Mission Three: Gazing & Gawking
One day, the politicians we have in front of us will be gone. They’ll be swept away with the dust and cobwebs and put in boxes like old Christmas decorations bound for the trash.
Why, then, are they IN OUR FACES ALL THE TIME?
Why are they fixtures in our homes? Part of our daily conversations? Voodoo dolls representing our particular hatreds?
Because we let them. We have multiple cable news networks and pundits that provide platforms for said politicians to foment their propaganda.
And what does our media do? They sell the crap out of it. They enrage us by featuring the behavior of the outliers. They give free air time to those who will guarantee more eyeballs gawking at the network.
And so, we gawk.
We gaze.
We stay fixed on this thing called American politics that has been reduced to a coliseum sport. We cheer for our respective gladiator, relishing how they slay the opponent. We applaud the vanquishment more than we celebrate the victory. We value the blood sport, not the training.
But seems these days, there’s not much training for these pudgy, self-righteous, would-be gladiators in designer suits and handbags.
Who needs training when you have legions of followers in a deep trance via the gaslight of the infotainment establishment?
All these stuffed owls have to do is spout the right talking points that fire up the bases, and there they have it, job security!
It would be easy to say vote with your feet. Or turn off the cable news networks. Simply look away. But as the duopoly of our current system continues to erode, and the media complex continues to showcase it, what’s the way out?
Perhaps it’s humanity. Placing faith in ourselves that we can and will do right by our fellow human beings, so that they will do right by us.
Would a glance away from our screens—phone and television—and a look at the person in front of us give back what we have given up to these mascots of nothingness?
I know I’d rather reinvest in human values than see Mitch McConnell in a loincloth.
—
This post is republished on Medium.
—
Photo credit: Unsplash
