Political content warning: This post will contain statements that may include political points of view and/or be contrary to the narrative currently espoused by the corporate media outlets.
This election season, all the stops have been pulled out. Massive amounts of money have flowed into the accounts of political candidates for nearly every office though out the land. Over and over again, we hear political advertisements about this, that or the other candidate doing something unethical or just plain wrong. Is it true? Is it a lie? Does it matter? What effect does this have on the general population? If psychological studies are correct, hearing the same statement repeated several times, people will tend to believe it, even if they are not paying attention. As George W. Bush once said while he was President of the United States:
“See in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.”
This is the same mechanism used to brainwash people into religious cults.
Are we merely electing people because they have enough money to pay for the advertising required? Are they qualified to figure out how to fix and get the economy going again, or are they simply rich enough to buy the election?
At what point do we look at our own employment and our roles at various media outlets and wonder what connection it has with the current political and economic conditions in the US? For myself, I almost never listen to the radio stations that I do work for, other than to evaluate technical quality. As far as the programming content, I honestly could not tell you whether station X plays polka or top forty. However, even with that limited listening and knowledge, it is impossible not to miss the political propaganda on the airwaves.
What role has the current media model played in the election of corrupt (or at least inept) public officials? What role is the current media model playing in the partisan, divide and conquer, keeping the masses distracted while they finish the looting scheme? When do we become concerned that, even in a small supporting role, we are enabling the brainwashing of the general public?
We all have our own financial responsibilities, and that is true. However, perhaps it is time to step back and look at the big picture. There are many parallels in the history of humanity between the current situation in the US and other, long-gone governments like Rome, The Ottoman Empire, The Weimar Republic, and the former USSR. It’s time to ask, where are we going and what is going to happen when we get there?