Semper Fiasco unfortunately
At the time of writing this, I feel genuinely sorry for most of the American population. As clear-minded and thoughtful as they would like to think they are, they just can’t seem to turn off their television sets long enough to see things for what they really are.
Personally, I am disgusted by most of what I see on television these days. Mind you, I don’t mean to sound like a staunch Reaganite (in fact, I tend to avoid those people). My main grievance with television is that Madison Avenue expects us – living, breathing, human beings with personalities – to play out our lives solely for the sake of corporate benefit.
Of course, no one wants to believe it; we don’t hesitate to point out the propaganda techniques used in other countries, but we faithfully and loyally defend our own communication avenues and refuse to believe that the media just may be conditioning us to -literally- breathe for someone else’s profit.
Every day, millions of unsuspecting consumers find themselves literally bombarded with advertisements, constantly having their desires dictated to them over the airwaves. The sad thing about this is that most of these advertisements are peddling products that we don’t even need… until we see the advertisements. Somehow, most of them are actually able to convince us that unless we’re out buying and consuming – making the upper one percent even richer – then our existence is empty and meaningless.
Strangely enough, our lives continue to be empty and meaningless after we think we’re done consuming. But why? Because after stuffing our faces with needless consumer goods, we go right back to the tube, ready to lap up whatever it spits at us.
For the sake of justice, you would think that the cable companies who air these ads would give us some sort of compensation for having to put up with all of this. Not to imply that it would in any way justify the psychological surgery performed by the advertising conglomerates, but they could at least send us something along the lines of a monthly reimbursement. Right?
Wrong – we’re paying them!
Imagine – a consumer culture that actually contributes to their own brainwashing fund. It’s an ingenious concept, but it relegates the individual human existence to that of a commercial pawn. Large clothing chains like American Eagle and Old Navy operate on a similar principle: instead of relying on conventional advertisements that cost money, these corporations print their logos directly on their products. And since these products remain attached to us throughout the entire day, the people we interact with inevitably end up seeing them as well, effectively turning us into billboards for whichever corporation we decide to pay for the honor of advertising them.
As if it weren’t enough to know that the advertising companies are conditioning us on their own, the news media is, unfortunately, also under corporate control. Before you start criticizing me as a raging conspiracy theorist who doesn’t have the slightest clue what he’s rambling about, this carries several implications for those of us who rely on news media outlets for “accurate” information.
First of all, since mainstream news media outlets are owned by large corporations, they are subject to the effects of economic competition readily observable in all capitalistic societies. This means that like other competitors in the marketplace, they’re working for profit. And since comfortable illusions have always been more profitable than the truth, the news media have basically no incentive to report the news without their fair share of distortion and misrepresentation.
Keep in mind that this doesn’t happen because someone decided to make it so. Instead, it’s a direct result of natural selection in the marketplace; profitable media outlets are favored over accurate ones. As a result, honest and impartial media outlets tend to be marginalized and pushed below the level of public awareness.
Furthermore, since the federal government is the principal source of viable news and information, the survival of most media outlets depends on the government’s willingness to allow journalists to gather information from them. This, of course, depends on the reputation of the outlet in question; outlets that reveal appalling truths about the government are likely to be denied access to important facts and figures. On the other hand, outlets that speak more favorably about the government are given greater access to the information that creates the news you see on TV each day.
Now, in all of this uproar, what happens to the marginalized honest outlets? Simple: they lose standing as “your leading news sources.” This, of course, leads to less regular viewers and a loss of advertising income – the chief source of revenue for mass media outlets. And this is exactly why the truthful outlets are not surviving. It’s not quite a conspiracy, but the law of economics is keeping the real news out of sight.
It’s truly frightening to think that in spite of the veritable cornucopia of information that has become available to us throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, the average American can’t look past the blaring advertisements and news reports on his TV screen and see the real messages he is receiving. The last thing I want is for George Orwell’s 1984 to become a documentary, or even worse – a reality series.
