Language and the Media

The Global Outrage of an Educated Man..........vol.147
 
 
 

            The role of the audience member has changed due to online content and other forms of digital communication. We no longer just consume the media on a daily basis, but a very large portion of society is constructing the media as well. The global population has become "citizen producers, citizen journalists" creating "user-generated content." What's causing this rapid transformation is due in large part to the growing number of choices we as audience members have from which we get our news and entertainment. The two have merged into what is now called "infotainment" as seen on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show." The media is no longer what is offered on NBC, ABC, CBS and the major newspapers and Hollywood studios, but has morphed into a constantly changing dynamic of ever increasing outlets, whether they are blogs, podcasts, or virally spread YouTube clips that span the globe. The veil between the producer and the consumer of media has thinned, and in some cases been removed altogether.

            The most obvious place this increasing distortion is taking place is in news broadcasts around the globe. News is presented in often times, non-linear fashions, where the viewer has no idea what caused the "news event" to have happened. The viewers are left with only the biased opinions of the power brokers behind the scenes that pull the strings for their broadcast mouthpieces, and if presented on a major network, the story becomes all the more credible. The problem is trying to wade through the white noise and make sense of the stories presented, each viewer receiving their own perceived version of the truth. Issues are used as tools of division, which can then be used to divide and conquer the masses into passive participants ready to accept what is given to them on a daily basis without question. In order to maintain sanity in a world gone mad, skills in Critical Literacy need to be developed and maintained if one is to avoid being just another patient for the large pharmaceutical companies that often times are the largest advertisers during the nightly news broadcasts.

            Although, there are those in the positions of power that have been growing ever fearful of an educated and informed society; signs of progress are being made. For if knowledge is truly power and the Internet and its multiple avenues for communication and the rapid spread of information is any sign we are on the right track towards something truly revolutionary; is it any wonder that current dictatorships, despots and other forms of totalitarian authority states around the world are facing the uprising they are? However, they are not going to go quietly, for there is currently a movement by the hegemonic puppet masters of a push for more copyright protection on the Internet, so they can slow down or outright eliminate the world audience from becoming larger players on the field of the creation and dissection of their desired mainstream media messages. Something extraordinary is taking place. The ground beneath our feet is shifting. Guttenberg's press has long since been dismantled and stored in museums around the world. In its place is now, texting, emailing, podcasts, blogs and streamed content via the Internet, wirelessly to every mobile digital device on the planet at the click of a button. What language and its effects on the media has done, has turned the driver gawking at a traffic accident, the option to choose his or her own preferred accident, and often times what is the case, to create his or her own accident for the whole world to see, over and over and over and over again.

 

Happy Holidays, hope you are prospering in the new global economy.

 

 

What did you expect?

The Global Outrage of an Educated Man..........vol.146
 
Ladies and gentlemen, "damn it feels good to be a gangster." I know that I've been away for far too long, with my thoughts occupied with the necessities of finishing school so that I can begin indoctrinating the future masses of disgruntled youths to demand their fair share, when I begin my student teaching this Spring. Although, they will be required to work for it. You hear me Republicans. I know that you were about to get all upset about a welfare state, so don't get your tucked in polo shirts and parted hair cuts all out of whack over nothing.

 

I however, am very happy with the knowledge that my ties to my better half, and I will be marrying up, will be made legal in 8 short days, on a beautiful joyous fall evening next Friday the 21st. Cheers to all and thank you for all of your support and well wishes. You know who you are.

 

I am also happy to see that the Tea-Party has their antithesis occupying Wall Street and demanding that greed take a back seat to what is morally appropriate. Survival of the fittest Capitalism clothed by church going men and women who seem to forget the gospel once they leave the church are no longer going to be tolerated.

 

I would love to be shaking hands and kissing babies with those rabble rousers down there. Maybe in 10 years I'll be in elected office looking to ignite the masses for much needed community involvement. Community organizer anyone? Troy, don't get too upset. Everyone knows the day will come when you'll check off the ballot for Jack Scharber, or be picking up my latest bestseller. Word. Verb, its what's happening.

