I tried to hold my "tongue", I really did. Now that we have had a week-long masturbatory period to pat ourselves on the back, wring our hands, and massage the facts in the matter of the killing of Osama Bin Laden, I can't help but say a few things on this matter. Of course, if this man was as terrible as we made him out to be, we certainly won't miss him. The pictures that I have seen of his compound surely did not reflect the quarters of a person who could mastermind his way out of a paper bag. That being said, there are plenty of mentally ill people who live in squallor that don't rise to the level of federal intervention, inciting international strife or all out stalking by the authorities. in fact, when the news obsesses over any story of so little consequence for so long, one has to wonder what we are supposed to be paying attention to that has slipped under the radar during our period of preoccupation with minutia.
We are frequently given something to think about by the media, often in far off places, when there are serious things that need our attention right here at home. Most often, if we did pay attention to our own business, it would be inconveinient for the powerful people who dictate policy. Watching many of the programs that bill themselves as news looks more like a cavalcade of mayhem, stupidity and distraction of the highest order. My wife put it so well when she described it as being the same as when the greeks invented sport, to keep the public from paying attention to politics. The antics of a woman injecting her eight year old child with botox cannot be allowed to rise to the level of national debate. Her State Child Protective Services people are investigating her, that is all you need to know. If anything, we should ask ourselves, "What creates that level of desperation in a mother, that she would feel compelled to "erase wrinkles" from her child for the sake of winning a pageant.
Even if we do not recognize the duplicity and condecention that is expressed by the way news is teased and tortured, we can all agree that most of what passes for "news" is far more about entertainment and distraction than creating an informed public that knows how to be better citizens. The reason for the term "Fourth Estate" is that in our country, we have a tri-cameral system of government. The Executive Branch, consisting of the President and his/her cabinet, The Congress, made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate, and the Judicial Branch, who are responsible for deciding matters of Constitutional Law. The fourth estate is the term given to the fourth branch of government which is responsible for educating the populace about what the other three branches are doing. Without an infomed public, you can see the direction that we are doomed to drift toward.
The majority of what passes for news now is simply a collection of snippets designed to make one want to turn the channel, or station, but like a car wreck, most folks can't help but look on in astonished horror. If there is any redeeming quality that I am overlooking, please, someone, point it out to me! I honestly can't understand why we would be burdened with a murder that takes place half a world away. I cannot see the sense in tying up billions of dollars worth of equipment and technical expertise in floods whose causes are virtually unmentioned. There are things that need to be understood and changes that need to be made, by all of us, to help solve the pressing issues of the day. As long as we remain insulated from the truth of the issues, and continually provided the fodder that leads us to assume that we are powerless in an out of control world, no change is possible. I was recently quite entertained by an hour-long, supposed in-depth news program about the rapidly escalating diagnosis of depression among young people and women. I kept thinking that if you are paying the least bit of attention and you don't get depressed sometimes, that is the real disease!
The pent up anger and hostility that many of us are getting used to feeling is caused by knowing way too much about "news" that should never be covered in the first place. When the salient points are glossed over and the tiniest of details are rendered ad nauseum for us to ponder instead of what really matters, we are left with unresolved angst. many news casters have said that as long as there is a pretty picture on screen, they are allowed to say almost anything, they can even tell the complete and unvarnished truth, but when the viewer is looking at their face, and only their face, they must never say anything that could be, even remotely, construed as controvercial. In an age that relies on continual controversy, it is funny that we cannot tell the truth about a single thing of consequence. Have we become that fearful of offending someone that we are willing to turn our heads away from the fact that we pump billions of tons of our fertile soils into the Gulf of Mexico each year? Are we going to remain so insistent that we are a moral country that even our nationalized immorality will go unexamined? when the folk song asked, "How many times must a man turn his head, pretending he just doesn't see." it was a call to action, not a rhetorical question.
Those responsible for what we see and hear will never feel compelled to do their jobs any differnetly, until we get up the guts to change the channel. Most of us realize that we are just having our chains yanked, but as long as we honor the scenarios that they dole out for us, refusing to heed the real meaning behind the messages we are spoon-fed, we will continue to feel depressed and out of sorts. Fortunately, we have the power to turn off the television and actively do what is needed to right the badly listing ship of state. What is needed is genuine change, not hype. Many of us belong to the legions that have become turned off to business as usual. For those of us that have moved beyond the distractions that pass as "news", reintegrating intro the real world, the one with historically low crime rates, the one with pressing ecological problems and the one in which our freedoms carry with them serious responsibilities, life is truly worth living. Great happiness lies beyond the twenty-four hour news cycle. please get out and explore the revolution that is not being telivised. Invite your elected officials to participate and for all of our sake, place the blame for where we find ourselves on those who do the most to create our realities. Money is not, and has never been the root of all evil, the lust for money and the greed and deception that continuously concentrates wealth and power is the root. Stop participating in herd mentality and you just might find solutions to many of the problems that the news cycle continues to ignore. It is high time we reject the sensibilities that led us to our current situation. Sustainability is possible. We will all need to participate in making our way to it, but it can be done, and with less effort than you may think.
