Now where was I, who am I, what is happening here? Oh- I'll turn on the news. Whoa! There is a lot going on. Problems there are, but there are people in postions of power who are working on solutions!
Slowly, things seem to be working themselves out. Maybe the danger of the banality of television that Max Schumacher so aptly described in the movie 'Network' has proven not to be able to take hold of the human race. Maybe we have risen above The Media, enough of us, to actually give a damn about the world and the people that live in it or is that a premature and presupposed assumption?
Hugh Han- Unsplash.com
Social media is acting as our new televison now. Here I can act as an evangelist. I can start my own religion, preach whatever gospel I want, present 'facts' and opinions, foster dissent, bolster up my cause, I can in a thousand different ways use this medium for good or ill. Social media is MY 'Network', MY television station. I understand that Howard Beale saw the light many years ago when he, deep inside The Network, within The Matrix, behind the curtains that hid the wizard, SAW that ratings (now 'page views') was where it was at. Advertisers! Doesn't matter so much if it is relevant, what matters is that it ENTERTAINS. Pictures, videos, 'Vines' clips, cleverly designed text, soundbites..... You know what the most consistently popular stuff on You Tube is? Music Videos! Many of them get millions of views, and some of them hundreds of millions! People aren't watching educational stuff as much as they're watching 'Despacito' or 'Gangnam Style'!
The big difference now is that, unlike 1976, you CAN 'turn the channel' and find something relevant, something that enlightens and uplifts you. You're not limited to passively watching Happy Days or Charlie's Angels or Baretta or Threes Company or Welcome Back, Kotter or Little House On The Prairie or The Waltons ....
Distractions will always be available, but, unlike Howard Beale's exhortation to "Turn your TVs off! NOW! Turn them off and LEAVE them off!" I say turn them ON! Educate yourself. Take the opportunity to w r e n c h yourself away from those music vids and type in something that makes you think in the search box. You have unprecidented opportunity, and there is sooooo much good material out there. What a resource! What a gift!
It's either that, or:
Max Schumacher (to Diane): "You need me. You need me badly. Because I'm your last contact with human reality. I love you. And that painful, decaying love is the only thing between you and the shrieking nothingness you live the rest of the day"