Newton Minnow, back in more sentient times, called TV a “vast wasteland.” That seems true. Programming and news is aimed at low-awareness viewers. Advertising is the real product – the incessant carnival barking of consumer products. We may find it annoying to see the same ad seven, eight times – advertisers know all about the annoyance factor, but also know that an ad might reach us the thirteenth time we see it, and that will pay for the previous twelve. So advertising, by design, is intrusive and annoying.

We are subscribers to DirecTV, but suspended that service for the summer. The business model for cable/satellite providers is to package the one or two channels we might find appealing with 30 or 40 others, and for a large monthly fee, usually in the $35-50 range. This in in addition to the $35-50 basic service package. The object appears to be $100 per month from each household in the country. ESPN is by far the premium cable channel in the U.S., and carriers complain about the cost, but it is their lever to “high end” packages and the $100 per month goal. (We were basically subscribing to Comedy Central with our DirecTV package. Jon Stewart is a smart guy with a great staff of writers, but not worth $100 a month.)
Continue reading “Low-level hypnosis” →

We all live within frameworks by which we embrace our own private realities. Those realities must interface with the real world, and often contradictions surface. Our job, if we are sentient and rational, is to resolve the contradictions in such a way that reality and framework are in continued harmony.

Example: As a six year-old child, I believed that Jesus was real, and that he watched over me. I believed in Holy Communion. At that time we had to fast before taking communion, so I was not allowed to eat food for three hours before. On Christmas Eve, 1956, I was in the balcony of our church sitting through long ceremonies, and had a terrible stomachache. But I firmly believed that once I took communion, Jesus would relieve the pain.

That moment finally came, and I made my way back to my seat after waiting for the pain to go away. It did not.

What to do? What any good Catholic would do – stuff doubt, make it go away. But it never really did.

I’ve read many blogs and comments and many articles now surrounding the most recent events in various Arab and Muslim countries, and the overriding American framework is easily apparent:

We are rational, they are not.

I mean, look at them! They are attacking us because of a silly film! They are really fanatic about their religion.

A more logical explanation is that they are really angry at our government and our military, and that it does not take much to set off that anger. And assuming that they, like us, are rational, there must be some reasonable basis for the anger.

Of course, we have our religion, and we can be equally irrational when others insult our religious symbol, The Flag. When others burn it, we go ballistic.

If Americans viewing recent events assume that the players are rational, resolution of the resulting discomfort might produce useful insight.

I watched the move “The Grey” last night, starring Liam Neeson. It started out as “we,” but my wife quickly had had enough. I wanted my $4.99 worth. (This is not movie review, lest you think I have any pretensions in that area. But if you are thinking about seeing it, don’t read any further.)

The movie is set in Alaska, and is ugly throughout. The only thing that held my interest was the potential for a happy ending, but the lead characters are one-by-one killed off, including Neeson’s character, Ottway, at the end. Wolves, assuming demonic proportions, stalk them throughout as if they did not have better things to do … like hunting prey with more protein and fat. Ottway tries to lead the pack of men to safety in the trees. Wolves apparently don’t go there. The symbolism is beyond me.

Of course the movie is a metaphor for facing our deepest fears. But Jesus, let us win now and then!

The only other movies that came to mind were those set in Southeast Asia where our nightmare is the “Viet Cong.” We never saw them – only their punji stakes and other barbarous traps picking off the good guys one-by-one. Those movies were intended for propaganda purposes to demonize our enemies and justify the slaughter that we inflicted on that country. This one … unless Obama is thinking about invading Canada (a routine American ritual in our early years … hmmm …) taunts our psyches for unknown reasons.

The movie is based on a short story, Ghost Walker, by MacKenzie Jeffers, who also co-wrote the screenplay (thank you, Wiki). People who saw it in a theater surely came out smiling … relieved at rejoining life after such a dark journey!

My wife was reminded of Sarah Palin shooting wolves from the safety of a helicopter. The animals are a Jungian archetype, as in Little Red Riding Hood where the Big Bad one symbolizes hunger. (Hunger has constantly stalked humans in our post-hunter-gatherer existence.)

If you have a chance to see The Grey, at least know that it is not a kind treatment of either wolves or humans. I can count the number of times cast members smiled on one hand and still pick my nose.

The aide said that guys like me were ”in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who ”believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ”That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. ”We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”Ron Suskind, conversation with anonymous White House “aide”

The assumption is that the aide speaking above was Karl Rove, still in power at this time, but the words “judicially, as you will…” hit me as Cheney-talk. Who knows, who cares. Those words were a reflection of hubris, an arrogant revelation, and a mistake. They should not talk out of school.

