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We almost-all pretty-much have-to use the mass media - so once the usage has been minimized, there still remains the question of having to deal with the irreducible minimum.
The most important aspect is having the correct general attitude: and that is to regard the mass media as enemy headquarters, which means that in interacting with them you cannot afford to drop your guard - or at least only seldom, and for brief periods.
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A particular danger is when you come across somebody nice, kind, friendly... who is a part of the mass media. People working for the mass media may genuinely be all this and more (after all, everybody has to work somewhere and most jobs aid the progress of evil more than of good - there are few modern jobs as basically-wholesome as that of a medieval peasant) - but we must not therefore assume that their nice-ness endorses the activities of the mass media.
The role of good people in the mass media is - properly - to minimize harm and ameliorate where possible. But their presence does not alter the fact that the mass media is enemy headquarters. It seems that some of Hitler's personal circle were genuinely nice people; and it may even be the case that some professional torturers have genuinely tried to inflict as little suffering as possible compatible with their goals.
Nonetheless...
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So we must not suppose that all those who serve evil (those who work for the mass media) are themselves evil, and indeed (since all actual people are a mixture of good and evil) those who serve evil may contain more good than we ourselves do.
Nonetheless, those with positions in the mass media do work for the enemy, and that fact should not be forgotten.
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My point is that in dealing with the mass media - in paying for it, by attending to it, spending time with it, being influenced by it - one is wandering around enemy headquarters, maybe looking and hoping for good people and good things that deserve our support and might support our cause - yet always aware that most of the people and things we are likely to encounter will be hostile.
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Bismarck said, "I am used to paying people back in their own coin."
ReplyDeleteAnd he did. We should, too. The media types, the government bureaucrats, the academics, however nice they may be personally, will savage anyone connected with or approving of (Western)religion, fiscal responsibility, the principle of merit or human honesty. They are indeed the enemy and should be treated as evil, since that is the way they treat us.
USA mass media is dead to me.
ReplyDeleteJapanese mass media is often garbage, and I try to avoid it, but there are some diamonds on the dunghill. The recent anime Psycho-PASS is worthwhile.
For many years I have believed that art is basically a giant hypnotic suggestion, and thus I try to avoid art that gives suggestions that my conscious mind does not support.
Video games often seem to teach messages of which I approve - the original Deus Ex game, for example, teaches "exploration is good" and "when you discover a conspiracy of psychopaths, you should oppose it."
The mental expense and unpleasantness of navigating the culture while not accepting its nihilistic progressivism is the jizya tax with with modernity penalizes nonbelievers.
ReplyDeleteMany people who could be convinced of reality refuse to let themselves be because it would be too wearisome.
While this is not precisely the right sentiment, it is on the right track.
ReplyDelete@Vader - T shirts that say "Stop making stupid people famous".
ReplyDeleteThe word stupid is annoyingly ambiguous - it is used to describe someone that is self-evidently bad - but like 'idiot' it carries a meaning of low intelligence (idiot used to mean mentally handicapped) packaged-up with a meaning of doing foolish things - but somehow stupid is worse than 'fool' (there have been, after all, Holy Fools - some of whom are Eastern Orthodox Saints).
Stupid therefore gets used for people of high intelligence who are inept, wreck things, make a mess of whatever they attempt (what I have termed 'clever sillies' - although silly clevers might be a better phrase).
Stupid therefore seems to be closely synonymous with 'worse than useless' - someone who is a liability, more trouble than they are worth. This includes people of low intelligence called upon to do more than they are capable of (which is why those of low intelligence are excluded from the armed forces), and people who don't care, those who have a bad attitude, or who are destructive or reckless.
Myself - I'd rather say "Stop making evil people famous".