Following up on Arendt's 'active life' we discuss how watching mastery has become a replacement for learning or doing yourself. This leads to other issues, such as decreased time to participate in the real world, leading to further frustration or inadequacy in the real world.
Boris Groys bring up the contradiction that movies are not about moving; they promote action on screen, but only at the cost of you sitting and being passive. The removal of your action, motion, and even contemplation (as you must passively absorb the narrative) frames a world in which low-risk passivity is preferred to actual risk, action, or uniqueness.
The Will to DIY website has references: https://thewilltodiy.com/step-9-the-passive-life/
0:36 Watching people build things online: provides the emotion and illusion of competence
2:07 Observation over doing: the time watching prevents the fantasy from becoming reality.
4:00 The contradiction of the "active life" versus the "contemplative life" in movies
5:29 Tokyo Drifting: From "Activity" to "Activity worship"
6:35 Spectatorship as Identity: a path towards nothing?