In reference to something earlier, I’m not so sure the “media” as an entity is self-aware and directed on some higher hidden level. It seems more plausible that it’s a chaotic self-reflexive and cannibalistic system, in which echo chambers and loops are likely to develop in cancerous carcinogenic shapes, distorting themselves and casting frenzied shadows and orgiastic reflections into the minds of others. If it is an controlled object or system, then it’s one with a high degree of cruelty and dark humor at its helm. Aristotelian drama in which the noble heart with one imperfect strain of hamartia, hubris reaches upwards and falls dramatically.
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11 Comments
I have thought about this very thing for some time now. The conspiracy theory surrounding the supreme manipulation of the media has never made much sense to me.
Hey Tim,
I really couldn’t say if media is controlled - and by media I assume we’re talking about broadcast media. But what I’ve experienced is that because of the kind of format that tv, radio, newspapers have (d)evolved into my conversations with normal, mainstream, non-intellectual types doesn’t get past regurgitated sound bytes.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that media might not be ‘controlled’ but in my experience it is controlling what a majority of Americans think about, how they should think about it and how they should talk about it.
Good example at mediacology http://tinyurl.com/3j2tn9
Also, my wife and I volunteer with our local Jaycees - getting to know a diverse group of people in our community. We were doing some projects while the last debate was on TV and I found it somewhat uncomfortable for me and possibly others that we couldn’t have a meaningful discussion on the issues without derogatory media-generated stereotypes coloring the conversation.
From my perspective, I found this experience more disturbing than the actual issues. That we can’t have a real dialog about things like governance and freedom without the hate. For all intensive purposes it was a ‘media-controlled’ conversation. But which conversation truly makes for better television?
In my experience, with personal Internet-based news aggregation there’s a great opportunity to diversify and program your own news conduits. However, one also runs the risk of re-enforcing your reality tunnel even more. They call them ‘programs’ for a reason right?
Well, that’s damn poetic.
And I think it’s exactly right too. This is samsara, mara, the big dream everyone is dreaming from which we’re trying to wake up. It’s not that there’s some group who’s entirely in control of the media (or the government, or the corporations, etc…), it’s just that these things reflect our own unconsciousness back onto us.
You have all these really large consciousness feedback loops of culture and wealth and power, and they’re bound to overlap and build, like ripples meeting on the surface of a pond and forming bigger waves.
The answer is yes. It is controlled. Its not that hard to do, if you have a big conglomeration. I am talking about print media, and network and Cable t.v. Time, Newsweek, NYT, Fox, MSNBC etc.
These are owned by big Corporations, they all have editors. They all are top down hierarchical organizations. All you do is control the editors.
And that’s what happens. Coverage of certian things like the CFR and the Bilderburgs is blacked out because all the editors are told to.
As far as the blogosphere and stuff like that you may have a point.
There may be some boats on the ocean which have people piloting them, but the point I’m making is that no one controls the ocean or the weather…
Learn to swim.
Or better yet, surf…
Well, cats always land on their feet and they have nine lives. Its like the “shock Doctrine.”
The power elite aren’t caught off guard by much. Chaos is their friend. Once again we are talking about successful psychopaths. You know, like the guy in “No country for Old men”?
Sure, he can get hit by a car. He can lose a coin toss. What he can do that most people can’t do is walk up to a person and kill them and not flinch and sleep like a baby at night. He can lie and not raise his pulse.
Its a hobby of mine studdying these people.
So tying this in with the point about the media:
The editors know what they can’t say. They’ve met these psychopaths. Some of them are psychopaths. Other people have met them and don’t want to see them for what they are. They prefer pleasant lies. You have lies being told over generations. Most people run on programming. They have the lies programmed into them.
So “the Ocean” may have all these unexpected storms and so forth but the weatherman is a liar. And most people are programed to only listen to what the weatherman tells them.
Its like September 11. Its an IQ test. Plus….I don’t know…a moral backbone test?
Anyway, psychopaths like occasionally to reveal themselves to people who are smart enough to see them for what they are but have no backbone. Like mention that they raped somebody and see what you do.
I think it comes down to this, in terms of controlling the media:
You have a poker game at a Casino in Vegas. There are a few card sharks at the table. They know each other. They don’t like each other. But they help each other fleece all the clueless tourists. Are they all in it together?
Not really, but they sure aren’t in it for the tourists.
There are all these sappy ideas, like Patriotism and Democracy. People in the loop of the Power elite, don’t see the world this way, but know many people do, and to them its really obvious that people that buy into this stuff are dolts.
Its obvious to them, that when powerful people talk about these things they are lying. Its obvious what shouldn’t be said on the air.
If you know you are from a “set” basically from a family of people that are rich by seeing most of humanity as a a foundation, like soil, like a parasitic host, you will recognize others that are like this.
So instinctively you will co-operate in perpetuating common sense reality. This delusion most people are under, such as, that the military is there to “protect our freedom” goverment is designed to help us etc.
Its like certian things are “uncouth” to say or print.”bad form.” Not censorship, but rather things that the riff raff don’t need to hear.
I like your point about social nuances controlling what you can and won’t say as a writer or media producer. I’ve already come to see that very keenly as a writer and semi-public figure.
There is also the thing where most things people (on all levels) believe just isn’t true.
So if what most people take for granted, their basic assumptions, are false, then there is not much effort needed to manipulate people. You just frame current events in the context they already believe.