
Saturday…Ahhhhh! Enough, Already
The Unnameable Gets Canonized on TV
I just can’t fucking believe it. A Senator, ex POW, warhawk is now in the process of becoming another name in the US’s pantheon of war doers and makers among a long line of the criminal elites enshrined to keep an institution designed for imperialist pursuits in its patriotic place. I just want to hurl at the thought. Thank goodness all I had early was my ever present cup of coffee without any food to make me nauseous from the incessant blather on TV. All three networks had coverage, NBC, ABC and CBS had nonstop coverage. I watched the Justice Channel before turning on my PC’s music machine. No wonder the nation has such violence embedded throughout the citizens. Violence in the US is as American as apple pie if not more so. Endless wars are just accepted by vast swathes of the public. The media is used to keep these violent ways in place. To survive the coming century will require a huge change of heart to usher in a profound need to reach solidarity with Earth and all nonhuman species.
Culprits
Lets start with major sporting events. How many times are big football games begun with the Star Spangled Banner with accompanying flyovers by military jets? I’ve seen quite a few when I used to watch football games during my drinking days. When sober I find football too violent for my tastes. Golf is what I used to watch before I got back to reading books again. Others too would benefit from reading a book every once in a while for a change.
Media’s Role
The media has been used to take over what used to be done in communities which was one way for people to experience empathy and concern for their fellows. TV took that away. It became the useful replacement for community action and turned it into inactive passive complacency. Media is used to shape public perception. Take the unnameable this week. There aren’t too many Americans willing to go against the grain on this persons stated accolades. I’m not one of them. A lot of real leftists are in this minority that also abhors war and all of war’s trappings.
Media is used to keep the powerful in power. Most of the media is controlled by six major corporations. Look them up if curious. This includes printed sources also. Most of the books I read are imprints of major publishers. There are those of more extreme views that are published by small independent publishers. The authors lose readership to get control of their story. Major editors keep the more subversive from getting the ink it deserves. Most of Noam Chomsky’s books are by small publishers for instance.
Media’s role for advertising cannot be underestimated. The shape consumer’s views in having to have the newest gadget, smartphone, automobile, luxury vacation or designer’s name on clothing or accessories. Rampant consumerism is one of the drivers of resource depletion. Engineered obsolescence is used to make a product stop working or functioning for a limited amount of time. I’ve gone through I don’t know how many Mr Coffee makers or microwave ovens. It’s far cheaper to buy a new one than to find someone to fix it. This is a huge list of products with a limited life. This is part of what is destroying Earth. Other than a few lunar or deep space probes everything else ends up somewhere here on Earth. We don’t throw trash ‘away’ we pay to have it moved elsewhere usually in a landfill here or the poorer countries dump it in rivers or the oceans directly.
Media could be used in a good ways to make folks change their wasteful ways. The powers don’t want this though, too much money to make producing waste, moving it and exploiting the poor. A new way must be found to live alternative ways than this.
Finally
Hopefully tomorrow’s news shows will be the last of the sickening rhetoric on the unnameable’s life. I’ll wake up, watch and comment on my Sunday Funnies blog tomorrow. I’ll keep reading my book, “The Culture of Make Believe” by Derrick Jensen instead of watching football which is now on every Saturday(college) and Sunday(professional). Golf’s Ryder Cup event I might watch as it pits a US team against a EU team in a pro bono competition between the Western powers. ‘Till tomorrow; Peace, The Ol’ Hippy
