I just found out this exists. *GRIN!!!* Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
I'll take the red pill...no the blue pill!!!... no red!!
Ok, I know it's been a while, perhaps I'll explain that later, but for now, I'm revved up and have to rant.
Ages ago, my friend B-man lent me a book called "Manufacturing Consent" by Noam Chomsky. Now, I'm not much for heavy analysis or serious philosophical thinking at this point in my life, but today I decided to dig into it. I'm halfway through the goddamn introduction and I'm already pissed off! Many of the points were things I'd already noticed on my own, but it's something else to see your possibly paranoid musings confirmed by experts.
The gist of it is that the mass media (tv, film, books, magazines, etc) are being controlled by fewer and fewer giant corporations, and that they also have political/economic agendas. The book points out the decline of actual journalism. Remember that? When actual reporters would go and investigate something, dig up facts, confirm things? Hell, now most "news" is just dressed up press releases from governments or corporations laundered through PR bastards. These PR spin doctors massively outnumber actual journalists. Hell, these professional liars' jobs are to sell us this BS.
The most glaringly obvious for the last decade or so has been Fox News. Former Bush press secretary Scott McLellan (a.k.a. the mouth of Sauron), has come out and admitted that they basically wrote the scripts for Fox's talking heads and pundits (def. loud mouth asshole). Throw another shovel of dirt on unbiased reporting.
And don't think it's been just the latest bunch of ratfucks who have been doing this; this kind of thing goes back to at least Reagan, not further, and no, it does not skip Clinton. When Saddam Hussein was persecuting Kurds, it was called 'genocide' on occasion. When Turkey was doing it, is was reluctantly referred to as 'repression'. Same evil, but it isn't so bad when your buddy does it.
Anyhoo, back to the point. Media and reporting is being controlled by a few economically and politically powerful groups. Reporting on reality has been replaced by infotainment and drivel. Bread and Circuses, as the Romans used to say. Mushroom management: keep 'em in the dark and feed 'em bullshit. The play up the atrocities of their opponents while hiding those of their friends. And all the while they parade the newest shiny trinkets in your face to distract you more.
Don't think they're hiding stuff? The one that struck me years ago, was the 1999 WTO meeting in Seattle. I only knew this because I happened to have a friend e-mailing me from there at the time. It seems the protest got a wee bit enthusiastic, and the authorities cracked down. A major American city was essentially under martial law for several day....and there was barely a peep about it. Seems like that would be a pretty big story. Later on a few stories snuck out, strictly amateur stuff as the big names still wouldn't touch it. I guess they'd been told.
So, the goal seems to be to tell us what they need to get us to react the way they want, and so we keep buying more and more and just going along in ignorant, apethetic bliss. Your government is supporting people who are killing and torturing? No, little children, they're supporting freedom against terrorists/rebels/communists (insert label here). But never you mind, just watch another episode of Baywatch, drink another beer, and think about how you'll pay for the gas for that ten-ton battlecruiser SUV in your driveway (you know the one, you take in half a mile to the store to load up on hyper-process, artificial, food-like fodder for the grazing trough. The thing that has 4 wheel drive, satellite navigation, active suspension, seats 50 and can climb an 80 degree grade, but has never been off pavement! Remember? The thing that put you so far in debt that you're an indentured servant to some financial industry loanshark.) We'll take the screaming brats (overweight from doing nothing but play videogames, and hyper and incoherent from being stuffed with sugar-soaked garbage) to the latest 90 minute long, formula drivel from Hollywood, where they can eat more shit, play more games, and be further indoctinated into the cult of BUYBUYBUY!!!. Then we can get them all the associated merchandise (all produced by foreigners working in near slavery conditions), so they can be occupied for five minutes before we chuck the junk in the nearest landfill for future (ha!) generations to find.
But trust us. We'll do what's right. Just be good herd animals. Stand out in the field grazing and getting fat with a dull glaze in your eyes. And when one of you disappears every once in a while, don't worry, they're just being detained indefinitely, without charge, in a secret prison, in another country, where they're being taught how to swim - upside down in a chair. Or be made into hamburger, to return to the analogy.
We're living in The Matrix. We're living in an artificial fantasy, being force-fed crap 24/7 by folks who profit from us being just that way. To be honest, it can be tempting to just play dumb and go along in blissful ignorance.
Wow, that's quite a rant for half a chapter! Actually, I've had a lot of that building up for a while.
Maybe it comes from age and/or wisdom, but I've been starting to see patterns is the world that I do not like. I feel a great disturbance in the force. I've been seeing the mountains of bullshit from south of the border, and from our "leaders" (doesn't that mean 'one who leads', not 'one who does what the lobbyists want'?) here. I'm disgusted with consumer culture and the need for more and more crap. I've been as guilty as any in the past for craving junk, but I hope I'm finally growing out of it.
