Becoming Unstoppable - the story

"They set up think tanks, sponsored and captured academic departments, brought journalists and editors into their meetings, and managed to insert advisers into key political departments. They knew that, when Keynesian social democracy was broadly accepted by parties across the political spectrum, that they had no chance of immediate success. But they were patient. Across the course of 30 years, they built their networks, refined their arguments, and brought more and more people into their orbit. They knew that when an economic or political crisis came along, they would be ready to go. As Milton Friedman remarked, “when the time came that you had to change … there was an alternative ready there to be picked up”. George Monbiot.

"They" in the paragraph above were the architects of neoliberalism - rich influential families and corporations who sought to dominate the world. Perhaps they were afraid that our high standards of living, our science and our education would make ruling classes redundant. Perhaps they were afraid that education would make us wise to manipulation.

So television quickly switched from a means of educating the masses to a platform for propaganda, to instil fear and dissatisfaction. A meta-narrative of the hero defending us from "nefarious forces working against the interests of humanity" that is played over and over again with different places and names.

But how can order be restored if our own natures have been replaced with symbols and toys?

We consume everything from new ideas about diet, health, happiness and home - what it is and what it "should be".

Over and over we are being told what is good for us, what we must keep re-learning - because we are not capable of knowing ourselves.

We learned to survive and thrive long before media and technology.

"We have an inherent tendency to look out for danger. The violent and destructive behaviour of the few is more salient in our minds than the altruistic and cooperative behaviour of the many."

All of nature including humanity is crying out for our attention. We could turn the TV off and begin to trust our own curiosity.