As much as I dislike rumors, psedu-truth, and Michael Moore in general, his movie Bowling for Columbine made me hate the media.
We really do live in a culture of fear perpetuated by the media. It's kind of one of those unanticipated side effects of our experimental democracy. Fear and death get ratings. Networks make more money when they show fear and death. They are less boring then cooking and highway construction I guess. It's the overall drift from science and logic and into low level human emotion that I fear. Maybe people would stop killing each other if they were not so damn afraid.
We had little or no coverage of the Space Shuttle program until 7 astronauts died in a fireball over Texas. Now there is this big upshot in coverage. It angers me, that NOW the media pays attention to this wonderful and inspiring human endeavor.. Just maybe something bad will happen huh guys?
Maybe it comes from our "leaders."
It's election time, time for some legislation to protect the children from the evil, scary world. Time to get tough on CRIME! Time for some terror warnings! Time for some REALLY scary ads in black and white that say how evil the other guy is.
And what's with the bloody germ commercials! Anti-Bacterial this and that. I'm waiting for some company to develop a bubble we can isolate our toodlers in to protect them from bird flu and bad meat.
Here's a clue. Inspire me. Speak about the future, science, and human goodness.
Wow, that was an off topic rant. Sorry.