 

More to come in the next couple weeks, but don't be suprised if were in Iran over Christmas. World War 3 may have started on the backs of sub-prime mortgages and complex derivatives, just in time for 2012??? Hmmmmmmm.

Come on, what did you expect from my right brain thinking. When 95% go one way, go the other. Trust me.

 

Here's to prospering in the new global economy.  

Meltdown

The Global Outrage of an Educated Man..............vol.145
 

It's just another sign of how big a sham our U.S. government's willingness is to get to the bottom and persecute those responsible for the global economic collapse in March 2007, that more attention and more heads are rolling in the U.K. over a phone hacking scandal involving the media empire of "Fair and Balanced" Rupert Murdoch than the time our mainstream media and their talking heads and our incompetent elected officials are giving towards a solution to the economic crisis, and instead is raising the specter of a looming financial meltdown because our two parties refuse to work together to avoid such a coming disaster. I agree with many that instead of raising the ceiling, we should be raising the floor, the lower and middle classes should have more opportunities to rise up, or get a boat to paddle to the jobs that have moved off-shore, but alas, more attention is given to NFL/NBA labor disputes than what is truly important, the ever decreasing chances of a promising future, the ever increasing difficulty of people affording them the opportunities to pay their bills, buy a home, get a job or simply be happy. Now an ad from our sponsors, Cymbalta, or wait, penile erection difficulties solved with Viagra and weight loss pills for gout, instead, The Matrix continues.   

"Fool me once, shame on you..."

The Global Musings of an Educated Man.............vol.144
 
 

                The bells are ringing, the water is rising in many parts of the country, fires are blazing out of control and the crazy woman from Iowa has announced her intentions to run for President of the United States. In a world gone mad, it is evidently possible for respectable people to continue to make silly decisions. Towns are underwater, families are drowning in debt and what will surely be an issue in the coming election will be whether or not people of the same sex will be allowed to be married. That will be the important issue used as a wedge to drive more people to the polls and create a bigger divide between our common desires to create a better world. Instead, we in Minnesota are watching the horizon for the looming shutdown of our state's government that hardly generates more than a whisper among the richest 2% who are having their way with the rest of the 98. In an economy in shambles, what may possibly give us the push over the cliff may be our elected officials' inability to compromise? I am seriously considering voiding all of the attempts that our government will take to grab my money away in the form of taxes that will continue to go to a government incapable of doing the right thing, and that is keeping the wheels of the machine appropriately greased. Oh by the way, don't forget that the United States is continuing to fight a war in three geographically different areas. Our government is spending 2$ billion dollars a week, combined in the different theaters. We have no money to feed the hungry, house the homeless, provide job creation or a proper education for all children, but we do have money for the justification of taking lives all the while providing easier access to the world's oil reserves. It's a sad state of affairs to realize that Obama is just the continuation of a long line of false promises offered in political campaigns with candidates who offer no real desire for implementation. I hope that the Arab Spring spreads across the Atlantic, and we truly do "take our country back."  

The smokescreen is lifting

The Global Musings of an Educated Man........vol.143
 
 
     I hope everyone got a chance to see our fine, upstanding President scold the American public for doubting his judgment last Monday evening on national television. At least with the former President you knew what you were getting, but with this guy, he's horrifically seemed to have forgotten the many things that we were promised when he was elected. There has been little hope and no change at all. The campaign promises of shutting down Guantanamo, getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan, but instead we seem to be starting up the engines of what may turn out to be the vehicle for World War III.
     Meanwhile, people in our own country, go without food, without jobs, without healthcare. For once, other countries can step up and take the role of "watchdog of the world." We have pressing issues of our own here at home. But instead, we help out the rebels in Libya, some of which are being supported by Al-Qaeda in Libya, to overthrow an evil dictator who just years ago was our ally in the never ending War on Terror, but we never, haven't even brought it up, why we haven't helped the poor people of Sudan who have lost almost half a million of their own people over the last 10 years to their own civil war. What gives President Obama? And I thought you said we were broke? What happened to that? Instead we are going to be helping out in a "humanitarian" effort, not a "war", "let me be clear," without an exit strategy or end game? After all is said and done, Qaddaffi better not be allowed to go live in exile, but should instead be thrown into the Hague and stand trial for what he has been doing these lo-40 years. So, American people, instead were firing teachers here at home while we fire tomahawk missiles into Libya.
 
