How to Control the Citizenry Through ‘Reality TV’ Distractions

The distractions, distortions, and political theater simply maintain coming.
The continuing actuality present that’s life within the American police state feeds the citizenry’s voracious urge for food for titillating, cleaning soap opera drama.
Very like the fabricated universe in Peter Weir’s 1998 movie The Truman Present, wherein a person’s life is the premise for an elaborately staged tv present geared toward promoting merchandise and procuring rankings, the political scene in america has devolved over time right into a rigorously calibrated train in how you can manipulate, polarize, propagandize and management a inhabitants.
That is the magic of the truth TV programming that passes for politics at the moment: so long as we’re distracted, entertained, often outraged, all the time polarized however largely uninvolved and content material to stay within the viewer’s seat, we’ll by no means handle to current a unified entrance in opposition to tyranny (or authorities corruption and ineptitude) in any type.
The extra that’s beamed at us, the extra inclined we’re to settle again in our cozy recliners and turn out to be passive viewers moderately than lively members as unsettling, horrifying occasions unfold.
We don’t even have to vary the channel when the subject material turns into too monotonous. That’s taken care of for us by the programmers (the company media).
“Dwelling is simple with eyes closed,” noticed John Lennon, and that’s precisely what actuality TV that masquerades as American politics packages the citizenry to do: navigate the world with their eyes shut.
So long as we’re viewers, we’ll by no means be doers.
Research counsel that the extra actuality TV individuals watch—and I’d posit that it’s all actuality TV, leisure information included—the harder it turns into to differentiate between what’s actual and what’s rigorously crafted farce.
“We the individuals” are watching quite a lot of TV.
On common, Individuals spend 5 hours a day watching tv. By the point we attain age 65, we’re watching greater than 50 hours of tv every week, and that quantity will increase as we become old. And actuality TV programming persistently captures the biggest share of TV watchers each season by an virtually 2-1 ratio.
This doesn’t bode effectively for a citizenry in a position to sift by way of masterfully produced propaganda in an effort to suppose critically concerning the problems with the day, whether or not it’s faux information peddled by authorities businesses or overseas entities.
Those that watch actuality reveals are likely to view what they see because the “norm.” Thus, those that watch reveals characterised by mendacity, aggression and meanness not solely come to see such habits as acceptable and entertaining but in addition mimic the medium.
This holds true whether or not the truth programming is concerning the antics of celebrities within the White Home, within the board room, or within the bed room.
It’s a phenomenon known as “humilitainment.”
A time period coined by media students Brad Waite and Sara Booker, “humilitainment” refers back to the tendency for viewers to get pleasure from another person’s humiliation, struggling and ache.
“Humilitainment” largely explains not solely why American TV watchers are so fixated on actuality TV programming however how Americans, largely insulated from what is de facto occurring on the planet round them by layers of expertise, leisure, and different distractions, are being programmed to just accept the federal government’s brutality, surveillance and dehumanizing remedy as issues occurring to different individuals.
The ramifications for the way forward for civic engagement, political discourse and self-government are extremely miserable and demoralizing.
This explains how we maintain getting saddled with leaders in authorities who’re clueless concerning the Structure and out-of-touch with the wants of the individuals they had been appointed to signify.
That is additionally what occurs when a whole nation—bombarded by actuality TV programming, authorities propaganda and leisure information—turns into systematically desensitized and acclimated to the trimmings of a authorities that operates by fiat and speaks in a language of power.
In the end, the truth reveals, the leisure information, the surveillance society, the militarized police, and the political spectacles have one widespread goal: to maintain us divided, distracted, imprisoned, and incapable of taking an lively function within the enterprise of self-government.
Look behind the political spectacles, the truth TV theatrics, the sleight-of-hand distractions and diversions, and the stomach-churning, nail-biting drama, and you can find there’s a methodology to the insanity.
Now we have turn out to be guinea pigs in a ruthlessly calculated, rigorously orchestrated, chillingly cold-blooded experiment in how you can management a inhabitants and advance a political agenda with out a lot opposition from the citizenry.
That is mind-control in its most sinister type.
How do you modify the way in which individuals suppose? You begin by altering the phrases they use.
In totalitarian regimes the place conformity and compliance are enforced on the finish of a loaded gun, the federal government dictates what phrases can and can’t be used.
In nations the place tyranny hides behind a benevolent masks and disguises itself as tolerance, the residents censor themselves, policing their phrases and ideas to adapt to the dictates of the mass thoughts.
Even when the motives behind this rigidly calibrated reorientation of societal language seem well-intentioned—discouraging racism, condemning violence, denouncing discrimination and hatred—inevitably, the top consequence is similar: intolerance, indoctrination, infantilism, the chilling of free speech and the demonizing of viewpoints that run counter to the cultural elite.
As George Orwell acknowledged, “In instances of common deceit, telling the reality is a revolutionary act.”
Orwell understood solely too effectively the ability of language to control the lots.
In Orwell’s 1984, Large Brother does away with all undesirable and pointless phrases and meanings, even going as far as to routinely rewrite historical past and punish “thoughtcrimes.” On this dystopian imaginative and prescient of the longer term, the Thought Police function the eyes and ears of Large Brother, whereas the Ministry of Peace offers with warfare and protection, the Ministry of Loads offers with financial affairs (rationing and hunger), the Ministry of Love offers with regulation and order (torture and brainwashing), and the Ministry of Fact offers with information, leisure, training and artwork (propaganda). The mottos of Oceania: WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, and IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.
Orwell’s Large Brother relied on Newspeak to eradicate undesirable phrases, strip such phrases as remained of unorthodox meanings and make impartial, non-government-approved thought altogether pointless.
