In the best tradition of Twitter diplomacy, Donald Trump announced the return of sanctions against Iran using a meme. Speaking simply - a picture in Twitter, on which he himself stands in a very heroic position, and over the font, stylized under the captions of the series "Game of Thrones", goes the phrase: "Sanctions are close." For those who have not watched the cult creation of HBO: his very first episode is called "Winter is close." The same phrase is the motto of the House of Starkov from the series, and it is also loved by domestic patriots and conservatives of all stripes, obviously hinting that our northern empire, which, like the Stark family, has retained faith in the old gods, will one day wake up completely, come and bring on the planet its cold order.
Among Western politicians, Trump’s escapades on social networks are considered to be at best as oddity, turning into a bad form. Dr. Mark Jongen, the ideologist of the party Alternative for Germany, complained that with the advent of Trump, the degradation of a high language of diplomacy began in the international arena. Although, it would seem, in all respects, AdG should sympathize with Trump, and in some places could learn from him. However, not only Dr. Yongen, but even Trump's comrades in the party are concerned that one of the most powerful people on the planet is talking to the world with pictures and funny signatures.
Meanwhile, if someone did not notice, we ourselves have not communicated differently for a long time. Remember when was the last time you wrote a message to your friends without putting a smile in the end? Expression of emotions, irony, complex feelings on the letter requires a certain knowledge of the word, but even if you can write like Chekhov or Nabokov, there are still no guarantees that your interlocutor will understand you exactly the way you would like. You send a message to a friend, calling her, for example, “heartless ***”, and do not want to offend at all, but rather, you put into this appeal a sense of ironic, playful, and even somewhere flattering (“arrogant beauty”). How to make sure she understands everything that way? That's right, make emoticons at the end - and everything becomes clear.
- He called me for a date, but I refused him.
- Heartless with *** :)))
Even easier smile - sticker. Already ready kartinochki. They are in a Telegram or Whatsapp, and they can express a rather complex palette of meanings and emotions, and most importantly, do it quickly, on the fly. Instead of "congratulations on the promotion and wish you further success" - Leonardo DiCaprio, raising his glass. Instead of "what a heresy you just blasted" - Daenerys from the same "Game of Thrones", contemptuously pursing her lips.
And now the most important thing. All that I was talking about was communication between people in their native language. But the boundaries of the new world are becoming more conditional, the interpenetration of different cultures is irreversible, and under these conditions the need for a new metalanguage turns out to be quite natural and understandable.
Let us recall China, which has retained its completely irrational, from the point of view of a Western person, writing: thousands of hieroglyphs instead of a couple of dozen letters of the alphabet. This was done, among other things, in order to preserve the unity of the country in which the dialects of different regions differed so much that their inhabitants could not understand each other at all. The hieroglyph, meaning a whole word or even a short phrase, could be pronounced differently in different provinces, read differently, but remained universally understandable.
A new global language before our eyes creates its own hieroglyphics, and it grows from the nutrient medium in which most of the world's population lives: from global pop culture, universal images created by film directors and TV shows and wandering around the network. Alas, these images are not yet ours, although sometimes we manage to bring something into their piggy bank: for example, “Russian hackers” have long become an international brand and meme. A meme is a grassroots culture, national Internet creativity, which, as always happens, is once legitimized and honed into a high and complex culture.
Donald Trump has become what he has become, because (like all big politicians) he has a bestial instinct on the situation of the moment and also knows how to talk to the voter in a language he understands. Throughout his election campaign, he “burned with napalm”, “delivered”, trolled and generated tons of content, which was then scattered through social networks and image boards. The network battles of his supporters and opponents on the Internet are called the Great War of memes (The Great Meme War), and the network old-timers (oldfagi) testify: He was memed into the White House (“He was cast into the White House”).
If you read this text to the end, do not be lazy, open Twitter US President and look at the picture about the sanctions again. Try to list all the meanings that are encrypted in it. The inevitability of sanctions - as the inevitability of the coming winter. Belonging to an ancient house (the house of the Starks in the story "Games of Thrones" - one of the oldest). Loyalty to the old gods - that is, the traditions of the very America that he promised to make great again. And at the same time - a signal that the president keeps abreast of popular culture, watches TV shows and, as they like to say on the net, "knows memes." In order to briefly, on the tops, describe it in words, it took me one paragraph. Donald Trump had one picture with three words.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.