The Battle of the Real

From a recent email about the fake, fraudulent, and fantastic's steady invasion of the Real:

Interestingly, Prada, the creator of an immensely expensive and wildly popular line of luxury handbags and clothing, is sponsoring this hybrid documentary-reality-drama that vamps on the theme of virtual vs real in the modern world. I think Miuccia is hung up on this theme, even in her commercial wares, no doubt because she has had something to do with the further blurring of the lines in fashion (her purses look like cheap knockoffs but they are in reality the chic objects of desire).

And in a United States where a large segment of the population may some day no longer work, just consume and make investments, I sometimes wonder if we will become a virtual country. One could say this process began with industrialization, picked up momentum after the dawn of television, and fully blossomed with the advent of the Internet. Here we are, getting fatter on foods with no nutritional value, and separated completely from the earth and insulated from her wrath by air conditioners and GM agriculture. We have encapsulated ourselves in steel tanks with rhino guards in which to couch our fears. While Americans become more and more isolated from all genuine human connection, the angry outside world grows restless. In some way, terrorism is the threat of the real - real pain and real death that no amount of medication or entertainment can transfigure into dream.