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"Generation 90:
Les Heros du Chaos" French television, Paris (February 16, 1991); produced by Peter Stuart and Pascal Dupont; also shown in an English version entitled "Heroes," Channel 4 TV, London (March 8, 1991). It consisted of short interviews with JG Ballard and others on the subject of heroism in the modern world, edited for a programme fronted by Antoine de Caunes. Other interviewees included Benazir Bhutto, the Dalai Lama, Anthony Burgess, George Lucas, Bob Geldof, Alan Moore, Sting and Alvin Toffler. Text of Ballard's remarks transcribed by Bernard Sigaud and published in JGB News no. 20 (August 1993) On heroes We are nearing the end of a millennium, and one would expect a period of great psychological and spiritual uncertainty, which may generate its own heroes. On Gorbachev Of course he's much happier in the West than he is in the Soviet Union because, when he goes to the United States, in particular, he can become a fictional figure. On East-West relationships I think the days of the old-style spy stories in which there was a clear polarization between the good West and the evil East are over. I think the collapse of socialism will drag down all those very successful British and American spy writers. On the Arabs The Arab world, the Moslem world, may well take the place of the Communist world as the great bogeyman of the future. On Margaret Thatcher She tapped all sorts of dreams that every Englishman has of... going to bed with Nanny. On show business Many pop stars, in fact, define how people lead their lives. They set their social and moral values, whereas when politicians try to become pop stars, they try to create a kind of entertainment culture. On the media The presence of the mass media, particularly the sight of television newsreel cameras, does incite people to more extreme behaviour than they would if the cameras were absent. I've heard it said that the student leaders in Tien An Men Square were incited to some extent by the presence of the Western media. On new religions We may see a new religious leader appearing, who'll unite the Green movement and all these New Age movements. The various ecological movements, anti-progress movements, may be united by such a figure into something very close to a new religion. On future dragons and superheroes The dragons of the future, apart from, say, obvious ones like disease, and particularly the AIDS virus, or, say, a computer super-bureaucracy of the future which is already on the way -- that is another big dragon -- the dragons are more likely to be sociological ones. I think the bourgeoisification of life will soon wrap this planet completely in boredom. The superheroes of the future will be people who'll challenge this condominium of boredom, and we'll find that our Bonnies and Clydes will emerge to challenge the suburban values. |
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