In the spirit of this comment on lions and simulacra levels I present: simulacra and halloween decorations
Level 1: this is actually dangerous. Men running at you with knives, genuinely poisonous animals.
Level 2: this is supposed to invoke genuine fear, which will dissipate quickly when you realize it’s fake. Fake poisonous spiders that are supposed to look real, a man with a knife jumps with a fake knife but doesn’t stab you, monsters in media that don’t exist but hit primal fear buttons in your brain.
Level 3: reminds people of fear without ever actually making you concerned for your life (which may still be a little unsettling, depending on your sensitivity, and everything has someone who’s deathly afraid of it even in a nonthreatening form). Halloween decorations top out here unless you spend a ton of money at specialty shops.
Level 4: reminds people of things that induce fear without ever for a second unnerving (most of) them. Goofy looking bat balloons.
I agree with 1-3, but would change level 4 to something like “people don’t even associate it with fear, we just think it is a cute tradition for small kids (see: bat balloons)”. I think that level 4 is like: “it might be connected to the territory somehow, but I really don’t care how, it just seems to work for some unspecified reason and that is okay for me”.
Analogical things could be said about Christmas, but on level 1 it is actually two unrelated things (birth of the Messiah; Saint Nicholas).
Actually, all holidays have an aspect of this; some people celebrate Independence Day or Labor Day to make a political statement, but most people just do it because it is a tradition.
In the spirit of this comment on lions and simulacra levels I present: simulacra and halloween decorations
Level 1: this is actually dangerous. Men running at you with knives, genuinely poisonous animals.
Level 2: this is supposed to invoke genuine fear, which will dissipate quickly when you realize it’s fake. Fake poisonous spiders that are supposed to look real, a man with a knife jumps with a fake knife but doesn’t stab you, monsters in media that don’t exist but hit primal fear buttons in your brain.
Level 3: reminds people of fear without ever actually making you concerned for your life (which may still be a little unsettling, depending on your sensitivity, and everything has someone who’s deathly afraid of it even in a nonthreatening form). Halloween decorations top out here unless you spend a ton of money at specialty shops.
Level 4: reminds people of things that induce fear without ever for a second unnerving (most of) them. Goofy looking bat balloons.
I agree with 1-3, but would change level 4 to something like “people don’t even associate it with fear, we just think it is a cute tradition for small kids (see: bat balloons)”. I think that level 4 is like: “it might be connected to the territory somehow, but I really don’t care how, it just seems to work for some unspecified reason and that is okay for me”.
Analogical things could be said about Christmas, but on level 1 it is actually two unrelated things (birth of the Messiah; Saint Nicholas).
Actually, all holidays have an aspect of this; some people celebrate Independence Day or Labor Day to make a political statement, but most people just do it because it is a tradition.