Sensationalism in the Media - Collectivism at It's Worst (1100 hits)
Category: GeneralRating: 2 on 18 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Rawrgy McRawrgerson <uber.rawrg.at.gmail.com> (View user info) at 2005-03-26 22:37:07 EST
I'm starting my own country someday and membership will require frequent mental evaluations. I've lived in America all my life and I'm proud to be an American. I think, for the most part, my country had done a pretty good job with a lot of issues when held to the same standard as the rest of the world. Still, from time to time, I'll be sitting around in all of my American luxury, my nice cozy futon and my TV with the stolen cable (Shh!) watching the news and I'll see the same kinds of people on there that I wouldn't expect anywhere other than a mad house. Just like in the movie PCU, the cause-heads are out in force, and this week it's Terri Schiavo and the Bible Thumpers followed up by the Crazy Zealot Ensemble. (They'll have stilt walkers and unicycle riding bears too)
In the past there have been hundreds of these cause-of-the-week marathons that make the news. Let me think back to days of Elian Gonzales, Matthew Shepherd, Kevorkian's last assisted suicide, Lacy Peterson, Precious Doe, Ali Kemp (Local Kansas City girl that was raped and murdered), Abu Ghraib, the list goes on and on. What do these things have in common? They're all over the news because they sell advertising and each of them has an army of "enraged" or "concerned" citizens bobbing their heads in unison to the words of outspoken cause leaders, excited to be a part of something.
And why are they so eager to join the cause? For the same reason the Nazis were so popular. Powerful movements, bandwagons and mob mentality seem to come naturally to human beings. Since the beginning of society, people have yearned for more and more collectivized social structures. Socialism is coming back, in America and all over the world. People would rather be huddled together in a group like pack animals rather than be responsible for themselves and have to act alone. And why not? Are we not stronger as a group? Are we not more focused? Doesn't it feel good to follow unquestionable value structures and have a general philosophical formula to apply to everything?
"Better dead than Red!" - Popular slogan of McCarthyists
"God hates Fags!" - Kansas' own Fred Phelps
"From each according to their means to each according to their needs." - The Communist Manifesto
"Peace in our time!" - Neville Chamberlain (after making treaty with Hitler)
"I don't know, that just doesn't appeal to me." - Rawrg in reference to aforementioned mantras.
Today's world is teeming with international political activity and the 2000's are starting to look like the 60's were here in America to most of the western world. Protestors line our streets, spinsters from both sides are cranking out the propaganda and people are taking sides, adamant in their views and unwavering in their passion. People are dying, countries are changing and lives are being saved and destroyed all at the same time from the regime change in Iraq to the collapse of North Korea to the suffering en masse in the seemingly forgotten continent of Africa. This is a time that will certainly gain notoriety in future history books.
I see all of these things happening around me. Protests in my city, ribbons tied on trees, signs posted in yards, magnets on the cars, bumper stickers, t-shirts, hate blogs, drunken arguments at the bar and very angry people everywhere. This is what living in America during the 60's must have been like. September 11th must be my Kennedy Assassination. Iraq might be my Vietnam. Urbanite elitist ideologues could be my hippies and yet my silent majority still remains the same: the blue and white collar guys that do, never asking of other people to make things happen for them. Some find it respectable that they are focused on their own lives, others find it selfish. I think the world needs all kinds of people, but shade tree activists I think the world could do without.
Was the news in this country ever trustworthy? Could I turn on a channel and believe everything I was watching? My history books tell me no. They tell me that the Soviet Union wasn't the only news service manipulated by those in power. William Randolph Hearst and J Edgar Hoover sure new how to keep the spin in the right direction for their benefits. Have things changed now? Every time I turn on the news, they tell me that something important is happening; something unprecedented just occurred moments ago and I'm watching it through a reporter's camera phone seconds after the event took place so that I'm informed.
"Maybe if I don't turn the TV off or leave the house, I won't miss anything really important! Oh God damn it! That damn Ace Hardware commercial is on again. Come on! Hurry up! I need to see this! I have to be the first person on my block to know whether or not some woman in Florida that I'll never meet is going to die or not! I MUST BE INFORMED SO THAT I CAN PASS JUDGEMENT ON SOMETHING THAT DOESN'T CONCERN ME!"
Case in point: I feel empty after imbibing news in any form of media. Nothing they tell me directly affects me anymore. It's simply a series of random events that I'd never see happen in my life. It's a freak show at a circus or a waitress at a titty bar: a way to make money with something for the sake of appearances only. Regardless of a woman with a beard, a woman with great tits or a woman that might die in a few weeks because she's a vegetable, my life goes on, unaffected.
The media's job isn't to present us with information. It's to sell advertiser's products. Yet, day after day, I see the people in my country fall more and more victim to unimportant values and the concerns of those whimsically detached from reality. And why not? It's exciting to dream of a world where Iraq is one of the World's worst travesties that must be battled against, or that a trivially subjective concept such as marriage is something that requires constitutional defense. It's even more surprising that both sides of the gay marriage argument don't view marriage, especially in contemporary American culture, as anything but a farce at this point.
