Mainstream Media vs. the Age of Information
By Ethan Indigo Smith
The information age is changing entirety. It has changed and
continues to change so rapidly that many of us, many times, find ourselves
playing catch-up, not just with trends of communication but also with shifts in
the flow of information itself.
The internet provides access to information and education on
everything from politics to physics. Indeed we are presently more capable of
being knowledgeable than other group of people to have ever lived. Internet
communication devices are almost like having a key to the Akashic Field; we can
tap into practically all information anywhere on Earth.
However this ‘mechanical Akashic’ is also layered with the
ill-mindedness and untruths that pervade this physical realm today. For this
reason, we have to learn to distinguish between knowledge and piles. Our access
to knowledge does not necessarily equate to wisdom (knowledge being the
possession of information, and wisdom being the inclination to be productive
with that information.) So it is up to each of us, not the government or its
cohorts, to determine for ourselves what information is real and relevant, and
what is ‘fake news’ or propaganda.
Information vs. the Status Quo
The world is on the precipice of change. The information age
has the power to challenge the structures of the status quo. It even has the
potential to eliminate the influence of money over the election of our leaders,
since all candidates can be offered equal communication platforms which enable
them all (and their policies) equally, so that those with the best ideas are
elected and not the wealthiest corporate-funded noisemaker who can buy support
and advertising time on corporate media.
Indeed, there are so many ways that the information age
could completely shift the oligarchical collectivism of the power structures of
the world in favor of individuals instead of institutions. So, instead of
expanding our reach of information – instead of inspiring individuals to dig
for truth and research for realness – the institutional powers-that-be are constricting
the field of information. This is particularly obvious with recent challenges
to net neutrality — a neutrality that 87% of average Americans support, but
which institutions are nonetheless seeking to destroy.
This constriction of ideas has expanded to the point that
anything esoteric or challenging to the mainstream media narrative is being
covertly and overtly belittled, or outright censored, while at the same time,
militaristic propaganda is put forth through the mainstream media, who refuse to
genuinely analyze or criticize the actions of its government cohort. A clear
example is the distinct absence of any pacifists in the mainstream news media
even questioning our government’s policy of aggressive intervention, as the
U.S. government continues to incite conflict with other nations under the guise
of ‘humanitarianism’ and ‘peace’.
Moreover, mainstream media has been found repeatedly
obscuring and falsifying ‘news’, while blacking-out important stories
completely – clearly demonstrating it is working to corporate and government
allegiances and agendas. Just look at the countless global events being
reported by the underground news and compare it to the selective,
politically-biased fear-fare of the mainstream; there is little journalistic
integrity on display in the mainstream media, just the regurgitation of B.S.
And lots of it. As a result, public confidence in mainstream news has steadily
declined over recent years while “alternative media” has risen in its place,
filling the void of real news, views and analyses that go unheard and
unexamined in mainstream circles.
And therein lies the impetus for institutions to censor the
internet. The role of journalism used to be about holding institutions to
transparent accountability. But today, the major institutions of the world — a
network of corporate, government, media and religious bodies — are withholding
truth and information concerning everything from politics to physics while
offering their own biased input, which is often completely bogus subterfuge
designed to maintain control and consensus. Events and views reported in the
mainstream are filtered, distorted and even blatantly constructed by media
corporations that conceal their corporate and political alliances behind the
guise of “news” and “journalism”. Why else do you think facts are being
labelled as “alternative” or “fake news”, governments are attempting to censor
and de-neutralize the internet, and the mainstream media fails to report on
major world events while circulating others on endless repeat? (See: Mainstream
Media Propaganda – “Extremely Dangerous to Our Democracy”.)
Undoubtedly, such selectivity of the news and information
made available to the general population proves an institutional agenda that
pivots upon the limitation and suppression of information – and that can only
equal bad news for a supposedly free society.
“The mass media serve
as a system for communicating messages and symbols to the general populace. It
is their function to amuse, entertain, and inform, and to inculcate individuals
with the values, beliefs, and codes of behavior that will integrate them into
the institutional structures of the larger society. In a world of concentrated
wealth and major conflicts of class interest, to fulfill this role requires
systematic propaganda.”~Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the
Mass Media by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky
Truth-Seeking: A Revolutionary Act
Corrupted institutions, to one extent or another, enslave
individuals to those institutions. Government institutions corrupt law and
legality. Religious institutions corrupt spirituality. Corporate institutions
corrupt trade. Media institutions corrupt thinking. Financial institutions have
corrupted our economy. Today, such institutional corruption is so rampant that
it has become the unspoken normalcy, and speaking up to it is quietly viewed as
disruption, dissent, and even illness.
Our institutions are designed to limit our access to
knowledge and therefore, our thinking, and promote zealotry and elitism as the
new political ideal — and as a result, many in our society are unable to
comprehend the difference between legal and moral much less why the two have
diverged.
So what’s the solution? Open information.
Open information liberates individuals. The reason the words
library and liberty have the same etymological root is because of the freeing
and empowering nature of information. So, no matter which individual or
institution is presenting information, it is the responsibility of us all to
interpret, consider and research the truth of everything – from politics to
physics.
In our society, some choose to understand while some choose
to stand over others. This is done through controlling information initially,
and then controlling resources. Once information and resources are controlled,
authorizing further actions that solidify the institutional status quo is easy.
The institutions of the world are working together to ensure that they remain
the holders of power and prosperity, for it is through institutions that
individuals gain a foothold to stand over others. As history has shown us,
empire serves no-one but itself.
So, to ensure our liberty we must also ensure the integrity
of our library. The information age not only invites but requires that we
expand our consciousness and our comprehension, not limit it. We do not need to
funnel the pool of information into the narrow mainstream, we need to expand our
minds and increase the numbers of sources of information. We don’t need
corrupted governments or wealthy media corporations telling us what is true or
important; the more information we have access to the more easily we can spot
the information with bias and information that is untrue.
The First Amendment is designed to prevent the
institutional, monothematic takeover of the media, and preserve and inspire our
right to consider for ourselves what is truth. It is a fundamental tenet of the
U.S.A. (and the free world) that “Congress shall make no law… abridging the
freedom of speech, or of the press.” If we limit our sources of information, we
limit the potential of our thinking and eventually, we may just have one
modality of information, or even just one book to draw information from.
In the age of information, do you want access to an infinite
source of information, or just one source of information? The choice is
obvious.
“In times of
universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” — George Orwell
About the Author
Activist, author and Tai Chi teacher Ethan Indigo Smith was
born on a farm in Maine and lived in Manhattan for a number of years before
migrating west to Mendocino, California. Guided by a keen sense of integrity
and humanity, Ethan’s work is both deeply connected and extremely insightful,
blending philosophy, politics, activism, spirituality, meditation and a unique
sense of humour
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