I briefly turned on the radio this morning, but I just couldn’t continue. The blood and gore that was being described and re-described, in prickly detail, was not a good way to start my day. I need birds and flowers, and beautiful mental images. This type of journalistic reporting has, for most people, changed the flavor of their world. It is, however, not natural but contrived. I have never met a terrorist nor have most people. Our environment is filled with warmth and kindness. Why is this not reported? The big media companies that have inculcated the public with this dross for so long believe that “good news” won’t sell.
The pedigree and quality of the news changed, perhaps forever, with one major occurrence. In the late 19th century, Randolph Hearst (of Hearst Castle fame) and Joseph Pulitzer (founder of the Pulitzer awards) were both struggling to gain suzerainty in the New York newspaper circulation market, the biggest in the country. Anything was to be used to “gain the upper hand.” Additionally, the general public had just been brought up to a level of literacy that allowed, conceptually, for the images being presented. It was a “marriage made in heaven”: Welcome to our new reality. Books, pamphlets, and newspapers that focused on human kindness were expunged. The First World War, with its reportable carnage, sealed the deal. Just a small sample: A month after Hearst took over the paper; the Examiner ran this headline about a hotel fire:
HUNGRY, FRANTIC FLAMES:
They Leap Madly Upon the Splendid Pleasure Palace by the Bay of Monterey, Encircling Del Monte in Their Ravenous Embrace From Pinnacle to Foundation. Leaping Higher, Higher, Higher, With Desperate Desire. Running Madly Riotous Through Cornice, Archway and Facade. Rushing in Upon the Trembling Guests with Savage Fury. Appalled and Panic-Striken the Breathless Fugitives Gaze Upon the Scene of Terror. The Magnificent Hotel and Its Rich Adornments Now a Smoldering heap of Ashes. The Examiner Sends a Special Train to Monterey to Gather Full Details of the Terrible Disaster. Arrival of the Unfortunate Victims on the Morning’s Train — A History of Hotel del Monte — The Plans for Rebuilding the Celebrated Hostelry — Particulars and Supposed Origin of the Fire. (1)
We will have to return to a time of reality and common decency if we want to see a world that our children will feel comfortable to occupy. An interesting movement that is growing in tenacity is anarcho-primitivism (2), a type of social deconstructionism, a return to society’s beginnings. On its outer fringes, it is quite nonsensical: we need to see the collapse of human civilization as it now exists. In the middle, however, it questions our capitalistic values, and rightly so. Should my life be only in the pursuit of material well-being? This loose confederation sees the fault of our present state of worldwide affairs on the shift from hunter-gatherer to agriculture, and its following industrialization and social stratification. We should return to a more natural state of living. The Slow Movement (3) advocates a similar thesis. In my way of thinking, anarchism holds that each of us is morally responsible for our world: governments are an afterthought. The Transcendentalist (4) Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) is considered an anarchist by many, his thoughts are greatly similar. He leaves us with two quotes: If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives. (A part of this article was first published in October 2015.)
A closing thought: Certainly, cell phone usage has its inherent risks. My own random survey has shown that younger people tend to use the cell phone to rapidly “scroll up or scroll down” to gather as much information as possible. It is as if a person in on some type of mental stimulant. The other day I watched a young woman send five messages at a 30-second stoplight: amazing. Older people mostly play games – and not very intelligent ones, in my observation. Virtually no one searched for any intellectual information, looked up a word, went to a dictionary, etc. An informed populace is a free populace. We should be careful. George Orwell’s 1984 (5) could function without a totalitarian, police state, as well – just a stupid state with a bovine population.
To sum up: This week we spoke about living in a, perceptually, negative world and creating artificial fear. This is not what most of us experience. We must be careful, be thoughtful, and be informed about the “real” world.
A truism: A fool and his money are soon parted. The fool, however, usually has no money to be parted from.
Just for fun: Minor Swing – Django Reinhardt & Stéphane Grappelli
This week on your peripatetic walk, please ponder how you use your cell phone.
Every day look for something magical and beautiful.
Quote: Brilliance is created from you – the beautiful you.
Footnotes:
1) The San Francisco Examiner, May 1887