So far I've been putting the 80s in nothing but a positive light with my videos, but this time it's a little bit darker. This video reflects on life in East Germany, where the Stasi (short for Staatssicherheit, meaning: State Security) got into people's personal lives. For the video's footage there's no better option than the movie Das Leben Der Anderen (The Lives of Others). However, while the practices of the Stasi were notorious for how far they went with the surveillance of their citizens, it isn't unique to that time and place. In today's world there are lots of privacy concerns with the electronics that we use. Entire operating systems and devices are fitted with backdoors to collect data, largely because of personalized advertising (plain old money business), but also to provide governments a way to keep an eye on their citizens. If the Stasi would have had access to 2020s technology, they'd be very, very happy about that.
Some who read this might be thinking: "Well, if you have got nothing to hide..."
Great, now you have justified a phrase that has been used by every authoritarian regime in history.
Because it doesn't just end at surveillance.
This song is relevant because history keeps repeating itself. It's just that the Berlin Wall so to speak is now invisible, built from censorship and control. What many people fail to see that it's not about left vs right, communism vs capitalism, East vs West... it's always about control. The 0.1% manipulate the system, whether it's under the banner of "freedom" or "equality". The methods change, the branding changes, but the power structures remain the same, and it's wild to me that people often do not see this.
"Yeah, but this one guy, he is really really bad!!!"
Way to perpetuate the divide & conquer, you are doing exactly what they want. Pick a sports team while you're at it. Through bubbles that algorithms are designed to reinforce entrapment in curated realities, physical walls don't even need to be built: echo chambers are now our walls. Hence the title.
Anyway, since things will always remain the same none of this will matter. At the end of the day, art isn't about saving the world, it's about expression. If people get something deeper from it, cool. If not, at least I have gotten my thoughts out in a creative way.
The music is inspired on the band Molchat Doma, which was a Belarusian post-punk/synthwave band known for their cold melancholic sound inspired by Soviet-era music. And Das Leben der Anderen, a movie about state surveillance, paranoia, and quiet oppression, really fits with how cold and grey this is like a glove.
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