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by Patrick Henningsen
New Dawn
162
May-June
2017
from
NewDawnMagazine Website
Spanish
version
Starting with Gutenberg's printing press, then Thomas
Edison's motion picture camera and the introduction of celluloid
and the silver screen, and later the cathode ray tube - a select few
media institutions, and the men behind them, have enjoyed monolithic
monopoly over the information we see and hear.
Their machine is awesome and seemingly unstoppable, and reaches
anywhere, anytime and into the minds of all it targets.
How does one navigate, let alone make sense, of this 21st
Century
Matrix?
If this transformation were truly an organic process, then most
critical minds would be able to rationally deal with our total
immersion in media. But the evolution of technology and how we
interact with it is not so easy to articulate.
As platforms and choice
continue to proliferate, the situation is becoming more attuned to
Chaos Theory than Darwinian Theory.
The media and its modern marketing arms
tell us it's all progress. By now, their role is well defined - as
the initial express vehicle on which all new ideas and advancements
are delivered into the mainstream. In most cases, one could say the
public are now fully preconditioned to accept new media on
arrival.
Whether we care to admit it or not, there are varying degrees of
brainwashing and behavioral conditioning
with films and TV.
That's why they call it
"programming."
How many of us find
ourselves automatically using quotes from popular films or TV
shows?
And how many of us
emulate the fashion or hairstyles of those we see on the screen?
It happens much more than
most people care to admit.
Most of us are completely
unaware of how much we mimic what we see, and repeat what we hear.
In the 1976 classic,
The Network, the film's main
character, a television prophet named Howard Beale,
delivers an unforgettable sermon to his studio audience, perfectly
describing the raw nature of mass media in a societal context:
And why is that woe
to us?
Because you people
and sixty-two million other Americans are listening to me right
now. Because less than three percent of you people read books.
Because less than fifteen percent of you read newspapers.
Because the only truth you know is what you get over this tube.
Right now, there is a
whole, an entire generation that never knew anything that didn't
come out of this tube.
This tube is the
Gospel. The ultimate revelation! This tube can make or break
Presidents, Popes, Prime Ministers. This tube is the most
awesome, god-damn force in the whole godless world.
And woe is us if it
ever falls into the hands of the wrong people.
Beale must have known it
had already fallen into the hands of the wrong people, namely,
The reality is that
studio and record executives, and their media producers, are
responsible for much of society's behavior, as well as the popular
cultural archetypes that people adopt.
For sure, this is a
tremendous amount of power, and don't think for a moment that
executives do not know this. The same can be said for their CIA and
Pentagon 'advisors' too.
When in high gear, this culture machine commands any of the
following behaviors en masse:
foul language,
profanity, sexual promiscuity, pre- and extra-marital affairs,
drug use and abuse, dysfunctional relationships and families,
racial tension, violence, defacing religious symbols, Satanic
ritualism, undermining authority figures like fathers, teachers,
clergy, and even the worship of the Orwellian security state...
It's all fair game for
the media and entertainment industry.
How is anyone expected to survive this psychological and spiritual
onslaught?
Media Survival
101
The average person living in a technologically advanced first world
society will watch an average of three hours of television per day,
as well as another two to three hours spent on computerized
electronic devices.
If we want to survive
with our minds and souls intact, at some point in our lives we have
to muster the courage to turn off, and tune-out.
The sheer volume of content now available means each person must be
judicious about how they spend their time.
The old binary option for
'Generation X', when you said to yourself,
"Alright, I have three
hours to myself. How am I going to spend that time? Do I watch TV,
or do I read a book?",
...may no longer apply.
For Millennials (and others too), it's more like,
"Do I watch TV,
YouTube, hangout on Periscope, Instagram, Facebook, or do I stream
Hulu, Amazon Prime, iTunes or Roku, or do I read online, with my
Kindle, or my Nook, or who knows, maybe a book?"
The term binge watching also comes to mind.
Seven seasons with 10
episodes each, with a continuous interconnected cliffhanger plot
line - enough suspense and intrigue to trigger endorphins in the
brain to keep you awake all night, enough to watch an entire season
of 24… in 24 hours.
If things are really that bad, or you are feeling anxious over an
obsession with keeping up with content, then there is a high
probability you are under some degree of media-driven mind control.
The first step in liberation from the machine is to become a more
active consumer of information and content, as opposed to being a
passive sieve. That's not to say you cannot enjoy a movie, or watch
a good ball game now and again - everyone needs to step off the
hampster wheel and indulge in entertainment from time to time.
To defeat the linear, force-feeding tube of information and
social
conditioning by Hollywood and mainstream media… simply read more...
Read whatever you can get
your hands on,
Your knowledge retention rate will be higher, and
the experience of reading will hone your mental focus,
self-reflection and clarity of thought.
Rather than waste hours watching TV or sitting through a sub-par
Hollywood cinema production that you know will be disappointing in
the end, instead try listening to radio shows, or podcasts.
Instead of drifting down
rabbit holes on YouTube, visit websites like
Soundcloud instead, and
get immersed in their vast audio jungle.
Another useful practice in liberating your mind from groupthink and
staying less susceptible to mainstream brainwashing is to make a
concerted effort to occasionally read, watch or listen to content
from media outlets or sources that you do not like, or generally
do
not agree with.
This is important for a
number of reasons.
If you are truly
confident in your political beliefs, your worldview or your grasp of
current and historical events, then it shouldn't bother you to hear
what 'the other side' has to say.
If you really want to
successfully defend your position, opinion, or ideology, or your
side of the political spectrum - then it helps to know the
contrarian arguments, and you should want to analyze them as much as
possible.
This type of open-minded
information consumerism is exactly what the establishment
culture-makers and matrix operatives do not want you to be involved
with - because a confident, well-informed and objective voice is
antithetical to the prevailing divide and rule, bipolar political
paradigm program that social engineers are currently running on
Western society.
Also, should you ever find yourself growing tired of reading about
it, then go and experience it.
Learn How to
Learn
The American poet Robert Frost famously said,
"We all proceed with
insufficient knowledge."
In the education of the
mind, everyone must submit (at least once a day) to the fact that no
matter how smart or knowledgeable you think you are on any given
topic or event, you actually know very little...
You may know more than
the person next to you, and you might even be an expert on one layer
of a lattice, but more than likely would only have above average
knowledge of one corner of the galaxy that is your area of
expertise.
Unfortunately, as far as social media is concerned, it remains a
crude platform for human interaction and learning.
Your 13.5 inch
laptop screen doesn't always deliver when it comes to human
stimulation and speed of exchange that you'll get through human
conversation.
The solution to this
problem is a simple one:
we need to talk more. Talk more, and talk
about anything...
The most powerful
microprocessor on the planet is not in the 'basement of the
NSA in
Provo,' Utah, or in 'Jeff Bezos' server yards' in Colorado:
it's between your
ears (a.k.a.
your brain)...
Also, rather than
preaching to the choir, try and strike up conversations with people
who are smarter or more experienced than you.
This is one of the
fastest ways to increase your knowledge base and gain valuable
insights which you will never get from the mainstream media, or even
find in the annals of the Ministry of Truth (Wikipedia).
Remember:
you're not a robot,
so stop acting like one...
There's a big world out
there - and it's much bigger than anything inside your TV or "smart"
phone...
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