Thanks, David

Have a nice weekend, people, and remember to switch off your televisions and keep your mind awake!

Media madness reigns supreme in screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky’s scathing satire about the uses and abuses of network television. But while Chayefsky’s and director Sidney Lumet’s take on television may seem quaint in the age of “reality TV” and Jerry Springer’s talk-show fisticuffs, it’s every bit as potent now as it was when the film was released in 1976. And because Chayefsky was one of the greatest of all dramatists, his Oscar-winning script about the ratings frenzy at the cost of cultural integrity is a showcase for powerhouse acting by Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway and Beatrice Straight (who each won Oscars), and Oscar nominee William Holden in one of his finest roles. Finch plays a veteran network anchorman who’s been fired because of low ratings. His character’s response is to announce he’ll kill himself on live television two weeks hence. What follows, along with skyrocketing ratings, is the anchorman’s descent into insanity, during which he fervently rages against the medium that made him a celebrity. Dunaway plays the frigid, ratings-obsessed producer who pursues success with cold-blooded zeal; Holden is the married executive who tries to thaw her out during his own seething midlife crisis. Through it all, Chayefsky (via Finch) urges the viewer to repeat the now-famous mantra “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take it anymore!” to reclaim our humanity from the medium that threatens to steal it away.

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With the recent political unrest in the Middle East and with the media’s attempts to demonise supposed tyrannical leaders in the shape of Hosni Mubarak (Egypt), Muammar Gaddafi (Libya) and Bashar al-Assad (Syria), one cannot fail to notice that the general populace seems to be constantly bombarded with propaganda, as American, British, French and Israeli air power continue to drop their murderous payloads on innocent human beings of Arabic descent.

However, this media attention (euphemism for propaganda) that is presently focused on Arabic countries can be said to serve a purpose of giving consent for Western Governments (mainly US, UK, France) to satisfy their pretext to go to war so to save the people from these most terrible of men.

Could it be true that we are being told lies by a media which are complicit with government foreign policy of securing precious and profitable resources (obviously oil) at the expense of the very people they swear to protect?

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“Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself. This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember: all I’m offering is the truth. Nothing more.”

~ Morpheus from ‘The Matrix’ film

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Carrying on from yesterday’s post ‘The Truth About News: 2 Fair and Balanced News Programs To Watch’ detailing the mainstream media’s aims to manipulate and deceive the masses through propaganda, I now recommend you watch the classic Canadian documentary Manufacturing Consent based on the Noam Chomsky/Edward Herman book
by the same name. Explores the propaganda model of the media.

If you have no idea who Noam Chomsky is the following excerpt was written about him by the New York Times:

“Judged in terms of the power, range, novelty and influence of his thought, Noam Chomsky is arguably the most important intellectual alive today.”

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Switch off CNN!  Switch off Fox News! And not even BBC News can be exempt from the big news Switch-off (although, they are slightly better than the previous two).

Who can say that the aforementioned news channels are always being “Fair and Balanced” in their reporting?  Have they not demonstrated more than once biased reporting in favour of the sinister motives and policies of those in power?

If the conspiracy theorists are right, the mainstream news is a major propaganda tool used by the rich and powerful to brainwash the masses into relinquishing their inalienable rights and consenting for our elected masters to expand their profits at our very expense.

What seems to be mostly self-evident is that these so-called “Media Moguls of Truth” continuously bombard us with nothing but trivial events, media circuses (the recent hysteria surrounding The X-Factor here in the UK is an example of the media gone mad) and features on the superficial and banal lifestyles of the rich and famous – all this instead of concentrating on truthful reporting and serious issues happening worldwide.

I somehow get the feeling that most of this is done on purpose to distract, or more like deceive us from the knowing the truth of what’s really going on outside of our comfort zone.
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For some reason this particular post makes me want to break out with a bit of a sing-song…

“…And then a hero comes along,
With the strength to carry on,
And you cast your fears aside and you know you can survive,
So when you feel like hope is gone,
Look inside you and be strong,
And you’ll finally see the truth that a hero lies in you.”

I think that’s enough of the Mariah Carey imitation – thank you very much.

Now watch the following thought-provoking videos from Stefan Molyneux to get the gist of what lies behind the lyrics.

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