We are frequently given something to think about by the media, often in far off places, when there are serious things that need our attention right here at home. Most often, if we did pay attention to our own business, it would be inconveinient for the powerful people who dictate policy. Watching many of the programs that bill themselves as news looks more like a cavalcade of mayhem, stupidity and distraction of the highest order. My wife put it so well when she described it as being the same as when the greeks invented sport, to keep the public from paying attention to politics. The antics of a woman injecting her eight year old child with botox cannot be allowed to rise to the level of national debate. Her State Child Protective Services people are investigating her, that is all you need to know. If anything, we should ask ourselves, "What creates that level of desperation in a mother, that she would feel compelled to "erase wrinkles" from her child for the sake of winning a pageant.
Even if we do not recognize the duplicity and condecention that is expressed by the way news is teased and tortured, we can all agree that most of what passes for "news" is far more about entertainment and distraction than creating an informed public that knows how to be better citizens. The reason for the term "Fourth Estate" is that in our country, we have a tri-cameral system of government. The Executive Branch, consisting of the President and his/her cabinet, The Congress, made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate, and the Judicial Branch, who are responsible for deciding matters of Constitutional Law. The fourth estate is the term given to the fourth branch of government which is responsible for educating the populace about what the other three branches are doing. Without an infomed public, you can see the direction that we are doomed to drift toward.
The majority of what passes for news now is simply a collection of snippets designed to make one want to turn the channel, or station, but like a car wreck, most folks can't help but look on in astonished horror. If there is any redeeming quality that I am overlooking, please, someone, point it out to me! I honestly can't understand why we would be burdened with a murder that takes place half a world away. I cannot see the sense in tying up billions of dollars worth of equipment and technical expertise in floods whose causes are virtually unmentioned. There are things that need to be understood and changes that need to be made, by all of us, to help solve the pressing issues of the day. As long as we remain insulated from the truth of the issues, and continually provided the fodder that leads us to assume that we are powerless in an out of control world, no change is possible. I was recently quite entertained by an hour-long, supposed in-depth news program about the rapidly escalating diagnosis of depression among young people and women. I kept thinking that if you are paying the least bit of attention and you don't get depressed sometimes, that is the real disease!
The pent up anger and hostility that many of us are getting used to feeling is caused by knowing way too much about "news" that should never be covered in the first place. When the salient points are glossed over and the tiniest of details are rendered ad nauseum for us to ponder instead of what really matters, we are left with unresolved angst. many news casters have said that as long as there is a pretty picture on screen, they are allowed to say almost anything, they can even tell the complete and unvarnished truth, but when the viewer is looking at their face, and only their face, they must never say anything that could be, even remotely, construed as controvercial. In an age that relies on continual controversy, it is funny that we cannot tell the truth about a single thing of consequence. Have we become that fearful of offending someone that we are willing to turn our heads away from the fact that we pump billions of tons of our fertile soils into the Gulf of Mexico each year? Are we going to remain so insistent that we are a moral country that even our nationalized immorality will go unexamined? when the folk song asked, "How many times must a man turn his head, pretending he just doesn't see." it was a call to action, not a rhetorical question.
Those responsible for what we see and hear will never feel compelled to do their jobs any differnetly, until we get up the guts to change the channel. Most of us realize that we are just having our chains yanked, but as long as we honor the scenarios that they dole out for us, refusing to heed the real meaning behind the messages we are spoon-fed, we will continue to feel depressed and out of sorts. Fortunately, we have the power to turn off the television and actively do what is needed to right the badly listing ship of state. What is needed is genuine change, not hype. Many of us belong to the legions that have become turned off to business as usual. For those of us that have moved beyond the distractions that pass as "news", reintegrating intro the real world, the one with historically low crime rates, the one with pressing ecological problems and the one in which our freedoms carry with them serious responsibilities, life is truly worth living. Great happiness lies beyond the twenty-four hour news cycle. please get out and explore the revolution that is not being telivised. Invite your elected officials to participate and for all of our sake, place the blame for where we find ourselves on those who do the most to create our realities. Money is not, and has never been the root of all evil, the lust for money and the greed and deception that continuously concentrates wealth and power is the root. Stop participating in herd mentality and you just might find solutions to many of the problems that the news cycle continues to ignore. It is high time we reject the sensibilities that led us to our current situation. Sustainability is possible. We will all need to participate in making our way to it, but it can be done, and with less effort than you may think.
No comments:
Post a Comment