The place we stand now could be on the juncture of Oldspeak (the place phrases have meanings, and concepts might be harmful) and Newspeak (the place solely that which is “secure” and “accepted” by the bulk is permitted).
Fact is usually misplaced after we fail to differentiate between opinion and reality, and that’s the hazard we now face as a society. Anybody who depends completely on tv/cable information hosts and political commentators for precise data of the world is making a severe mistake.
Sadly, since Individuals have by and huge turn out to be non-readers, tv has turn out to be their prime supply of so-called “information.” This reliance on TV information has given rise to such in style information personalities who attract huge audiences that nearly hold on their each phrase.
In our media age, these are the brand new powers-that-be.
But whereas these personalities usually dispense the information like preachers used to dispense faith, with energy and certainty, they’re little greater than conduits for propaganda and ads delivered within the guise of leisure and information.
Given the preponderance of news-as-entertainment programming, it’s no surprise that viewers have largely misplaced the power to suppose critically and analytically and differentiate between fact and propaganda, particularly when delivered by the use of faux information criers and politicians.
Whereas tv information can’t—and mustn’t—be fully prevented, the next strategies will enable you higher perceive the character of TV information.
1. TV information just isn’t what occurred. Slightly, it’s what somebody thinks is price reporting. Though there are nonetheless some good TV journalists, the outdated artwork of investigative reporting has largely been misplaced. Whereas viewers are sometimes inclined to take what’s reported by tv “information” hosts at face worth, it’s your accountability to guage and analyze what’s reported.
2. TV information is leisure. There’s a motive why the packages you watch are known as information “reveals.” It’s a sign that the so-called information is being delivered as a type of leisure. “Within the case of most information reveals,” write Neil Postman and Steve Powers of their insightful guide, The best way to Watch TV Information (1992), “the bundle contains enticing anchors, an thrilling musical theme, comedian aid, tales positioned to carry the viewers, the creation of the phantasm of intimacy, and so forth.”
In fact, the purpose of all this glitz and glamour is to maintain you glued to the set so {that a} product might be offered to you. (Even the TV information hosts get in on the motion by peddling their very own merchandise, every thing from their newest books to mugs and bathrobes.) Though the information objects spoon-fed to you could have some worth, they’re primarily a commodity to assemble an viewers, which is able to in flip be offered to advertisers.
3. By no means underestimate the ability of commercials, particularly to information audiences. In a mean family, the tv set is on over seven hours a day. Most individuals, believing themselves to be in command of their media consumption, aren’t actually bothered by this. However TV is a two-way assault: it not solely delivers programming to your house, it additionally delivers you (the buyer) to a sponsor.
4. It’s vitally essential to be taught concerning the financial and political pursuits of those that personal the “company” media. There are few impartial information sources anymore. The most important information retailers are owned by company empires.
5. Pay particular consideration to the language of newscasts. As a result of movie footage and different visible imagery are so participating on TV information reveals, viewers are apt to permit language—what the reporter is saying concerning the pictures—to go unexamined. A TV information host’s language frames the images, and, due to this fact, the which means we derive from the image is usually decided by the host’s commentary. TV by its very nature manipulates viewers. One should always remember that each tv minute has been edited. The viewer doesn’t see the precise occasion however the edited type of the occasion. For instance, presenting a one- to two-minute phase from a two-hour political speech and having a TV speak present host critique could also be disingenuous, however such edited footage is an everyday staple on information reveals. Add to that the truth that the reporters enhancing the movie have a subjective view—typically decided by their company bosses—that enters in.
6. Cut back by a minimum of one-half the quantity of TV information you watch. TV information typically consists of “dangerous” information—wars, torture, murders, scandals and so forth. It can’t probably do you any hurt to excuse your self every week from a lot of the mayhem projected at you on the information. Don’t type your idea of actuality based mostly on tv. TV information, it should be remembered, doesn’t mirror regular on a regular basis life. Research point out {that a} heavy viewing of TV information makes individuals suppose the world is far more harmful than it really is.
7. One of many causes many individuals are hooked on watching TV information is that they really feel they should have an opinion on virtually every thing, which provides the phantasm of participation in American life. However an “opinion” is all that we will acquire from TV information as a result of it solely presents essentially the most rudimentary and fragmented info on something. Thus, on most points we don’t actually know a lot about what is definitely happening. And, after all, we’re anticipated to take what the TV information host says on a problem as gospel fact. However isn’t it higher to suppose for your self? Add to this that we have to notice that we regularly don’t have sufficient info from the “information” supply to type a real opinion. How can that be achieved? Research a broad number of sources, rigorously analyze points in an effort to be higher knowledgeable, and query every thing.
The underside line is just this: Individuals ought to watch out for letting others—whether or not they be tv information hosts, political commentators or media firms—do their pondering for them.
As I clarify in my guide Battlefield America: The Struggle on the American Individuals and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, a populace that can’t suppose for themselves is a populace with its backs to the partitions: mute within the face of elected officers who refuse to signify us, helpless within the face of police brutality, powerless within the face of militarized techniques and expertise that deal with us like enemy combatants on a battlefield, and bare within the face of presidency surveillance that sees and hears all.
It’s time to vary the channel, tune out the truth TV present, and push again in opposition to the true menace of the police state.
If not, if we proceed to sit down again and lose ourselves in political programming, we are going to stay a captive viewers to a farce that grows extra absurd by the minute.
ABOUT JOHN W. WHITEHEAD
Constitutional lawyer and creator John W. Whitehead is founder and president The Rutherford Institute. His books Battlefield America: The Struggle on the American Individuals and A Authorities of Wolves: The Rising American Police State can be found at www.amazon.com. Nisha Whitehead is the Govt Director of The Rutherford Institute. Details about The Rutherford Institute is obtainable at www.rutherford.org.