Nude as the news
I don't watch the news (I rarely watch television any longer). I rarely listen to the news on NPR or other radio stations (though I gather news via this method far more often than through any other medium). I buy the newspaper to read the comics and maybe some movie reviews; the rest goes to Abigail and then to the garbage.
Nevertheless, I am well enough acquainted with the news to wholeheartedly agree with this recent Leithart post.
Now you know why you haven't seen me on the news. My power forbids me. Anyhow, back to business...
I don't watch the news (I rarely watch television any longer). I rarely listen to the news on NPR or other radio stations (though I gather news via this method far more often than through any other medium). I buy the newspaper to read the comics and maybe some movie reviews; the rest goes to Abigail and then to the garbage.
Nevertheless, I am well enough acquainted with the news to wholeheartedly agree with this recent Leithart post.
Now you know why you haven't seen me on the news. My power forbids me. Anyhow, back to business...
posted by trawlerman at 10:03 PM
1 Comments:
Yeah, this kind of goes along with this thought that I had the other day. Well, actually, it wasn't orginally my thought but my professor's; and what it involved was the idea of apathy and how it applies to the general public...
In response to the question of why/how institutional evil could exist, I responded with: 1. people are so far removed from politics and gov't that they feel powerless to effect change, 2. it's difficult to ponder evils or even contemplate the difficult questions of life so why not just have the answers told to you (i.e. by the media, gov't, universities, religious leaders, peers),and 3. people just don't give a damn - APATHY.
The news generated by the 3 major corporate machines is mostly distributed to satiate the need for leisure and entertainment. It's there to engage you by giving the simplist solution from one side of an issue, and then works to use your desires against you by reinforcing those desires and magnifying them ten-fold by conditioning other desires to either replace or supercede the old ones.
This might not be clear because I'm running on about 3 hrs of sleep in 2 days, but, what is it that keeps good people from acting against indecency or even from pursuing a better source for truth (or even relying on themselves)?
It's got to be "the good life." Everybody wants "the good life;" where there's no more sweat, no more pain, no more questioning; and all life consists of is sunny games of golf in florida, complete with funny shirts, funny hats, hemmroids, and a bunch of shit you don't need, surrounded by people you don't even like.
It's the capitalist's dream - to create an unquestioning, ever-consuming market with a "herd-consciousness," and consistently exploit it for all its worth. I mean, I love our system, but there's got to be another way...
Sorry bout the rambling comment, Later John.*
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