The News is Not Your Ally
What is called "the news" is not informing you. It is programming you.
The divisiveness we’re seeing play out in the so-called “culture wars” is not in fact real, but a shared hallucination experienced in the collective unconscious, propagated by mass media and the corporate interests fueling it. Much in the same way as your thoughts and feelings are not you, this sense of division does not have a basis anywhere outside the human mind. It has been implanted there by unconscious people who work within unconscious institutions to carry out unconscious agendas that appear to be larger and more epistemologically significant than you as an individual currently see yourself to be. If you are unconscious— and we all are to some degree— then this shared hallucination will more easily find a home in your mind rent free, and virtually every facet of culture will reflect back to you the validity of this hallucination, making it bedrock in your mind to a point beyond which you no longer have the ability to question it.
Note: Most of what I’ll be referring to here as news media also applies to so-called “social media” and “alternative media,” as these platforms serve as extensions in the dissemination of what is called “the news.”
Modern corporate news media is not some altruistic assemblage of good intentioned citizens working diligently in service of the public trust. It may have had such ideals in its past, and may still proclaim to uphold such values today, but the landscape of the attention economy, coupled with the horrifying specter of surveillance capitalism, makes this incredibly difficult if not outright impossible. All corporate media outlets are owned by so-called “entertainment” companies, burdened by the short-sightedness of their shareholders and especially to the corporatists that pay them big dollars to advertise on their constellation of networks and channels. This is why what we refer to as “the news” is not actually in the news business— It’s in the advertising business. I think most people understand this, but when it comes to the regular act of media consumption, one’s critical faculties are the first thing to go, even among the so-called media savvy. This is because we as humans are limited in what we can experience directly, so we view mass media as a cultural support system and the ultimate extension of our sensory and cognitive apparatus, and it’s so deeply integrated that we are entirely complicit in whatever self-deception comes about while consuming it.
What many people do not realize is that in order to maintain this suspension of disbelief, news media has adopted the same tools Hollywood screenwriters use, primarily the use of compelling conflict to create dramatic tension. Drama makes a story more compelling. There is no story if there is no conflict. Conflict is also the most effective tool to establish and bring forth the essential context of a story because this is what holds an audience’s attention, which forms the entire basis of the attention economy. The aim of “the news” is not to inform you, but to grab and hold your attention long enough for you to take in as many ads as possible. If I’m tasked with maintaining an audience’s attention in order to keep my job (as all screenwriters are) then I need to channel that conflict through a personal wound, as this will charge the story with intense emotion which will keep the audience returning for more. And as all good screenwriters know, the more specific the emotion the more universally it is experienced. This is why the news media constantly exploits the politics around identity, because it is the closest they can get to casting you as a character in their dramas without having to pay you. Cha-ching!
The different value systems represented in mass media exist because that is what is needed to create a successful enterprise. They must serve content that appeals to different spectrums of identity in order to maintain an audience. So whether you’re predisposed to the larval-grade fascist stupor of Fox News Corp, or the more insidious corporatized activist-style fascism of Wokeland Park, know that when viewed from a high enough altitude these divisive ideologies all emanate from the same unconscious source— The desire of the ego to expand more fully within its own limited bounds. The thing about ego is, that beyond its use in putting food into your own mouth as opposed to someone else’s, it is completely unconscious and by its very nature prone to reactivity and divisiveness, which makes it a very easy thing for vampires and other parasites to tap into. Fear is the emotion most often exploited because fear is the primary driver of human behavior, but know also that fear resides just below the intellect in the hierarchy of cognitive development. This is how people can be so easily convinced they are becoming more “informed” by consuming “the news”, yet simultaneously be made frightened and paranoid and prone to the host of psychological disturbances that are afflicting more and more people in the post-industrial world. Most are not conscious enough to see these inner workings at any considerable depth, which allows all this to persist eyes wide shut.
What I see in the news addicted is an infantilized apprehension, a surrendering of one’s discriminative faculties in exchange for a “mediated” download that promises a view into worlds we have no access to, with the purported aim of empowering us with the information we need to become respectable members of the societal unit, and to do our part in the fulfillment of the humanist agenda. And from this download we can feel more empowered by what “we know” (egoism) and therefore more confidently express all kinds of “informed” opinions and ideas about what should and should not be, about who is “good” and who is “bad,” how to behave and how not to behave, what to say and what not to say, what to fear and what not to fear, what to think and what not to think, etc. Disorientation leads to suggestibility. This is how “the news” programs our minds to be more fit vessels for consumerist propaganda and market values. We’re made to absorb this stuff in a kind of low grade mind fog of receptivity and good faith, not realizing it’s simultaneously rendering us unable to navigate reality via our own internal compass, far less any semblance of our Higher Self.
I’ve both studied and worked in media for over 27 years, mainly as a broadcast designer, but also as a director, creative director, art director, videographer, sound designer, video editor, script writer and consultant. And when I say I’ve worked in media, I mean nearly every niche imaginable— TV, film, vfx, video games, news, sports, live events, internal communications, advertising, interactive, internet marketing, print, branding, PR, near everything except radio and media buying. I know how it all works, and because of this it has much less power to exert influence over me, but I’d be bullshitting myself to say that I am immune. I’ve worked with so-called media moguls and big wig corporate types and gotten their personal philosophical downloads, and TRUST ME when I say these are not the kinds of minds you want filtering your view of reality. Many of them have some admirable traits and high degrees of intelligence in specialized areas, and they may have some impressive accomplishments or drive nice cars, but know one does not reach these particular positions of influence by living in accordance with higher values. Furthermore I can tell you nowhere within this paradigm is there any interest in lifting the human spirit. In fact it’s quite the opposite. Why? a) The people operating in these domains are not conscious, so do not have the capacity within themselves to bring such a vision into existence, and b) there is no economic incentive to do so.
Lay off “the news” and spend more time creating great art and working to become a master of your craft. As the philosopher Terence McKenna said, If you are not creating media then you are being consumed by it. This is so true. This is one of the reasons I wrote this essay. Also look inward with yoga or meditation or whatever else. The inner landscape is where the true source of understanding lies. If you can’t hack that then spend more time outside in nature with your family and friends and other people you find agreeable. If these things can’t jailbreak your mind, take high dose psychedelics if you have to. Just recognize the grand illusion that is “the news” and its deleterious effects on you. Despite what you’ve been made to think, “the news” is not making you a more informed citizen and is not delivering you from the inevitable doom of civilization— It is creating the doom of civilization at the speed of light, using your mind as its tool. And if you’re made a tool, it won’t be long before you find yourself in a tool shed with a bunch of other tools. I can hardly think of any worse way to drown the human spirit and squander one’s experience of life.
Namaskaram to you all.