At least with George W.,
You knew what you were getting.  

I hope we can chalk it up to March Madness?

 
The Global Musings of an Educated Man......vol.142
 
 
 
 
 
Everywhere you look the turmoil is spreading like a terminal cancer. The tentacles of it's reach are grabbing whatever it can get its hands on and it doesn't appear to be letting go anytime soon folks. From the historically mammoth Earthquake in Japan that resulted in a massive Tsunami that has breached the supposedly indestructible walls of their nuclear facility in northern Fukoshima, the devastation has no bounds. Men, women and children, the destruction that mother nature can impose has no bias. One only has to turn on the nightly news to see catastrophe and panic, riots and revolutions, the loss of life and the loss of electricity with sprinkles of radiation on top, making everyone with a pulse a little bit more nervous than usual these days.
Then there is the quelled revolution revolt in what once was our sworn enemy turned ally in the war on terror back to sworn enemy, the one and only, Libya and it's out of control despot who could give Charile Sheen a run for his money on outright lunacy. Winning!!?? No matter how you spell his last name, the man has style, but he has no sense of reality or maybe he's just an evil genius who happens to be insane. Anyway you slice it, the price of oil is going to increase.
There is also Bahrain, run by a Sunni minority, supported by fellow Sunnis in the Saudi Royal Family, who are trying to put the kibosh on their own domestic strife, which is very upsetting to the Shia majority and the nearby middle eastern rabble rouser, the Shia government of Iran and their "members only" jacket wearing president. We could be watching what may turn out to be the beginnings of World War III or the coming four horsemen of the apocalypse. So grab your socks and hose and pull, this could get messy, for everybody. 2012??
 
One final piece of disturbing truth is, last week the U.S. government released information pertaining to it's TARP plan, listing those financial institutions who received large amounts of tax-payer funded bailout money. The winner was, get this, Citigroup with an astounding 476 billion!!! That's right, almost half a trillion dollars in bailout money was needed, and I bet you heard very little of this information didn't you, and instead, were told by Republicans dripping with new found power, that Unions are responsible for the deficit we see currently in our state's and federal governments. Which leads me to ask, when was the last time you saw a Union, private or public, needing a bailout??

"Say you want a revolution......"

The Global Musings of an Educated Man.....vol.141
 
           From Tunisia to Egypt, Bahrain to Yemen, and from Tehran to Madison, Wisconsin?!?!, there are protests, there are groups forming, some of them growing into micro-revolutions demanding that old dictators of the past be replaced with something other than the same ol' same ol', and fast. The lower and middle class majorities are no longer going to put up with the "status quo" that says to "shut up and get back in line," or its timeless mantra "because of all of the foreigners" that this is happening, because there always is an inherent need for someone or something to blame for our own mistakes, our own reckless greed. Liberal Media Elites??? People are using technology harnessing the power of social networks, Facebook status updates and 140 character Tweets to help keep the momentum going in their favor. The powers that "be" are huddling in small cramped sweaty darkened offices, facing the flickering flames of their eternal control of the power grab fading in the winds of change. The Saudi Royal Family is getting nervous and rightfully so. People are becoming motivated to participate in the act in the manner of empowered citizens, demanding more from their elected officials than just security from an unseen villain and a bid to host the next World Cup. People, women and children, young and old are demanding that their "just" and "elected" rulers start to begin to show positive results after 30 years of monarchic rule while they were tasting the sweet seduction of unlimited U.S. money and military influence, while the United States at home in her own discomfort and realization that we are no longer going to be the "big enchilada", we are now bankrupt, and the fairness of it all is that the passing of the debt down to the states, the states to the counties, the counties down to the cities and finally down to the taxpayers who will end up footing the bill in the act of seeing some "essential" government programs cut, spending to be slashed, teachers to be fired and schools to be closed, but yet our health insurance premiums continue to increase at a pace that is similar to the tuition for a years worth of higher education and we are being told that we need to shell out more money to build a football stadium so that we can all enjoy 2 hours of commercials with our 1 hour of actual game every week??? Priorities are being pitted against desires, and the desires always seem to win out because after all, we are all savage primal beings by nature.

