I was having a discussion with an older gentleman in my friend's hair salon yesterday, while I getting my hair done (the salon is owned by my friend, and as we barter for services I don't pay anything out of pocket).
The essence of the conversation revolved around the political crisis that we're facing. We discussed some of the possible reasons that we've managed to sink into such a time of extreme crisis: the vast majority of people in this country (the USA) do not want to know what's going on in the world or in this nation, unless it's something they don't have to think about. In other words, they just want to kick back, pop open a brewskie, and be entertained. They do not want to think about and/or deal with real-world issues—something they leave to the realm of their employment (should they be one of the 37% in this nation who are gainfully employed).
I posti that a very large part of this mentality is due to the fact that we have no real news coverage in our country. Our "news" and "media" are, for the most part, sources of pure entertainment. For instance, the other day, the stories that caught my attention were the protests against Russian Premiere Vladimir Putin in Amsterdam, the death of Baroness Thatcher, threats by North Korea of nuclear attacks against the USA, the civil war and strife in Syria, the crisis in Cypress, flooding in Thailand, and a few other stories.
What was the most pressing issue in the US media: "What did you think of the new Mad Men episode last night?" That -- a poll about what the public thought of a fictional television drama -- was the lead story of the day for most of the media outlets across the nation.
If you think media in this nation isn't a source of entertainment, look at who's presenting the media: 95% of the anchors and news reporters one sees on television could qualify as contestants in beauty pageants. I dare anyone to find me a current news anchor on one of the major networks with the looks of Roger Grimsby, Hal Fishman, Larry King, or Bob Schieffer. Why do you think Jim Lehrer and Robert MacNeil are relegated to PBS (public broadcasting station) news shows -- the least-watched of all news shows in the nation?
Have you ever seen what the disastrous silence that ensues when one of the current TV news anchors' teleprompters runs into a glitch? Or worse, when a field reporter (who all must meet the beauty requirements of news anchors these days) runs into technical difficulties with the writers who are feeding them questions into their earpieces, in the middle of a live interview? The field reporter hasn't a clue what to do without those directions being fed into their earpieces.
I'm tempted -- and this is something that the Occupy and Anonymous movements should consider -- to show up when field reporters are conducting live, on-air interviews, and initiate an EMF-jamming signal, preventing the reporters from receiving their instructions and questions to ask the interviewees. Now that would be entertainment, and it just might wake some people up to the fact that the "news" shows they watch every night are merely another form of entertainment.
It is this mentality that has crippled our nation (and some other nations around the world who seek to emulate us) to the point of it no longer being the shining mecca of freedom, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness it once was. The mega-rich, those elite few who have plotted for decades, now control just about everything that goes on in this nation. Nothing gets done without their say-so or that doesn't inure to their benefit.
One would think this uninformed, apathetic attitude would exist solely in the lower, uneducated classes but that's far from the truth. The vast majority of even the so-called well-educated in this nation haven't a clue as to what's going on in our own back yards, let alone the world. And again, it's because the elite few have turned our media and news agencies into sources of entertainment, all to keep us placated and them in power.
If the citizens of this nation ever were to wake up from their entertained dreamland of wonderment, they will be in for quite the rude awakening. Unfortunately, I have very little hope that we will awaken in time to save this nation from the destructive path upon which it is most certainly headed.
Oh, and in keeping with the spirit and mentality of the American public, this is how mah hurrrs came out:
For those of you who don't realize it, today is 4/11 -- 411 is a number commonly used as an abbreviation for information (in the USA, dialing 411 usually reaches an operator (or nowadays, an automated system) where one can ask for "information" about a phone number they're trying to look up). Perhaps this little 411 post will awaken a few minds and unplug them from the Matrix -- which will be just as much a shock in reality as when Neo was unplugged....
