Saturday, March 21, 2009

Serfs up!

Because things haven't been quite weird enough lately...
One weirdness!
Two weirdnesses! Ah, hahaha!
Three weirdnesses! Ahahahahaha!
And more to come tomorrow, too. Hang on to your hat.

Now the news.
Oh, wait- that's not news, that's Dick Cheney, the EX-vice president. And he's not dead! In other words, he's not news. Also not news: Tom DeLay, Lynn Cheney, and Newt Gingrich. Gingrich hasn't been news in ten years; DeLay in five, and Lynn Cheney has never been newsworthy! Why are they still on TV?

I'll tell you: because their buddies run the networks.

And those buddies decide what you see, and therefore what you end up believing to be newsworthy and entertainment-worthy. And not only that- they decide how you should spend your money (on their subsidiaries of course, which advertise profusely on their networks, of course, so all the money spent on advertising is actually recirculated through the networks' vast system of accounts until it makes its way to the top and gets spent overseas or on stock options. None for you!).

We're headed for a cultural landscape that would look more familiar to Catherine the Great than Catherine Zeta Jones: severe, extreme disparities of wealth, crowned by an upper-class with all the power. None for you!

These may be the darkest hours America has ever faced, and there may be no democratic dawn to follow. If we lose independent newspapers, and thus independent reporting, we will have lost all hope of reform in government, short of armed revolt. And since we all know that the USGovt's firing power is significantly greater than that of any individual, or any other group for that matter, things are looking a little bleak.

Yes, newspapers are so old-fashioned. Embarrassing to even be seen reading one, I know.

But get this: Democracy is engagement. Democracy is simply The People Being Their Own Government: the people being engaged with each other, and with the issues.

What we have, on the other hand, is Mediacracy (say "mee-dee-AH-cruh-see"). Media outlets shape and inform our opinions by running certain stories, and ignoring certain others. What's that you say? You don't have strong feelings about the unrest in Urumqi? That would be because your news producers and editors don't want you to think that 150 or so people killed in riots is newsworthy. They would rather you think about something else. Like, their products! Or yourself. Or better still: how their products! might enhance your life. Just- don't think about rioting. Or organizing, for that matter. Just spend your way to happiness. It's at the bottom of your bank account- just keep looking, spend that money out of the way and you'll see it!

We have become everything we've ever despised. As in Mussolini's Italy, industry rules the roost. Just like King George's Britain, we colonize and pillage. And now we're headed the way of Stalin's USSR, in which all the 'news' came directly from the State.

'Coz we're not calling the shots anymore. Notice how responsive the Senate has been, to recent polls indicating >70% support of a public health care option in the reform bill? Oh, you didn't notice? Ahh, that would be for two reasons: 1) primarily because the Senate is beholden to Big Pharma and the industrial Medical-Insurance-complex, and 2) because the Media doesn't want you to know. They don't want you to know, because their insurance-exec buddies reap huge profits, and then spend lavishly on advertising to support friendly senators' campaigns (to ensure that their companies can still reap those huge profits).

That's right: over 70% of Americans polled believe that some sort of public option should be included in any health care reform bill. And yet, we have nothing, because public health care would be bad for the economy. No wait, I mean it would be bad for The Industry. Erm, wait- I mean, it would be bad for Management. Oh, no, hang on-- I meant, it would be bad for The Wealthy.

And we can't have that. Oh no.