The Bless-ed Balm of Truth
Monday, July 2, 2007

I had this great post in my head last night, all about the wash of relief I experienced after reading some great posts over at Shakespeare's Sister on the rather transparent attempts by the MSM to continue the Campaign to Terrorize America, and how important it is that each of us resist these attempts.

Today, after reading the news about Scooter Libby's commutation, I almost got dismal enough to abandon hope and put my post aside.

However, I think that today's events only heighten my sense of how crucial this issue really is.

The constant hammering of the MSM's message that the world is a "dangerous" place, that our families are in peril every moment, and that the "others" (and they are legion, those "others" -- other races, other religions, other genders, other orientations) are out to get "our" stuff, "our" jobs, "our" nation, "our" values -- this barrage of crap is, in my opinion, simply designed to turn the viewer/reader/listener into a paranoid, dis-empowered, quivering mass of paralyzed inertia.

And I'm not buying it.

In my own life, I've worked with a number of strategies to handle "MSM Infections"

I've gone on hard-core "media fasts".

I've listened to/watched/read MSM, but only while I played "Death and Destruction Bingo" (a game where you make a hash-mark on your score card every time the announcer uses a word like "crisis", or "mayhem", or "tragedy", or "threat").

I invented Death and Destruction Bingo in 1999, while listening to a radio report about a plane crash in which there was no suspicion of a bombing. While reporting this, the newscaster managed to say the word "bomb" over 45 times in a five-minute report. Just so -- you know -- we wouldn't be worried that there was a bomb on the plane.

Capitalizing on "Bad News" is nothing new for mainstream newspapers, radio, or television news. However, in the "olden days", I was always told "Don't believe everything you read in the papers, kid."

Last summer, my Dad said to me "Well, you know we're already in World War III".

"Really?" I replied, "Where'd you hear that?"

"It was on the radio," he replied.

Wow. This from the guy who told me: "Don't believe everything you read in the papers, kid."

A spiritual teacher once pointed out to me that, although we are constantly told how much more violent, and awful, and horrible our world is today, if we looked back a mere 60 years and compared it at a purely logical level:

  • 1942 -- World War II involved nearly every nation on the planet (only 8 nations were actually considered true "neutrals") -- Casualties conservatively were figured at 61 million people (probably more like 72 million), and the majority of people on the planet were actually feeling pretty consolidated about the idea that this war must be fought.
  • 2002 -- According to Wikipedia, there are currently 29 ongoing armed conflicts going on in the world. War death-rates globally for the years 1998 - 2002 are estimated at 1.5 million according to the Human Security Report. And the majority of people on the planet are actually feeling pretty consolidated about the idea that war, in general, is a stupid fucking waste of resources and lives.
The point that the teacher made was that these statistics would seem to indicate that we are becoming less violent, rather than more violent. He also pointed out that, on the streets of the town where I currently reside -- 100 years ago people walked down the street with loaded guns on their hips, 50 years ago, people beat their children in public, and 25 years ago, apartheid still existed in South Africa.

Actually, I encourage you to go and take a good long look at the Human Security Report. It's a refreshing view from someone other than the MSM -- to me, it's all about the reality of our evolution as a species.

Supposition: If humans were just vile, destructive, nasty creatures, and if our population had tripled since 1950, then wouldn't it stand to reason that our vileness, destructiveness, and nastiness would have grown exponentially as well?

You probably know by now that I am a pacifist and an advocate of non-violence. I think one tiny bit of war is too much -- I want the troops out of Iraq right now -- all of them. I don't post this to encourage you to become complacent, or accept the 1.5 million deaths that have occurred as an acceptable ratio just because it speaks to a possible proof of our collective spiritual evolution. I just wanted to provide another perspective here -- one that flies in the face of the attempts of the media machine to terrorize you.

I believe that the MSM would really love for you to believe that your neighbor is dangerous, your neighboring nation is dangerous, and that planet over there is dangerous. I believe that the MSM would really like you to believe that you are fucked no matter what you do -- that you are an insignificant, ineffective bit of flotsam floating on the tide of "circumstances beyond your control".

I don't believe it though. I want to encourage you not to believe it either. I agree with William Wolfrum -- it's time for America to deal with it's fear addiction.

My new motto: Fear -- Just Say No.

Posted byPortlyDyke at 7:42 PM  

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3 comments:

splord said... July 3, 2007 at 6:24 AM  

How un'Murrican! I love it!

Gender Blank said... July 3, 2007 at 6:45 AM  

But if we're not afraid, we'll be less likely to engage in nation-saving behaviors like hating and shopping. And we can't have that.

I can't believe you would advocate this on the day before we celebrate whatever it is we celebrate on July 4. For shame, PortlyDyke. For shame.

Unknown said... July 4, 2007 at 8:45 AM  

This was well worth waiting for, thank you! You've got a very tasty mind, and not just in a zombilicious way. (No caffeine yet -- braaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiinnsssss.)

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