Defending Civil Society

"If our politics is becoming less rational, crueller and more divisive, this rule of public life is partly to blame: the more disgracefully you behave, the bigger the platform the media will give you. If you are caught lying, cheating, boasting or behaving like an idiot, you’ll be flooded with invitations to appear on current affairs programmes. If you play straight, don’t expect the phone to ring." George Monbiot, Bring on the Clowns

If you are feeling your world is no longer recognizable avoid blaming the average person who may be somewhat impressed by the novel trends.  This breaking apart of civil society is being achieved by powerful dark money as well as the people who are desperate to keep their jobs.

What I hope for and depend on, for the sake of my mental health and the well being of my children and grandchildren, is the waking to our personal realities and by choosing where we find our community.

I have found, like millions of others, the goodwill in friends, family and neighbours who have not invested their belief systems in celebrity, capitalism, and material trinkets. I buy local goods made by people of integrity wherever possible. I buy natural food. I donate to organizations that challenge injustice and work for the greater good of all.

All the above are ways in which I am supported by good people, and although I am concerned about the influence of machiavellian "news" outlets and toxic propaganda, I do whatever I can to support peace and social justice.

My letters to the editor rarely get published but I send them anyway. My books of poetry haven't won awards or contests, and my blog is mostly visited by porn sites. But it comes down to this:

There is only a short time on earth for me to witness, create, or judge what is going on around me, so I will do what I can to create a better world along with the inspirational people I meet and work with.

One thing has become clear to me: elites of all kinds whether in media, school or government do not have a monopoly on the meaning of life.

Bill Moyers on The Spectacle of Illiteracy

We are not short of wisdom, leadership and prophets in this age. But to watch mainstream media you would think we have become a species of abundant stupidity and despotic ignorance.  Who would benefit by this portrayal?

Bill Moyers by Yoichi Akamoto 1965

Increasingly, as witnessed in the utter disrespect and not-so-latent racism expressed by Joe Wilson, the Republican congressman from South Carolina, who shouted “you lie!” during President Obama’s address on health care, the obligation to listen, respect the views of others and engage in a literate exchange is increasingly reduced to the highly spectacular wed embrace of an infantile emotionalism. This is an emotionalism that is made for television. It is perfectly suited for emptying the language of public life of all substantive content, reduced in the end to a playground for hawking commodities, promoting celebrity culture and enacting the spectacle of right-wing fantasies fueled by the fear that the public sphere as an exclusive club for white male Christians is in danger of collapsing. For some critics, those who carry guns to rallies or claim Obama is a Muslim and not a bona fide citizen of the United States are simply representative of an extremist fringe, that gets far more publicity from the mainstream media than they deserve. Of course this is understandable, given that the media’s desire for balance and objective news is not just disingenuous but relinquishes any sense of ethical responsibility by failing to make a distinction between an informed argument and an unsubstantiated opinion. Witness the racist hysteria unleashed by so many Americans and the media over the building of an Islamic cultural center near ground zero. Bill Moyers

I can't add anything to this that would be more insightful or present a more indepth observation. I believe Moyers is one of those people who possesses a rare ability to converge a lot of disparate information into a concise diagnostic. Read the whole article here.