Ok, that's enough rambling for now. My bile has subsided. More angry outbursts to come!
Ages ago, my friend B-man lent me a book called "Manufacturing Consent" by Noam Chomsky. Now, I'm not much for heavy analysis or serious philosophical thinking at this point in my life, but today I decided to dig into it. I'm halfway through the goddamn introduction and I'm already pissed off! Many of the points were things I'd already noticed on my own, but it's something else to see your possibly paranoid musings confirmed by experts.
The gist of it is that the mass media (tv, film, books, magazines, etc) are being controlled by fewer and fewer giant corporations, and that they also have political/economic agendas. The book points out the decline of actual journalism. Remember that? When actual reporters would go and investigate something, dig up facts, confirm things? Hell, now most "news" is just dressed up press releases from governments or corporations laundered through PR bastards. These PR spin doctors massively outnumber actual journalists. Hell, these professional liars' jobs are to sell us this BS.
The most glaringly obvious for the last decade or so has been Fox News. Former Bush press secretary Scott McLellan (a.k.a. the mouth of Sauron), has come out and admitted that they basically wrote the scripts for Fox's talking heads and pundits (def. loud mouth asshole). Throw another shovel of dirt on unbiased reporting.
And don't think it's been just the latest bunch of ratfucks who have been doing this; this kind of thing goes back to at least Reagan, not further, and no, it does not skip Clinton. When Saddam Hussein was persecuting Kurds, it was called 'genocide' on occasion. When Turkey was doing it, is was reluctantly referred to as 'repression'. Same evil, but it isn't so bad when your buddy does it.
Anyhoo, back to the point. Media and reporting is being controlled by a few economically and politically powerful groups. Reporting on reality has been replaced by infotainment and drivel. Bread and Circuses, as the Romans used to say. Mushroom management: keep 'em in the dark and feed 'em bullshit. The play up the atrocities of their opponents while hiding those of their friends. And all the while they parade the newest shiny trinkets in your face to distract you more.
Don't think they're hiding stuff? The one that struck me years ago, was the 1999 WTO meeting in Seattle. I only knew this because I happened to have a friend e-mailing me from there at the time. It seems the protest got a wee bit enthusiastic, and the authorities cracked down. A major American city was essentially under martial law for several day....and there was barely a peep about it. Seems like that would be a pretty big story. Later on a few stories snuck out, strictly amateur stuff as the big names still wouldn't touch it. I guess they'd been told.
So, the goal seems to be to tell us what they need to get us to react the way they want, and so we keep buying more and more and just going along in ignorant, apethetic bliss. Your government is supporting people who are killing and torturing? No, little children, they're supporting freedom against terrorists/rebels/communists (insert label here). But never you mind, just watch another episode of Baywatch, drink another beer, and think about how you'll pay for the gas for that ten-ton battlecruiser SUV in your driveway (you know the one, you take in half a mile to the store to load up on hyper-process, artificial, food-like fodder for the grazing trough. The thing that has 4 wheel drive, satellite navigation, active suspension, seats 50 and can climb an 80 degree grade, but has never been off pavement! Remember? The thing that put you so far in debt that you're an indentured servant to some financial industry loanshark.) We'll take the screaming brats (overweight from doing nothing but play videogames, and hyper and incoherent from being stuffed with sugar-soaked garbage) to the latest 90 minute long, formula drivel from Hollywood, where they can eat more shit, play more games, and be further indoctinated into the cult of BUYBUYBUY!!!. Then we can get them all the associated merchandise (all produced by foreigners working in near slavery conditions), so they can be occupied for five minutes before we chuck the junk in the nearest landfill for future (ha!) generations to find.
But trust us. We'll do what's right. Just be good herd animals. Stand out in the field grazing and getting fat with a dull glaze in your eyes. And when one of you disappears every once in a while, don't worry, they're just being detained indefinitely, without charge, in a secret prison, in another country, where they're being taught how to swim - upside down in a chair. Or be made into hamburger, to return to the analogy.
We're living in The Matrix. We're living in an artificial fantasy, being force-fed crap 24/7 by folks who profit from us being just that way. To be honest, it can be tempting to just play dumb and go along in blissful ignorance.
Wow, that's quite a rant for half a chapter! Actually, I've had a lot of that building up for a while.
Maybe it comes from age and/or wisdom, but I've been starting to see patterns is the world that I do not like. I feel a great disturbance in the force. I've been seeing the mountains of bullshit from south of the border, and from our "leaders" (doesn't that mean 'one who leads', not 'one who does what the lobbyists want'?) here. I'm disgusted with consumer culture and the need for more and more crap. I've been as guilty as any in the past for craving junk, but I hope I'm finally growing out of it.
Ok, that's enough rambling for now. My bile has subsided. More angry outbursts to come!
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