Forgetting

Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
- George Santayana

The media is the single most influential means of persuasion and co-option of thought since the advent of organized reloigion. In fact, in many homes across the world the mindless drone of media influence is comparable if not supercedent to the influence of organized religion. Why then is it not take more seriously? The freedom of press enjoyed by the free nations of the world is supposed to work in favor of the people, permitting voices of reason to be heard when the powerful seek to overtly or sublimely take absolute control of society. The opposite has, in fact, happened.

The media is controlled by a small group of ultra-powerful corporate entities. The boards of these entites make decisions that determine what is broadcast and finds its way into the social consicousness of the general population. this power to tap and manipulate the public consciousness, specifying messages for many segments of the population. This specificity molds and seeks to sedate the population, allaying their fears on the one hand and reminding them of their fears the next. This rollercoaster of emotive content is the new propaganda; the world exterior to western culture, specifically American culture, constantly calls the insualted, sheepish population to attention. It is, however, easier to maintain focus on that which is familiar. Television, film, and advertising; the messages delivered by a government run amok. It has all been seen before and, now, it may be unstoppable.

The use of force as a motif in popular cultre has gained wide acceptance as mere triviality. Perhaps, then, it is for this reason that the use of force in the actual world goes virtually unnoticed, unrecognized, or passes for normalcy in the minds of consumers. If, by watching "COPS" or "24" or any other police drama, an acceptance of the use of force is mentally established, then the resonant experience in reality is less impactful as it has already been accepted.

Past arguments that observing violence in film and television would perpetuate violence in the community fell flat as violence had always predated the medium by which it was being broadcast. The desensitization argument may still be credible, though individual acts of violence have seen no proportional increase over time. The desensitization argument ought to slice both ways, however. Not only does the threat of violence exist within individuals against the general public, but also the threat of violence from authority figures against the rest of the world.

Authoritarian rule flies in the face of the freedom, at least this is logically true. The facist regimes of the 1930s and 40s demanded absolute authority over the population. This authority was challenged by the actions of WWII. The authoritarian rule of Stalin and other communists regimes stood to the challenges of the Cold War. Yet, the authorites on each side of these conflicts bore greater, or simply more popular, moral authority only due to the mistakes of the authoritarian states. Had Nazi Germany embraced the Jews as part of the population -- or, even better, had they promised them a secure Jewish state -- would the war have been fought? If there had been no nuclear arms race between the Western and Eastern superpowers, no gulags, and no global market competiton, would there have been a Cold War?

The essence of authority is the ability to establish and maintain one's control over others. If an authority cannot be challenged, due to some internal machinery that denies the capacity for challenge, then the self-importance of that authority exceeds the freedom of the people to which it is responsible. The result is an authoritarian state. Freedom does not exist where authority cannot be challenged.

What has been forgotten here? The freedom for which armies fight on this very day has been relinquished. The machinery of the world has co-opted the freedom for which millions have fought and died over the centuries. The processes of humanity, from politics to economy to lawmaking to enforcement, have created a world in which freedom is slavery.

Industry is the means of this enslavement. To uphold the form and function of western society all people must have jobs, all people must perpetuate the economy, and all people must parttake of the media. The jobs we undertake provide us with the means to survive. The economy we perpetuate takes that money away and distracts us with shiny objects, toys, and gratifications for the senses. The consumption of media allows us to be lulled into a false sense of security -- or a false sense of insecurity, when needs be -- such that we search only for immediate needs. The richest industries, that of media, utilises and installs ideas into the minds of the audience. This fearsome power drives all other endeavours. Industries perpetuate themselves, through advertising, by consuming people.

It is the greatest irony of human endeavour -- consumers, themselves, are consumed; consumed externally by industry and internally by the desire for consumption.

Now it's time for me to go to work.