Back to the Basics (Mass Media Culture is Dead)

The takeaway result of the last election was that the mainstream (mass) media went so overboard in their partisan advocacy that they destroyed whatever illusions they still maintained as an impartial and objective function in society, and revealed themselves as just another vested self-interest (if not even more so) -- to be wary of like all the others.

It’s not the trusted friend it would like everybody to believe they are and have been since the earliest days of the founding of American civilization. They want to be first in the hearts and minds of the people -- above all the others, even to the highest public offices of trust and respect -- even willing to destroy that trust and respect to their advantage. It might have worked if the object of their contempt was not one of a much higher level of proven integrity and irreproachable conduct -- that they worked so tirelessly to undermine. But the truth always outs in the end.

It was the mass media that was the “man behind the curtain,” and not the man under unrelenting scrutiny until the very end. His saving grace was that he was a man of his faith and convictions that would not be abandoned. But that persecution too, would pass.

It is the mass media that still has to get up each morning, without George W. Bush to bash, blame and abuse because he would not return in kind that treatment he would tolerate from those who identified themselves in this way. The ultimate anonymity was to become one of a pack -- of unrelenting pack dogs nipping at his heels without surcease. Under such an attack, would he crack before his term ended, or would he cross the finish line before he could be crushed and confounded?

So another achievement on top of all the others, is that George W. Bush withstood the unmerciful onslaught of his critics -- and remained unbroken and unbowed -- to the great rage of his tormenters, and yes, torturers. They were the modern day versions of the “Scribes” who teamed up with the “Pharisees,” to provide that harassment to its final and inevitable conclusion.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the crucifixion; not everyone was convinced that he was rightfully scorned -- and abused. A few could recognize that this was a person unjustly persecuted -- and stood their own convictions, even if it meant losing their own jobs and reputations.

There are always a few who will remain unscathed in this way -- of not being overwhelmed by the lynch mob, the witch hunt, the Inquisition -- and can hold their ground, and that is the true march of progress and civilization in all times, in every culture and society. They are the true children of the faith -- and maintain it through the outrageous injustices and pressures to abandon their steadfastness.

So when the mass media culture thought everybody had to be aboard their own bandwagon, their own wheels started to come off, causing their own abandonment and despair.

The Beginning of the Truth

Because many, especially those in the mass media, will attempt to rewrite the events of the last eight years, as they have during these last eight years, I think it is well that we actually clarify the facts.

As the year 2000 approached, there was already great trepidation that the world would come to an end at the strike of midnight as all machines failed because they couldn’t process a date beginning with the calendar year “2,” but happily, everything continued to work like clockwork. Leading up to that anticipated catastrophe, many had overstocked in preparation for such disruption and the uncertainty of lives on their own, even against every other, and so it was anticipated that at the end of 1999, there would be a dramatic slowdown especially in the technology infrastructure that had come to characterize life as we now knew it.

Yet for three months after the beginning of the year, the stock market and particularly the stocks of the technology stocks continued their parabolic ascent before beginning the famous dot.com crash -- that was up to then, thought only a peculiarity of dot.com stocks -- which we have learned lately, can include any asset, no matter how tangible and real people think they are and always will be -- and that is specifically real estate, and real money, supposedly hidden safely away in bank vaults and their securities.

The NASDAQ stocks then proceeded to fall an unprecedented 90% -- even before the election of 2000 -- the results of which seemed to drag on embarrassingly long amid the shocking charges that American elections were not fair. So when President Bush took office in January, much of the wealth of the country had been devastated, and just as we seemed to be on the verge of a sustainable recovery -- unbelievably, terrorists commandeered jets to fly into what they thought would be a paralyzing blow to the financial heart and center of American prosperity and commerce.

The world basically stopped that day of 9/11/01, and even Waikiki became an immediate ghost town, and for days afterwards, planes flew out with tourists, but few flew in -- and it seemed to be the final death blow to an economy that had been in a slow decline for a decade. Many hopes for that momentary return of the rich (Japanese) tourists were dashed -- for surely, nothing could be done, what could be done?

And so barely ten days later, it was a remarkable decision that will resound through the annals of history and civilization, that President Bush vowed to end the reign of terrorism throughout the world -- as his singular purpose.

Not only did the American and world economies recover, but reached unprecedented levels of prosperity so that by the years 2006-7, prices for everything were at record highs -- including real estate, oil and stocks on the Dow. That is unquestionably a matter of record, and not that we have lived the last eight years in the greatest poverty (American) civilization has ever known -- as the mainstream (mass) media has been trying to convince us they alone have the power to control what we think despite the realities.

And that is what brought about their own downfall -- that they cannot make up any story they want with impunity just because they have the freedom to do so, because there are still others who are determined to maintain the truth, and that truth eventually wins out.

Something For Nothing

If one tunes in to the media in Hawaii, some great irrational and inexplicable action is just about to be revealed -- and at the root of it, is the unspoken cultural imperative of getting “something for nothing,” and who does it to whom first, the longest, or has that right -- rather than that greater universal principle, of “doing unto others, as one would have done unto you,” or in the language of business and prosperity, “exchanging fair value for fair value” -- which is the essence of good, justice and fairness in the world.

Anything else, is the root of the problem, and it is ridiculous to argue endlessly about “right,” after one has accepted that wrong, as the unquestionable premise of human relationship and interaction. One simply asserts their primacy to do as they please, and then merely defends and rationalizes that conclusion to their dying breath -- no matte how many they have to drag down to the grave with them. That’s just how it is going to be.

The only thing anybody else can do, is avoid that person as a moral black hole, going as far out of one’s way to avoid a direct encounter and having to acknowledge the recognition of that person, who regards that such encounters, are justifiable reason for continued exploitation and shameless outrage -- because such individuals, are in fact, shameless.

And so trying to shame such individuals are hopeless and preposterous -- just giving them time and the opportunity for another abuse and insult. Such people are also beyond learning -- because they feel they have learned it all -- that one has to do unto others before others have a chance to do unto them.

The children learn it as the lesson of “musical chairs” -- that when the music stops, one will be left without a chair -- if they do not push another off of “theirs.” It’s really quite a cruel game -- but is all the understanding necessary to see to the heart of the problems in Hawaii, of creating the dispossessed, rather than sharing equitably, as the better, more enlightened game would be designed. But that would not be “reality,” the teachers and elders contend. That would give the children a false idea of what the world is all about. They must be conditioned to know their place and how to fit in -- to that rotten society.

They have been conditioned with the wonderful tales at the root of their society, that somebody has to be pushed off of the Pali, before everyone can live in great glory.