Ramblog 003: On "Mass Media"

Before I do anything else, I want to get a few things straight. It might seem that I'm being a hypocrite in this post by attacking mass media, so I'm going to try and throw out a definition to stop all you yuppies from whining at my apathetic email account. By "mass media", I don't just mean everything out there that's marketed towards more than one person. I know that technically, that is the definition of mass media, but I can't attack all of it. There are a few programs on television, a few blogs here and there, a few musicians, etc., who I don't hate and don't feel that they deserve attacking against. But then there are the half-retarded "news anchors" (and I use the term in the loosest sense of the word) on FOX and most morning talk shows that make me want to forcibly ram my head into a large spike in order to lobotomize away the part of my brain which recognizes horrible programming and people who make me want to disbelieve Darwin's theory of Evolution simply because humanity couldn't have evolved into something so stupid. I think that when something has its own parody (The Daily Show/The Colbert Report for TV, countless fake blogs that are circulating the internet, Weird Al for music, PennyArcade for video games, the list goes on and on and on), this is a sign that the original design should be seriously looked over for any gaping holes. I could name examples (shooting the writers of Lost, handing over Fox News to people who are actually fair and balanced, putting BBC on cable television), but I'm not here to point fingers, because it's YOU who are at fault.

Yes, you. You who are reading my blog because it "makes you lol". You who watch Bill O'Reilly just so you can "get both sides of the story" or "make fun of how ignorant he is". You who forge your own path by stealing from other independent individuals and stitching everything together to create some sort of Frankenstein of "individuality". You who are a mindless slave to every up-and-coming product/project/show/blog/artist/album ever. You need to wake the fuck up and start becoming what is called a wise consumer. Don't give a show that sucks one more mindless viewer. Don't buy an album you'll only listen to until the next big thing comes out. Don't fuel the egos of brass-balled and brazen bloggers like me by sucking our collective dick after we post something that's pseudo-intellectual. Yes, I know that this requires forethought and making some intelligent decisions, but I've become more optimistic about humanity as a whole (which could very well turn out to be a huge mistake). I think that there's a possibility for change, but not until the majority of the population wakes the fuck up and realizes the huge mistakes they're all repeating incessantly.

As I said, I don't exempt myself from these harsh words. I watch TV just like the rest of you, I check blogs, I play video games, I listen to popular music. In the past week, I have sat through countless hours of Futurama, Rock Band, Randall Munroe's blog, and other exposure to media that was intended for public consumption. But unlike the majority of the American population, I'm afraid to say, I do these things in moderation. There are better things to do than sit around on your ass all day soaking up ideas that someone else is trying to put into your head. After a certain point, I feel that it becomes necessary to put down the controller/remote/mouse, and pick up a typewriter/keyboard/guitar and try making something. Something new and interesting that reflects what you've learned. But unfortunately, most people don't enjoy being productive, which has forced me into what will probably be a lifelong campaign against pay-to-view media.

You see, I find that when people can write or talk or play solely for other people and not for themselves, they generally have something important to say. Usually, this is an educated and intelligent message, and it should certainly make you look closer at the very least. When you can put aside monetary or celebrity gain and just do what you want to, you usually are dedicated and intelligent about the subject matter you are trying to push. And this is the good kind of mass media; the kind that the makers believe and want the masses to believe. The bad kind of mass media is what's out there right now; the kind that the makers don't need to believe because it sucks the people in and gives the makers money. I'm not saying that free media is 100% good and big-business media is 100% bad, because not many things are absolute. But I am saying that generally, if you can get sucked into it quicker than smoking cigarettes or snorting crack, it has equally detrimental effects. I could go all day citing bands, shows, and bloggers who make no money off what they do and don't want fame, but I'm sure you're equally familiar with these people. I'm one of these people, too. Sure, it'd be nice to have fame or money (fame moreso, honestly), but I'd rather be happy and intelligent than sell my soul to make a buck.

And that's what it's become. In order to have any sort of clout in this world, I am convinced that you need to be batshit fucking loco in some way or another. Musicians are drug-addled teenagers in old mens' bodies. News anchors are airheaded cocksuckers who are incapable of doing anything but reading off a teleprompter (Did you know that FOX and Friends, FOX News's early morning phone-in talk show, is 100% scripted? True story). Celebrities seem to be fighting over who can have the most emotional/mental disorders. And why? So the media can lap it all up, recycle it, and then vomit it up into your unsuspecting mouths, you dumbass baby birds who can't do shit but keep on staring at the screen.

I was first prompted to think on this matter (as nerdy as the prompt is) by reading a comic. That comic is Transmetropolitan, it is amazing, and I will be sure to come back to it sometime soon. The comic centers around a freewheeling neo-Gonzo journalist named Spider Jerusalem who comes back to "The City (TM)", a cyberpunk town where all of society resides, after five years of mountainside solitude because his "whore-hopping" editor needs him to write two more books. If you can imagine Hunter S. Thompson heavily armed, slightly more insane and violent, and in the future, then you can imagine Spider Jerusalem (also, he has kickass glasses). But in issue 6, What Spider Watches on TV, Spider resigns himself to watching TV for 24 straight hours in order to get new material. Instead, he ends up calling in to television programs in order to point out how stupid each and every host is. I think the best example of this is with a news show:

"...you people don't know what the truth is! It's there, just under their bullshit, but you never look! That's what I hate most about this fucking city--lies are news and truth is obsolete!"
-Spider Jerusalem

I agreed with him and what he was doing up until the end, where he ran into a stumbling block. You see, as Spider was trying to do all this and bring down "the system", of course, he ends up on the news. By trying to destroy television, he becomes television material, which he resents. Which brings me to the final point and the question of this ramblog:

What would be the best way to rebel against mass media pro-actively (not just boycotting shit and sitting around with protest signs) that wouldn't attract media attention?

Some food for thought. I certainly don't have an answer, although I am thinking about it. Once I do have an answer, however, I want to put it into action and change something for once. I'm sick of the state of our society, and I think the first thing we need to do is detach ourselves from the nipple of mass media. It's all bullshit, so I can guarantee that the tit you're sucking at isn't giving out milk...

-blake

Look at me hypnotized and half alive, maybe it's four or five.
Some parts are sleeping, some parts are paralyzed.
Just one more minute.. just one more minute.. I think I'm almost in it.
Give me tits and politicians.
Give me death and demolition.
Give me glamour and sedition!
"Television, Television", by OK Go