I remember when I was younger and how I would vehemently ally with single-faceted philosophies for the sake of identity. In our ever present quest for acceptance, to ally with a cause makes us part of something. We aren't alone anymore, and no matter our differences might be, we'd have THAT in common. Pre packaged labels dismiss the need to choose your own colors:
Democrats, Republicans, Liberals, Conservatives, Progressives, Traditionalists, Anarchists, Fundamentalists, Pro Choice, Pro Life, Peaceful Delegates, Aggressive Liberators, Single Mothers, Deadbeat Dads, Latchkey Kids, Goths, Punks, Preppies, Jocks, Nerds, Niggers, Wiggers, Posers, Rebels, Straight Shooters, Informed, Ignorant, Apathetic, Agnostic, Atheistic, Faithful, Educated, Experienced, Book Smarts, Street Smarts, College, The School of Hard Knocks.
Can a few words really define a man? How about a manifesto of 10000? Maybe the meaning of life is to simply be able to understand that the significance of existence is so complex that it can't be defined, only understood.
...
Whatever the hell that means.
Still, as more and more people ally and believe what they're told, they grow closer and closer to becoming slaves. Votes can only go one of two ways in this country. Will a choice of black and white in a Technicolor world really make a difference? I don't know. Is it the illusion of choice that keeps us going back to our jobs day after day until we're spent? Perhaps the illusion of choice simply keeps those who would take real action at bay. Perhaps the answer is that sometimes no action needs to be taken, and that the world will sleep just fine tonight, whether or not a trivial point is or isn't validated by the army of like-minded pack-humans.
Either way, wouldn't it be great if there were a few small countries where you had to acquire membership by some form of merit system such as, oh I don't know... intelligence? How about skills? How about the ability to obey major laws? Too bad all the land is taken here on Earth. I guess I'll wait until they can manufacture some huge domes, and then I'm buying a section of the Moon or Antarctica. I'll call it Rawrgland and the only thing that will be socialized is a never ending supply of cotton candy. Yeah, that'll be nice, and we'll vote all the stupid people into exile.
...
Those exiled can have their pick of Ohio, Wisconsin or Montana.
User Reviews
Submitted by Hairsphincter (user info) at 2005-04-04 23:03:32 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Rawgalicious.
Submitted by peckerhead (user info) at 2005-04-04 22:57:20 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Very good.
Submitted by PoloboiGC (user info) at 2005-03-28 04:23:14 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
on the money... fuck the media.. but you have to conform to make that money...
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2005-03-27 18:27:16 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Oh you sonofabitch. You do that... thing... with the apostrophes just to hurt me, don't you?
http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/
If this post hadn't been so well-written, I'd have given you a -1 on principle. I'm still toying with the idea, so I'm going to hit the 'Rank' button really quick before I change my mind.
Submitted by Bizantine (user info) at 2005-03-27 17:42:09 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
well written. do me a favour, ok?
share your views as much as you can. from what i can see, your country could do with more people like you.
Submitted by DavyJones (user info) at 2005-03-27 17:13:31 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Cotton candy owns.
Submitted by Pentameter (user info) at 2005-03-27 09:20:52 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Excellent stuff, as always.
Submitted by Davros (user info) at 2005-03-27 02:17:58 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Jolly Good Show Old Chap.
-Dave
Submitted by Chronicles_of_College_Guy (user info) at 2005-03-27 02:13:42 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
"...to the collapse of North Korea..."
Did I miss something?
Submitted by Stabkill (user info) at 2005-03-27 00:38:25 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Good stuff, and the picture made me laugh (with your caption).
Submitted by EternalDragon (user info) at 2005-03-27 00:25:42 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by pen_name (user info) at 2005-03-27 00:12:50 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
i think some of your digressions were for the sake of making poetry than making points, but you're on to something. nice work.
Submitted by forensicgirl3 (user info) at 2005-03-26 23:46:50 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Some Historian/Philosopher (for the life of me I can't remember their name) said that once society becomes decadent to the point of blatant obviousness, it is on the slope of decline. The Golden Age is over.
The next logical step therefore is that we will enter a Dark Age again. I believe our Dark Age will be morals and values. We will have none.
Submitted by Caulaincourt (user info) at 2005-03-26 23:18:13 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
oui
Submitted by Stin (user info) at 2005-03-26 23:12:56 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
WOOOOOOOHOO!
Submitted by HammetthalenvanSRV (user info) at 2005-03-26 23:08:54 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
One of the best post I have ever read anywhere.
Submitted by seanfogy (user info) at 2005-03-26 23:04:53 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
This is quite possibly the single best post among the 62784 that is Ubersite.
I would love to love you.
Submitted by jack0173 (user info) at 2005-03-26 22:59:24 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment