows I had watched of Las Vegas had completely built my expectations f the place.
When I went to Circus Circus, one of their attractions it was nothing like the commercial showed; it was not as fun as I expected it to be. The advertisement made Circus Circus appear ten times more fun that what it really was; the television portrayed such a visually appealing setting. However, it is not only about what the television portrays, it goes beyond that. In this case, my symbolic complex is the already formed idea of Las Vegas, specifically Circus Circus and when it did not meet my expectations, it was rather disappointing.
As Percy states “As a result of this preformulation, the source of the sightseer’s pleasure undergoes a shift,” (Percy 47). However, I did not go to Las Vegas with my own perception of what it would be like to experience Las Vegas rather I went with the perception that the television formed in my mind. By the time I started packing, I already had preconceived notions of my experience in my head, simply based off of what I had seen on advertisements. My sovereignty was lost the moment that | allowed those notions to become my expectations of my destination.
One similiar scenario that Percy brings up is on the Grand Canyon. He states how the guy who discovered it, Garcia Lopez de Cardenas was amazed at first sight, “Being first, he has access to it and can see it for what it is but to no one else is it ever that beautiful” (Percy 47). He was able to see this because he was not brought up to his experience with expectations of it, he saw it as something of his own. On the other hand, someone who seen the Grand Canyon from postcards, books or televisions might see it differently, unlike Cardenas their “value P’ has been tinted.
When we go into something with this made up mindset (symbolic complex) it is no longer our own experience but something we look at with expectations of other sources. These expectations can create our own anxiety over what should be felt or said regarding our first hand experience with a destination. As one can now see, the idea that Percy brought up about our “loss of sovereignty” is quite realistic and is a constant in everyday life. We are constantly being brought up with ideas that are not our own.
In my specific example about television, when our first hand experience does not live up to that advertisement companies deliver the televised “ideal” our experiences are brought down; at that moment, we lose our sovereignty. Although we may be bombarded with many sound, or visual effects that create an exaggerated expectation, there is a greater need to hone in on what we know is true. The reality is that in life, in television advertising, there is no “one size fits all,” that is our biggest mistake, is thinking and giving in to the idea that the experience of an individual, can be satisfied in the experience of another.
Although Percy claims that we are losing our sovereignty he does believe we can recover from this. It is possible to be exposed to the symbolic complex and yet, not lose your sovereignty. As Percy states “It may be recovered as a consequence of a breakdown machinery by which the expert present the experience to the consumer” (Percy 49) As individuals one needs to realize that in order to recover our own experiences we have to abandon these preconceptions and ideas that others form for us. This being the fixed image they have for us and not our own the “symbolic complex. “
