The More things change the more they remain the same

Critique on the Revolutions Reported or Be Careful What You Ask For.

I've been critical of the so called 'revolutions' taking place around the globe recently, including the Occupy movement of a couple of years ago. The so-called social media revolutions because they were built on the availability of social media to engage many people that may not have ever been engaged. As we've seen the revolutions in Northern Africa slip from the news, the Occupy Movement slip from having any relevance at all, and Egypt, Syria, Ukraine, and other nation states, some newsworthy and some not, slip into and out of chaos, my criticism seems well founded.

I'm only critical of how all these mass movements became reported, analyzed, and prognosticated by the media which supposedly supported or reported on them. We have reached a point in our history where mass media (free press) has been accepted as the main stay of a free society, such as we like to describe ours, without any real criticism as to whether or not it is really free. The disclosures of Wikileaks and "whistleblowers" alike, ala Ed Snowden, have only put a dent in the public's recognition of how important any one leak or disclosure is. In other words, we hear about the massive train wreck but not how it happened nor how to prevent it. We hear that there has been massive spying worldwide by all the powers that be, but we the public, really have no way to prevent it from happening or stop it from happening at all, so it's seen as  more of a  form of entertainment with the now faceless citizenry which has become fascinated by its own self oppression. At some point, a true fascist society contributes to its own demise by valuing that belief that suppresses them.

The media will not tell you what's wrong with the system, it simply exposes what it believes will tickle our fancy, both intellectually or culturally. And, if it gives us that rare glimpse into the inner workings of how or what the power structure is doing, we want to believe that it is an anomaly at worst  so we do not have to fully accept its consequences.  The problem with the media and our relationship to it is that we are being given a recipe on how this particular democracy works and we don't seem to care that it's not the recipe we think we've been cooking up all these years so we don't pay attention to it.

We've reached the point in our intellectual development where we think knowledge is a tool and is as relevant as we want to make it. Knowledge comes with a price, and that price is it so easy to become complacent. We can let others do our thinking for us, telling us what is true and what isn't. Accepting authority until something seems not quite right, but by that point we can't reverse what has already happened or go back down the path from whence we came which would be a perfectly natural thing to do if one is lost. And we are lost. We have allowed others to choose for us. We've become spoiled and arrogant by assuming that someone else will save us from ourselves or in many cases believing we don't need saving. Yes, the sandwich board warning, "The World is Coming To An End" has been around for a long time, the Old Testament might have started it off, and the Plague and Invasions of Heathens during the Middle Ages and beyond certainly fed the prognosticators with reality. Of course, with all these temporary historical facts came the Solvers or Authorities who because they were around at the right time, right place said they were the reason things got better when everyone else thought they would not. They said they prayed to God who helped us or outright killed the nuisance, whether the nuisance was the Devil, the Witch, the People next door, or Over the Hills, or Behind the Sun, the Unbelievers.

So we went on. Accepted a new truth until a new virus, a new enemy came upon us. Democracy came along and now we believe we have choices, pick your poison, but you can't opt out or try and find a solution outside the "chosen" one because it either costs too much or it's not where the society is going. It doesn't have anything to do with whether or not it does or doesn't work, or "makes sense" enough to be considered.

Most of our technology has arisen out of the mental workings of ordinary working people putting their social heads together, helping to make their life easier until recent times.  The last couple of centuries much of what we've developed has extraneous uses, such as developing the war machine or enabling the ability to sell and consume by adopting  economic conditions that cater to the whims of wealthy people who base their principals on ownership. Our Freedom now is relegated to choosing colors, styles, things that have no relevance to what eventually will hurt us. Our science has created wonders to help prevent illness but it is limited by the availability of money in addition to the fact that much of what kills us or hurts us is originates from the same scientists and its collusion with politics. Science isn't the innocent working for the helpless. Science and Industry have colluded in Weapons of Mass Destruction, creating high priced options, whether it be cars or medicine, that are unavailable to ordinary people. And we are ordinary people. Be Proud of it. The Salt of the Earth.

We forget that it is ordinary people who have been responsible for the increase in production and development of basic technologies that have been usurped by wealthy and greedy people and though some individuals have gotten credit for discoveries, most discoveries have been on the order of Columbus discovering America, I think you know what I mean there. From the containment of fire to the loom or plow, it's been the people who live and survive where changes really come from, not from the mental musings of politicians, philosophers, priests, scientists, CEO's, or celebrities.

 

 

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