Perhaps they don’t even intend to do it. Perhaps it’s simply the common denominator emerging from a consensus that things are basically okay and there's no need for fundamental change.
Mass media molds minds.
My apologies for excessive alliteration above but these four words for me describe the main problem we face in understanding and dealing with the world around us now in the 21st century.
Surely almost everyone knows by now that as a species we are in deep trouble?
A few hedonistic souls will disagree no doubt, positing the truth to the old adage that ‘Ignorance is Bliss’ and not to worry, just ‘Get it on’ and leave any problematic issues to others who are paid to deal with them.
Most people however must surely have misgivings at the very least if not major concerns that sometimes keep them awake at night worrying about themselves and their families, in particular the world their children will inherit.
Mass media is a mix of news-entertainment and a soporific blend of reality-TV offerings from travelogues to how to’s on cooking to home improvement with a smattering of film or theatrical drama. Now and then world issues crop up and in the West these are dealt with in line with the view that western elites are doing their best by being virtual saints in a darn tough, wicked old world.
This is where I take exception to this perpetual narrative that has sunk into so many brains, inevitably into the vast majority of brains. It needn’t be blatant as in propaganda, in fact this would be easily spotted and counterproductive for the powers-that-be to get their message across.
The constant drip drip of the same establishment-supporting narratives delivered incessantly across multiple similarly-oriented channels decade after decade has a pretty uniform effect that is largely subconscious.
Take any regime change target for instance.
Whether it was Saddam Hussein, Milosovic, Gaddafi, Castro, Maduro or Putin, it is always the same. The negativity is overwhelming and consistent. A series of Hitlers are paraded. Commentators deplore, politicians rant, viewspapers opine, TV news asserts... all the supposedly fair-minded, holistic coverage vanishes as suddenly as morning mist at the dawn of the hottest day of Summer.
Some of what you hear will indeed be based on fact, those relating them cannot use bare-faced lies, an element of truth to varying degrees is present. But how many discussions will you hear where elements of positivity are heard? Such as that both Iraq and Libya... and Syria for that matter had the best medical and educational facilities in the Middle East open equally to both men and women? This is true and can be found in books written by men and women who visited these countries before they were labelled as 'Bad News Only’.
How much do you know of the war in Yugoslavia other than what you heard in nightly news bulletins? I suspect, unless you are one of those who likes to examine such events in detailed fashion, not much, if anything. And, shock/horror (!) there WERE two sides to that story. Just as there are (of course) two sides to each of the regime change project targets. But you would never find this out via mass media.
Vladimir Putin almost single-handedly brought a Russia descending fast into a mire of chaos, criminality and utter misery up from the depths from 2000 onward. Were you informed of this via your TV, radio or newspaper of choice? What coverage of this fact were you exposed to from these three? Can I guess zero?
Your opinion of Vladimir Putin was gained in another fashion, one where there were no two sides portrayed, where the Hitler motif was once again strongly to the fore. After a good decade and a half of this you now “know” Putin is an evil dictator, a vastly wealthy thief, a murderer who poisons his adversaries and opponents or disposes them by other nefarious means. A monster in human form. Worse than Hitler? Quite possibly!
And yet... And yet... he did save Russia from what appeared to be its permanent state in 1999/2000. But you didn’t get to hear all that much about those times either, did you? You heard about all the western experts who were “helping” Russia to become more like the West. You heard in the news about the first McDonald’s opening in Moscow. You heard about the Boris Yeltsin who took control of Russia by violently (valiantly?) attacking the Russian parliament building by tank fire... as a hero.
Boris Yeltsin’s one positive act which enabled Russia to survive as a sovereign state and not descend into poverty-stricken, criminal-run fragments as it appeared destined to, was to choose Vladimir Putin as his successor. But this is a fact you will NEVER hear spoken of in mainstream media as it does not align with, contribute to or support the ‘Russia-Bad, West-Good’ narrative that is required of all mainstream broadcasters now.
The drip-drip of western political probity and purity is incessant. Despite Vietnam. Despite the lies over Iraq. Despite the destruction of Syria and Libya. Despite the ongoing cruel elimination of Yemen. despite all the above you will not hear one mainstream news mediator interview a western representative of U.S. UK or other coalition figures interviewed with anything other that respectful deference.
The West is Best. Johnny Foreigner is unstable, unreliable, likely to be pernicious in intent and violent by nature. Russia and China do not democratically initiate wars as we do. They have the cowardly attitude that sovereign nations should not be attacked preemptively when they have not attacked their attackers... even once. No, the West and its leaders are the known innocent do-gooders, those fighting all our enemies who are plotting against us. You see how this goes? Subtly, not outrageously strident, simply permanently in its agreed correctness, delivered to your ears in constant, self-affirming fashion, lulling you into the feeling your elites are in command in a dangerously wicked world... over there. Over there, not here. Never here. Western leaders are saintly, always doing their best to bring freedom and democracy... no matter how many they have to kill to do it.
But the addiction to mass media is a hard one to kick. It’s in your face constantly unless you actively avert your gaze. “What’s on the news today?”, “What do the papers say?” They are our reference points because they have taken the top spots, they garner huge incomes (well at least those in TV like CNN do, newspapers are in a more precarious position. But all have historical gravitas, a status gained through earlier years when there was indeed some real journalism done. But now, other than very rare examples, how much of that ‘right stuff’ do you now find?
What you find is the regime change target as chosen this day, week or month by the USA, UK or others with the US orbit, is the same one you read about or hear about in the press or TV mainstream. Is it China today or Russia, Cuba or Venezuela, Iran or Nicaragua?
Daily your brain is molded, involuntarily most of the time, by the drip-drip feed of negativity directed here or there with a complete absence of countering positivity. This latter would never do... there would be howls of protest if so... “You’re Putin’s Puppet!”, an “Assad Apologist!” and so on. This is the so called ‘fair-minded’ West at work mind you, the elites who pride themselves on their saintly conduct, freedom of the press, justice for all and so on.
There is no justice for regime change targets, only demonization without limit. Carried faithfully to you dear reader daily, fully compliant with the requirements of the western elites who act as judge, jury and executioner.
And don’t they share the guilt when hundreds of thousands die, when sovereign nations are destabilized, fragmented and turned into failed states, when misery and chaos are unleashed destroying any hope of future stability and happiness? Doesn’t mass media collectively share equally in the dire consequences of acts they implicitly recommended by channeling the totally one-sided views on those targets that created the consent needed to effect these atrocious and illegal acts?
Are they held responsible at all, in any shape or form? They are not. The majority of us keep reading and viewing them, we keep wondering what they are saying, we keep letting their insidious one-sidedness, bias and skewing of facts to permeate our brains.
We keep letting them manipulate our minds... and worry that nothing seems to change.
“Let’s see what’s on the news.”
“What do the papers say?”
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