But they highlight the problem. We only know what power is up to retrospectively. Americans, at least those who are thinking, run around trying to decide which news outlet to trust. The correct answer, “None of them!” doesn’t satisfy. Conservatives run to Fox, liberals to CNN, each getting six of one. Liberals also go to NPR, which offers CNN/Fox news with nice sound effects, and Car Talk.

I like Democracy Now!, not because they have the answers, but rather because they are at least curious about what’s really going on, even as they have no access to power. They try to fulfill the function of a news source without resources. (I send them $25 a month. I am bribing them!)

I also go to RT.com because, as a Russian propaganda outlet, they offer balance to the American propaganda outlets that dominate our senses. Knowing that the US and Russia are at odds is reassuring. However, often in history competing empires share larger objectives and merely facilitate one another, as during the Cold War.

The only thing for sure: Nothing is for sure.
Continue reading “Who’s sowing, who’s reaping, who the hell knows?” →

The murderous attack in Libya was a tragedy, and the loss of life is deplorable.

So too is the attack on the U.S. Embassy and the four Americans killed. But it pales in comparison.

It’s all ugly. What the U.S. did to that country was barbarism.

If you’ve ever wondered why American journalists are so timid (most are honest but uninformed), read this.

Amber Lyon was courageous in attempting to get on-the-ground facts about repression and violence by the American-backed Bahraini government. She and others delivered award-winning coverage. When her bosses at CNN International refused to air it she challenged them.

She got fired. Laid off, they said, as her only firing offense would have been “journalism.”

She is talking now, and CNNi is still trying to get her to shut up. They have threatened to cut off her severance package. She doesn’t care.

“I look at those payments as dirty money to stay silent. I got into journalism to expose, not help conceal, wrongdoing, and I’m not willing to keep quiet about this any longer, even if it means I’ll lose those payments.”

In case you listen to American news and do not recognize that attitude, it’s called “integrity.” Courage and unemployment go hand-in-hand here in the home of the brave.

I was pleased to see an Occupy Wall Street march in Charlotte in advance of the Democratic Party convention. At least some folks have their eye on the ball. Protesters highlighted Obama’s murderous attacks on innocent civilians via drone technology and his Wall Street sycophancy.

However, it was disappointing to see only one thousand or so turn out. Two possibilities come to mind: Perhaps even OWS participants are lured into lesser-evil somnambulance, or worse yet, Obama’s brutally violent response to OWS has had its intended effect. People don’t feel like getting their head bashed by paramilitaries masked as police officers.

And then, of course, there are the “Free Speech Zones.” If there were an award for oxymoronic excellence, there would be no competition. Protesters who voluntarily allow themselves to be coralled deserve to be in the prison that free speech zones represent.

A crime so monstrous as 9/11 can become an obsession, a time sink, so that merely for reasons of personal serenity and happiness, it is best not to dwell on it. Further, it is dwarfed in comparison to the crimes that the US has committed in the wars that 9/11 enabled, the very purpose of that crime. So even though 9/11 pales in comparison to maybe 1.2 million killed in Iraq (probably more and ongoing), millions more forced to flee to other countries for safety, 9/11 itself was the trigger. Exposure of that crime explains all that follows, and will perhaps bring some sanity to our crazy existence before the madmen who run the country bring the world to its knees in violence.

Writings such as this are greeted with silence, of course. The assumption is that I have gone off some tangent, had hallucinations or have become cynical and world-weary, perhaps even paranoid and delusional. Since I, of course, am not the best judge of those matters, I cannot say “not so!” with any authority. I can only assure the reader that I believe in the essential goodness of my fellow humans, almost all of us. I know the many weaknesses of our individual makeups. I share those weaknesses. I am capable of envy, avarice, arrogance and false conclusions based on misread evidence. Confirmation bias is a riding companion for all of us. I see how we form groups based on personal prejudice to reinforce our own beliefs. We are, all of us, works in progress. We all want to move forward, understand better, and live in a community where our own rights are respected as we respect those of others. No one is out to “get” me personally or conspiring to harm me in any way. I’ve led a charmed and fortunate life. If it all goes away tomorrow, that’s life. Nothing is ever guaranteed, and billions of other people would take my life over their own, would love to be so fortunate.
Continue reading “The sting” →