Perspective

One measure of the conformity and alienation of the times is the conflict between media perspective and individual perspective. News media are hyper-focused on political propaganda and theater. After all, selling laundry detergent has always required getting the attention of the viewer with sex, violence and loud noises.

The perspective for many of us on the ground is quite different from the melodrama on TV, radio and Web. We know that money is tight for most of us. We see the depressed and anxious faces on subways, in supermarkets and on sidewalks. Those of us who live near an affluent city, like Boston, see something else as well. We can walk along Boylston Street in Back Bay and see a micro-sample of the wealthy from all over the U.S. and the world. They stay in the new, expensive hotels. They are shopping in posh shops. They are sipping expensive drinks in chic bars and eateries. They project arrogance and lack of consideration for anyone else. Their perspective of the times is quite different, I am sure. It always has been.

Working out the dissonance between what we are fed by corporate-controlled media and what we are actually experiencing is a modern existential burden. We can fall into the trap of seeing polarity and dichotomy in abstract political terms, such as Liberal and Conservative, as the media portray society to sell their soap and cars. Or, we can strive to reach out to each other in society to learn what we are thinking and perceiving. We can use our own eyes to see what is really happening and openly discuss our experiences with each other.

Perhaps those who have run to the banners of the various Tea Party groups are seeking to do just that in a country which does not readily allow dissent against the media portrayal of society after the Bush era. Perhaps those who ran to the Obama campaign were also seeking a different perspective than the one handed to them by media under the controlling Bush regime. Some have sought this sharing community among vocal atheists, whose life-view is dissent in religiously dominated culture.

The media, once seen as an essential part of civilized society, have flagged in their responsibility to be fair and impartial. They have become tainted by political money, which is the money of corrupting corporate power. They had bowed to George Bush, Dick Cheney and Rupert Murdoch. They are in the habit of bowing and cannot seem to stop themselves.

Competition

At the heart of Reaganism lies the enshrined myth of the powers of competition in free markets. Unfortunately, truly free markets do not and cannot exist in human society which aspires to honor the rights and dignity of all human beings. Human beings are not and do not behave as commodities in a post-slavery world.

While we do live in a society in the U.S. where people profit from aging, sickness and death, we are seeing the failure of that profiteering in the health care system. The majority of the American electorate acknowledge that this is a serious problem. They also demonstrate with polling that they have no idea what to do about it. This is the cognitive dissonance of Reaganism as it has been sold by Neo-con minions.

Corporate welfare has blossomed since the Reagan era. Multinationals are becoming the welfare mothers of the new millennium. The truly poor and the newly poor, once seen as the working or lower middle class, are dependent on ongoing funding bills in Congress to secure unemployment benefits, which are necessitated by the financial mismanagement and downsizing greed of corporations, whose bail-outs were swiftly paid out.

The relentless brain-washing of the populace by Murdoch media since the Reagan era has duped the general public in the U.S. into equating socialism with Nazi-ism. Meanwhile, Murdoch and his cronies are collecting billions in subsidies and tax exemptions. They are laughing all the way to their bailed-out banks. They are dancing at their own elegant tea parties, while funding uninformed malcontents to disrupt the people's business.

The myth of free markets often merges with the myth of competitive sports in pop culture. And, like the financial markets, competitive sports are a corrupted version of the ideals of team play. Drug-enhanced athletes lie in front of Congress with relative impunity. Sports venues are over-priced gladiatorial displays which represent big money and big profits, not fair play.

Why does all this sound so familiar? Well, human history has a way of cycling because human beings are generally averse to change. And, there isn't a quick fix for that problem as long as universal human rights and universal human education are seen as impractical, lofty ideals. Fighting for those ideals is not a free market principle. There is little profit in it.