I buy OK magazine every week because I like looking at pictures of Brad, Agelina, Jennifer Anniston and her former man ho John something-or-other. That's right, I divide my free time evenly between saving the world, offending my neighbors, watching Chuck and stalking celebs.Like clockwork, one week Brad and Angie are on the brink of divorce, the next enjoying marital bliss again - and all using the same pictures from Oscar night. These articles are so clearly not based on any actual new information or facts.
Reality TV is also totally staged, just ask Lawyer Mom.
The media tried so hard to turn the swine flu into something newsworthy but too many people inconsiderately refused to die. You could almost hear the reporters high fiving each other when some poor person with chronic health problems died of the flu and they could write about it.
The economy is also fickle. One day all the indicators are bad, the next consumption is up again and we're headed back toward prosperity.
None of this is news, it's entertainment.
What is true, anyway? It's complicated because there's always more than one side, more than one interpretation, more than one apparent truth. A plausible case can be made for the lamest and most obviously made up arguments, as we've seen in recent years over the 'clean coal' debate.
As you know, I love coal and wish we had a coal burning stove in our living room because it's so clean.
Fortunately for truth seekers, things that aren't true make us physically uncomfortable, even if we don't know they aren't true. I wrote more about this here if you're interested.
I don't really have a point today (hence the picture of the waffle, get it?), I've just been struck lately by conflicting messages everywhere I look.
In the absence of a clear external truth the need for a reliable internal moral compass seems kind of important.
Where can I get one of those?
This is why you need to read US Weekly! It's like the entertainment Bible.
ReplyDeleteThe media, be it blab mag, rag mag or news, try and tap into the emotions of our social conciousness. Everything is based on the amount of attention they can get from us, the viewer/reader, resulting in the almighty dollar. When you find that moral compass, let me know. I have a feeling we going to have to start relying on it more in the future as fiction starts taking over truth.
ReplyDeleteI don't know. There seems to be so much drama right here in my little town that I never crave the gossip mags.
ReplyDeleteCan't tell you where to buy a moral compass . . . but my economics compass is a daily visit to Financial Times. And The Economist, of course. All this "green chutes" talk is a bunch of hooey, sadly I must say.
ReplyDeleteMoral Compass for sale anywhere?
ReplyDeleteI don't know, but I like the WWJD concept (even though I'm not at all religious) -- hubby recently got us a new bumpersticker: WHO WOULD JESUS WATERBOARD? That is a good question, isn't?
My news compass is to listen to NPR (National Public Radio) and we subscribe to the NY Times online.