The Permanent Archetype of the Margin
Archetypes: The Spectacle and the ForgottenAuthor: Mohd Parid Jaya — Status: Psychologist Focus: A social analysis of the loud dominance of power versus the systemic permanence of the margin.
The newspapers overflow with the spectacle—those who hold the megaphone today. This archetype drains the oxygen from the room, commanding attention as a king, a villain, or a savior. It doesn’t matter which; what matters is the unavoidable space they occupy.
But walk past the same corner every morning, and you will see the beggars. They come and go as individuals—names unknown, faces changing—but the archetype remains. They are always there, not by choice, but because we have built a world that requires their presence as a position in a structure we maintain.
The “Streets of London” Reality
This is the deeper truth that the song “Streets of London” understood. Ralph McTell sang of the old man in the closed-down market and the old girl in the all-night café. These are roles we’ve constructed through economic systems and social safety nets full of holes. The beggar is an archetype fueled by our collective willingness to look away.
Spectacle vs. Persistence
The archetype of power—even chaotic power—fascinates us because outrage drives clicks and spectacle is profitable. These figures burn bright and eventually fade. However, we have built the archetype of poverty to stay. Through policy and indifference, we have designed systems that produce losers by default. The individuals in those roles endure a cycle we refuse to examine.
The Real Question
The question isn’t why the spectacle dominates the news. The question is why we’ve accepted that some archetypes deserve endless attention while others—those we have systemically built to remain—deserve none at all.
Listen with understanding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9S_7S_P7XU
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