Sometimes the trip down memory-lane stops at unexpected places. Recently one of those trips brought back memories of an all but forgotten cultural icon from the 1980s; people my age may have already recognized the title as the song by 1980s synth-pop group "The Art of Noise," featuring the pseudo-computer-generated talk-show host Max Headroom.
source: Intergalactic Robot
The video-clip of this song introduced me to the iconic Max Headroom, who had his own talk-show, much like David Letterman or Trevor Noah, in the mid- to late 1980s: The Max Headroom Show. The song-title "Paranoimia" is a portmanteau of "paranoia" and "insomnia"; somehow, while contemplating the state of our surveillance-state society, my mind wondered off and presented me with the face of dear old mr. Headroom. If you're not familiar with it yet, please watch the video-clip at the end of this post, and I think you'll forgive my mind for strolling off on it's own; Max Headroom was a sign, an omen of many things to come to fruition in this decade.
Paranoia is an instinct or thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself (e.g. the American colloquial phrase, "Everyone is out to get me").
source: Wikipedia
The Original Max Talking Headroom Show Episode 1
Modern citizens are forgiven for feeling a little paranoid in the year 2019 I think ;-) Also they're forgiven if they occasionally lose sleep over this slow but sure development toward a panopticon society in which our every transaction and move is watched and stored somewhere. Max is also illustrative for the innocent, playful and casual manner in which the surveillance state is introduced to the masses; as something good, not to be worried about, something to make fun of even...
Even his name is a subtle reference to the strict rule over people, enabled by the world wide corporate owned computer network; "Warning! Max Headroom 2000mm" is text found on traffic warning signs, indicating the maximum height of vehicles allowed to pass under a bridge or gate. A computer generated, insomniac, paranoia inducing Big Brother that also entertains to no end... Really, search YouTube for one of the episodes of his show; they're quite entertaining. Oh, wait: I've already linked one for you above, so you can witness some really politically INCORRECT entertainment, the sort of which I doubt would even be possible to publish nowadays in the mainstream media, as it's head would likely be chopped off immediately by some confused Social Justice Warrior.
Hearing the song again now, it gives me the creeps when the female voice repeats at the end: "Trust me... Trust me..." I hope you'll excuse this old man for taking you along the web-invested path through memory lane... It's just that I was so amazed by how Max Headroom still is an icon, but in these times not as a comedic interlude, but as the face of things to come...
The Art of Noise with Max Headroom - Paranoimia (Official Video)
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