Why So Serious?
There are a great many items for sale in shops which are wanted by the consumer - basically everyone. Who wouldn’t want an Iphone or a Pagani Zonda? You do not need to be a materialist obsessed with possessions to desire these items. They are pretty good. If they were being offered for free, I would first ask if there was a catch and then I would say ‘yes’ (you can never be sure these days, with loopholes and whatnot, ‘free’ could mean ‘extremely costly in some other undignified way – grrr marketing).
There is a peculiar item being sold to us currently and has probably been sold to us since we were children. It is being sold to us without us specifically asking for it yet we accept it without question in the most part. Depression is being packaged and sold to us continuously by the mass news media. Rupert Murdoch is perhaps the leading retailer of depression, or at least he comes to mind when I think of discount depression. The next news headline might as well be ‘Go kill yourself’ and it wouldn’t be much of a deviation from the current trend. If it isn’t a news item about the terrible state of the world, it is a news article which just puts the state of society into perspective. It is probably inadvertently achieved as a large amount of energy is dedicated to celebrity news and gossip. Hmmm. I’m sure a bit of this news can’t be a harmful thing but it sells better than hot cakes, I wouldn’t be surprised if people were shovelling pages of previous Heat magazine issues into their mouths for their tea. It is unfair to judge everyone based on their interest in celebrity gossip, they’re not bad people or dumb people; it can make you feel better about yourself when things aren’t going according to plan in your life (‘tee hee, she’s gone potty, all I’ve got is redundancy’), and also, it’s usually the only alternative the mass media provides to its sledgehammer of bad news.
Furthermore, I think it is worth pointing out that bad news just sticks in our minds and stands out more than good news does. Somebody could go their entire life as a saint and then slip up once, and that is all you will remember them for. Such a shame indeed. History is thrown away in favour of disgrace. It is very easy to dislike, to ignore, to shun, to prejudice, to complain, to be discontent and unhappy. This has led me to believe that happiness is a high energy state whereas unhappiness is a low energy state, therefore is an energetically favourable state, which is why we reside in unhappy form for most of the time. It’s just a theory; perhaps I could study it later in my studies… hmmm.
The news is very good at causing the disillusionment of a nation. Seemingly credible ‘facts’ are churned out, bombarding you at light speed (quite literally in the case of the images). At the end of the day, who else do you have to turn to if something major happens somewhere in the world? It is understandable. It’s not as if the news jumps up and down screaming its’ dishonesty at you. The best you can do is analyse the news item (perhaps CRAVEN it while you’re at it) and make your own decision. Or even better, go to different news sources independent from each other, which is probably a challenge seeing as Rupert Murdoch has recently acquired Planet Earth media, but if you find the corroborating pieces of information, you can be a bit more sure that at least those facts are truthful.
Every now and then the news finds a particular person or people to victimise. They don’t victimise them for the sole intention of victimisation. It’s more of a commercial victimisation (a victimisation without intent) – ‘give the people what they want’ news. Allow me to present an untrue, hypothetical news piece. The first news piece will be detailing that an Estonian individual went and molested a stick insect. Fair enough, an Estonian individual did indeed molest a stick insect, shame on him. All of a sudden, people are aware of Estonians. It’s similar to when you hear a distinct word on the radio (or read it in a book)and all of a sudden you’re identifying that word everywhere. It probably isn’t being mentioned any more than usual, but you are aware of it (I remember the word ‘exacerbate’ was mentioned in The Apprentice once and since then I haven’t been able to get rid of it). As is the same with the prior Estonian individual. Now the news knows that it will grab the attention of the consumer by emphasising Estonians in its news items wherever they’re involved, no matter how big or small – and if it is unclear who is involved in the next stick insect abuse case, just suggest that Estonians could have been involved. Darn Estonians. Why can’t they leave the stick insects alone? Anyway, the news provider will, in most cases, want to attract viewers, or readership, so it can gain more sponsors in order to ‘earn’ more money. Eventually, the news providers will have all realised that news about Estonians (particularly bad news) is money, and every news provider is bleating about Estonian Phasmatodeaphiles and before you know it, it feels as if most Estonians are involved in a Phasmatodeaphile conspiracy. The media can change public opinion in the matter of a few years. Governments are aware of this, and try to utilise the media whenever they can, though in the modern consumer driven societies of Britain and America, it is harder to do so as the media answers to no-one and will attack anybody it sees fit. Governments included. With the exception of the Grey suited men and women in the boardroom on the top floor in the news corporation building, pretty much everybody is a loser in the media game.
The late great Michael Jackson said, “In a world filled with hate, we must still dare to hope. In a world filled with anger, we must still dare to comfort. In a world filled with despair, we must still dare to dream. And in a world filled with distrust, we must still dare to believe.”
Yes, we do indeed live in a world filled with hate, anger, despair and distrust – and we are all ultimately boned as a result. But don’t lose hope. Why? Just don’t; the hope you feel may be true or false, but hope can be the greatest feeling in the world and is the best antidote to the discount poisonous depression being sold to us.
No comments:
Post a Comment