My 2 Cents.....for what it's worth.

The Global Musings of an Educated Man..............vol.140
 
From the opening frame pitched against a gold and black dissolving picture, slowly coming into focus, we are witness to a dead man at the foot of front steps, and a horse with rider quickly gallops past, the viewer is once again brought into the cinematically visually striking world of the Coen Brothers and their understated genius. One is watching the opening scene of "True Grit." The story is about a young girl, Mattie Ross, played by first time actress Hailee Steinfeld; she is a young woman who is out to avenge the death of her father, struck down by the coward Tom Chaney, portrayed brilliantly by Josh Brolin. In watching the film, I began to assess the importance of the book of which the film is the adaptation against the back drop of our country's present day circumstances, opposed to the John Wayne 1969 version of the film which strays further from the book's intentions, and not ever being a considerable fan of John Wayne's work, never have wished to see that picture and probably never will, I was nonetheless struck by the connection that we the American Public have with the young girl Mattie Ross. We the American Public have been robbed of our "father figure" the American Dream by the coward Tom Chaney and his posse', portrayed by the Big Banks, all encompassing greed, reckless spending, the unnecessary wars, and a growing number of uneducated and physically unfit citizens unable to carry the once promised torch of hope and change for the better, only to be left holding an empty bag. We wanted to hire our 'Rooster Cogburn' to set out and avenge the losses that so many of us have had to deal with these past couple years, only to find out that what we got instead was just another selfish politician drunk on his own power. The film has the utmost relevance for today's society and for todays' young men and women, and I look forward to the day when I will be including it in my 8th Grade English classroom, accompanied by the book, as the summation of the artistic expression of the loss of innocence, a study of art, from fiction to film. I haven't seen "Toy Story 3" yet, nor "The King's Speech," but I have seen "The Social Network," "Black Swan" and "Rabbit Hole," and for now I can say that the Coen Bros, with the help of brilliant acting turned in once again by Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld, they have made yet again, another film worthy of being named "Best Picture."  

"Because something is happening here but you don't know what it is, do you, Mister Jones?" Dylan

The Global Musings of an Educated Man.................vol.139
 
Dead birds falling from the sky in Arkansas, Louisiana and now Sweden? There is massive flooding in the dry arid land of Australia, and a bible group from Pennsylvania announced on Monday that the Rapture would take place on May 21st 2011, and that the end of the world would occur 5 months later on October 21st, 2011, my wedding day. Coincidence? I'm just saying. I believe that maybe the birds flew into an invisible UFO, or maybe it's just the wrath of God is all, it's no big deal. Anyhow, if we are at the last days and these are signs of whatever it is, whoever it is, where it is coming from, who the hell knows, way of telling us to batten down the hatches, get some gasoline, grab some batteries, some canned goods, grab some hard liquor and party like it's 1999, I say why the hell not? Anyhow, keep a look out for more falling stuff, but it will probably only be white stuff around here. Just had to get that out there. Peace, Love and happiness. Stay strong and continue to try to prosper in the new Global Economy.
Some call me crazy, but as Tom Waits once said, "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, than a Frontal Lobotomy." The man's got a point. Cheers.