What's goin' on?
We do not know what is going on in the world. We only know what is going on in the media. It is easy, when one criticizes the media, to forget that it is all that one has access to. This is a friendly reminder: however well informed you think that you are, however careful you are about accepting information, however automatically you accept the notion that big business controls the news, the information that gives you those ideas and leads you to those conclusions has been gleaned from the media. Of course it has! Where else could it come from?
Personally, as I work on this LJ, I find myself criticizing a number of cultural phenomena that I am inevitably entwined in myself. I may not like the way that our civilization regards music and movies, for example (although I do see in this the shell or excrement of a dionysian secret) but because I don’t like being the guy at the party who hates everything, when I’m out and about in the world, I usually try to keep these opinions to myself and discuss the music that I like instead. The one exception to this is radiohead, but that’s because I need my music to be original, and all that band has ever done is rip off Twisted Sister. Ok Computer and Under the Blade are basically the same album. Its disgusting. But I digress...
The point is that when one affirms “western civilization is kept in ignorance” one must include oneself in this statement. However closely one follows a subject or event, one is, if one is not present to witness, left to discern the truth from some media source.
Personally, as I work on this LJ, I find myself criticizing a number of cultural phenomena that I am inevitably entwined in myself. I may not like the way that our civilization regards music and movies, for example (although I do see in this the shell or excrement of a dionysian secret) but because I don’t like being the guy at the party who hates everything, when I’m out and about in the world, I usually try to keep these opinions to myself and discuss the music that I like instead. The one exception to this is radiohead, but that’s because I need my music to be original, and all that band has ever done is rip off Twisted Sister. Ok Computer and Under the Blade are basically the same album. Its disgusting. But I digress...
The point is that when one affirms “western civilization is kept in ignorance” one must include oneself in this statement. However closely one follows a subject or event, one is, if one is not present to witness, left to discern the truth from some media source.