I, for one, would be delighted to hear the story of a thinking citizen who, before finishing the show, turned off the TV for a while and actually became aware of the world outside the airwaves.
Personally, I am disgusted by most of what I see on television these days. Mind you, I don’t mean to sound like a staunch Reaganite (in fact, I tend to avoid those people). My main grievance with television is that Madison Avenue expects us – living, breathing, human beings with personalities – to play out our lives solely for the sake of corporate benefit.
Of course, no one wants to believe it; we don’t hesitate to point out the propaganda techniques used in other countries, but we faithfully and loyally defend our own communication avenues and refuse to believe that the media just may be conditioning us to -literally- breathe for someone else’s profit.
Every day, millions of unsuspecting consumers find themselves literally bombarded with advertisements, constantly having their desires dictated to them over the airwaves. The sad thing about this is that most of these advertisements are peddling products that we don’t even need… until we see the advertisements. Somehow, most of them are actually able to convince us that unless we’re out buying and consuming – making the upper one percent even richer – then our existence is empty and meaningless.
Strangely enough, our lives continue to be empty and meaningless after we think we’re done consuming. But why? Because after stuffing our faces with needless consumer goods, we go right back to the tube, ready to lap up whatever it spits at us.
For the sake of justice, you would think that the cable companies who air these ads would give us some sort of compensation for having to put up with all of this. Not to imply that it would in any way justify the psychological surgery performed by the advertising conglomerates, but they could at least send us something along the lines of a monthly reimbursement. Right?
Wrong – we’re paying them!
Imagine – a consumer culture that actually contributes to their own brainwashing fund. It’s an ingenious concept, but it relegates the individual human existence to that of a commercial pawn. Large clothing chains like American Eagle and Old Navy operate on a similar principle: instead of relying on conventional advertisements that cost money, these corporations print their logos directly on their products. And since these products remain attached to us throughout the entire day, the people we interact with inevitably end up seeing them as well, effectively turning us into billboards for whichever corporation we decide to pay for the honor of advertising them.
As if it weren’t enough to know that the advertising companies are conditioning us on their own, the news media is, unfortunately, also under corporate control. Before you start criticizing me as a raging conspiracy theorist who doesn’t have the slightest clue what he’s rambling about, this carries several implications for those of us who rely on news media outlets for “accurate” information.
First of all, since mainstream news media outlets are owned by large corporations, they are subject to the effects of economic competition readily observable in all capitalistic societies. This means that like other competitors in the marketplace, they’re working for profit. And since comfortable illusions have always been more profitable than the truth, the news media have basically no incentive to report the news without their fair share of distortion and misrepresentation.
Keep in mind that this doesn’t happen because someone decided to make it so. Instead, it’s a direct result of natural selection in the marketplace; profitable media outlets are favored over accurate ones. As a result, honest and impartial media outlets tend to be marginalized and pushed below the level of public awareness.
Furthermore, since the federal government is the principal source of viable news and information, the survival of most media outlets depends on the government’s willingness to allow journalists to gather information from them. This, of course, depends on the reputation of the outlet in question; outlets that reveal appalling truths about the government are likely to be denied access to important facts and figures. On the other hand, outlets that speak more favorably about the government are given greater access to the information that creates the news you see on TV each day.
Now, in all of this uproar, what happens to the marginalized honest outlets? Simple: they lose standing as “your leading news sources.” This, of course, leads to less regular viewers and a loss of advertising income – the chief source of revenue for mass media outlets. And this is exactly why the truthful outlets are not surviving. It’s not quite a conspiracy, but the law of economics is keeping the real news out of sight.
It’s truly frightening to think that in spite of the veritable cornucopia of information that has become available to us throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, the average American can’t look past the blaring advertisements and news reports on his TV screen and see the real messages he is receiving. The last thing I want is for George Orwell’s 1984 to become a documentary, or even worse – a reality series.
I, for one, would be delighted to hear the story of a thinking citizen who, before finishing the show, turned off the TV for a while and actually became aware of the world outside the airwaves.
