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Media: Opiate for the Masses |
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Wednesday, 05 March 2008 |
What do the elections tell us about candidates' political plans or how they'd respond to crises and international disputes? Unfortunately, a lot. Welcome to the 21st century circus games: Pay no attention to the growing bread shortages.
So, I want to ask my readers, what is the important news of the last week? What stories grabbed your focus? - Threats of a proxy war between U.S. supported Columbia and FARC supported by Venezuela?
- Ron Paul beating the party & media backed challenger in the 14th Congressional district of Texas?
- The dollar crashing to record lows against a variety of international currencies?
Well, I can tell you what the mainstream media thinks is important.
- An election that's been going on for a year and won't be finished for another nine months
- Anna Nicole's baby
- A tornado - oh yeah, and is it global warming or cooling today? (we used to call this a weather section, I hear)
- Roger Clemens??! (Congress agrees, this is of vital importance. Much more important than 2008 education legislation.)
This election is a circus, and I mean that in every historical sense
possible from the Roman bread & circus games to P.T. Barnum's
realization that there's a sucker born every minute. Media is not a
source of information and knowledge, its a sort of a pain-killer. Not
only does it destract from the growing political failure, it
desensitizes and numbs our sense of justice by tiring it on misbehaving
celebrities.
Religion isn't as popular as it used to be, but that doesn't mean that
the use of social institutions by the ruling class has gone away. Today's cathedrals
are television sets, but Marx's opiate analogy still applies. It was
always of my opinion that Marx was not looking for a viable economic
model, he was looking for a new ways to control the masses in a
industrialized, secular society. He would be truly proud of socialism
today, I expect, so long as he were in a position of authority within
it.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 09 April 2008 )
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