Entertainment is the General Theory of this World (2025)
After reading the article published in The Guardian on October 1: US comedians defend decision to play in Saudi Arabia: ‘They’re paying me enough to look the other way’, I felt disappointed. Once we start to look away, it’s hard to say what we might not see. At least Marc Maron, another comedian (not invited to the festival), posted on his Facebook account: “The same guy that’s gonna pay them is the same guy that paid that guy to bone-saw Jamal Khashoggi and put him in a fucking suitcase.” There is also the more complex—or perhaps confused reaction of Jessica Kirson, a stand-up comedian known for her openness about being gay. She agreed to perform, but afterward issued a statement expressing regret for having done so and announced that she would be donating her fee to charities (see Hollywood Reporter, October 3, 2025, link below).
The Riyadh Comedy festival began on September 26 and will run until October 9. The lineup includes Dave Chappelle, Louis C.K., Hart, Whitney Cummings, Pete Davidson, and 50 other stars. American stand-up comedian and podcaster Tim Dillon said this on his show, “So what, they have slaves? [… ] They’re paying me enough money to look the other way.” He was apparently fired from the festival for saying this (here goes the “freedom of speech” means the freedom to say anything you want) [see article]. But ‘They’re paying me enough money to look the other way’ is where we are now. In a money-based society, everyone has a price, and with AI already distorting, transforming, and inventing new realities, it is becoming increasingly difficult to look at anything, as everything is already detached from reality; already ‘away’ from our ‘now’. If reality doesn’t matter, if reality is whatever your imagination desires, then reality is a fantasy.
Yes, we live in sponsored dreamscapes, and we need entertainment like addicts need their drugs; we need movies with serial killers, mini-series where everyone has a connection with everyone else, never-ending series to make us laugh and cry, and we need sports to distract us from whatever is happening around us, lots of sports to drown the news that makes us feel powerless. We need lethargy and mindfulness to forget, to take our minds away, and not think about the climate crisis or other things like genocides, raids, bombings, torture, or exploitation. We need to forget the real realities of the world until all that’s left is an ad to buy something we don’t need, but we get it anyway because it will make us feel better, and the price is right.
Here in Canada, there was a lot of talk about resisting Trump’s vision of the world, but we can’t stop watching Netflix or Prime; we can’t stop dreaming of those Disney vacations. We are addicted to being entertained, chained to a system that keeps us there and makes us laugh.
Karl Marx famously said, “Religion is the opium of the people.” Fine, maybe for some, maybe then. But currently, I think that entertainment has become the most potent opium: ‘the fentanyl of the people’. However, there is no Narcan to help us from this overdose of amusement.
On the left is an excerpt of the quote from Marx, on the right, the same excerpt but with ‘religion’ changed to ‘entertainment’:
US comedians defend decision to play in Saudi Arabia: ‘They’re paying me enough to look the other way’
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2025/sep/30/riyadh-comedy-festival-saudi-arabia
Lesbian Stand-Up Comedian Jessica Kirson Expresses “Sincere Regret” for Riyadh Comedy Festival Performance
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/riyadh-comedy-festival-stand-up-jessica-kirson-apology-1236392972/
A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right
Introduction
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/critique-hpr/intro.htm
Written: December 1843-January 1844;
First published: in Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher, 7 & 10 February 1844 in Paris;
Transcription: the source and date of transcription is unknown. It was proofed and corrected by Andy Blunden, February 2005, and corrected by Matthew Carmody in 2009.