By Ben Andoni
Every morning we wake up bombarded by a multitude of news stories, coming from different media outlets at home and abroad. It feels as if we are on a gigantic carousel, where what is presented as “the news” instantly vanishes, only to be replaced and re-delivered with the mottos of various media: “Without any doubt,” each one claims to bring the ultimate piece of news; “through us passes the real story,” and other slogans like these have become the main nourishment of public attention. It is through them that the individual now orients his or her concepts about the world around us—and beyond. It seems as though we are all caught in the trap of those who seek to serve us, demanding that we be on the same wavelength, cultivate the same tastes, and become part of the same medium, where we are already immersed and must continue to belong—otherwise we risk being left behind, or even excluded from the served-up existence itself.
“To watch the news on television, in some cases, is little more than watching someone else who is also staring at a canvas. We have taken this collective ecstasy as normality. We have slowly fallen into such a trance,” writes the American scholar Timothy Snyder in his collection of twenty lessons from the twentieth century titled On Tyranny. A genuine alarm sounded by the scholar during Trump’s first presidential term, with the civic worry that Trump’s world was leading us down a blind alley—one eerily reminiscent of Europe’s predicament 80 years ago.
In fact, the concern relates to the notion of what is called collective ecstasy or collective effervescence. We are now aligned in rows, imposed upon by politics.
According to the literature, this concept is tied to the strengthening of social bonds and the creation of a sense of belonging among individuals—something essential for building and preserving social relationships. To grasp it better, we must recall the theory: “Collective ecstasy, also known as collective effervescence, is a sociological concept that describes the shared state of heightened energy, unity, and transcendence that occurs when individuals come together and participate in the same activity or experience. This concept was formulated by Émile Durkheim, the French sociologist, who argued that such collective experiences are fundamental to understanding social behavior and the formation of societies.”
We are nearly prisoners to the endless stream of news and programs on Radio and TV—those projected by the media, where the weight and priority fall on politicians and everything articulated by them; on crime reports; and of course on the empty news of show business (which, thanks to clicks, gain the greatest importance), where even those who dislike them still end up repeating the same things. This is our social reality—no different from many other countries. In this sense, society as a whole is dependent on these types of news outlets and their products. Politicians, criminals, and celebrities are the ones who define—and not rarely dictate—our social lives. We seem trapped in a reality where a significant part of the population resists involvement, for survival’s sake.
For instance, amid the flood of reports about Tirana’s mayoral race (where so far we only hear from the ruling party’s candidate), we can barely think, through this endless torrent of hypothetical names, of the simple fact that what Tirana really needs is a serious discourse about someone who knows how the city functions and what its metropolitan priorities are. Or that we should be hearing from SPAK, closer to this whirlpool of crime, disciplining the news through its work on the alleged negotiations with Latin American cartels; the infamous meeting in Aruba (?); the suspected mafia-government ties; the misuse of IPARD funds and the blockage of agricultural subsidies; the continuation and efficiency of Tirana’s incinerator; the dialysis and medical laboratory concessions; the tower permits and illegal floors in the capital, and the selective demolitions of unauthorized spaces. The list of irregularities goes on and on.
Step by step, society is battered and consumed in attention, while we fail to see what is really happening in Albania. Only in rare moments, when this news carousel halts for an instant, does the ordinary person ask: How is it possible that crime circulates staggering sums of money for executions (with some criminals openly boasting live about the astonishing “fees” for killings)—sums unimaginable for ordinary people struggling to find a job, or others who cannot even secure basic employment and leave the country? Yet Rama’s media machine has managed to relativize everything, even the grip of collective ecstasy itself. Just as watching those few PD faces repeating endlessly on every channel has made the whole spectacle tedious and insulting—even to the most indifferent minds caught in collective ecstasy.
What is happening to us today has shown that to determine the true importance of the things around us requires concepts and clarity of thought—something “not possible when indulging in this unprecedented virtual stimulation,” to paraphrase Snyder once more. In short, to orient oneself through this massive whirlpool of news, one needs more knowledge, more focal points to trust in, more concepts, and to remain updated with them—in order to redirect this careless ecstasy into a concern for the country’s fate.
We must, therefore, return to good books, to culture. In this so-called normality of television and media bombardment—which is, in truth, an abnormality—we need to escape this collective ecstasy being imposed so badly upon us. Even though the path is difficult, since shared emotions fuel the thirst of the crowd, unlike the public, which seeks answers to real concerns. At least in 1984, where the first alarm was sounded about what was being lived then—and what was likely to engulf future societies—it became clear that the language of visual media is very limited: the public cannot truly see the present, cannot recall the past, and thus will remain confused about the future. This seems much like the political pact of today, where the language of understanding has been complicated, while the simplicity of confusion has multiplied, and everything is relativized.
In this logic, we must strive to avoid this collective ecstasy that draws attention only to criminals, politicians, and often hollow figures of show business—redirecting it instead toward the individual who understands, and who seeks to change the country.
(Homo Albanicus)