There’s an interesting series currently airing on Netflix called Midnight Mass which I watched recently and it got me thinking and drawing some parallels between it and the mainstream media.  The series is about a sleepy Island whose residents number slightly more than 100 where a series of horrific events unfold, culminating in a macabre scene where most of the island’s residents turn into vampires and go on a murderous rampage.  It’s a horror series, but the events unfold so gradually that it’s not until towards the that you start feeling afraid, which is good for people like me who don’t enjoy horrors.  The story is a combination of tragedy and comedy – a tramedy if you will – and many are the times I burst out laughing at the ridiculous beliefs the islanders seemed to accept without question.  If you have ever wondered how the catholic church came to commit atrocities such as the witch hunts and the inquisitions, then wonder no more.  This series will show you step by step how the most bizarre and evil ideas can take root in a group and spread like wildfire, resulting in events that historians and future generations alike will look at in wonder and marvel at how people could be so gullible as to fall for such obvious lies. 

In case you’re wondering why I’m talking about a Netflix series about vampires when my article is about the mainstream media, it’s because one of the characters, a lady called Beverly to me personifies how the mainstream media gets us to accept without question ideas that in our normal state of being we would instantly see through and reject.  Beverly is an ardent believer, supporter and spreader of the ideas that result in the islanders turning into vampires.  She takes a bizarre and evil idea and somehow turns what starts as a laugh-out-loud ridiculous idea into something that is accepted as biblical truth by the gullible islanders.  While any rational mind would dismiss as sheer madness the idea that a murderous priest could somehow be acting on God’s behalf, Beverly manages to present this as a normal and rational idea and even finds a way to explain this with the help of bible verses quoted out of context.  Within no time, she gains the support of a few people, eventually spreading the madness to the entire island.

If you think about it, isn’t this exactly what the mainstream media does, taking the most outrageous ideas and blasting them into our living rooms twenty-four-seven until even the most abnormal ideas start to seem normal and credible?  They take an idea such as war and make it seem normal that a group of people in one part of the world would one day decide to go on a murderous campaign in another part of the world and this is a normal and credible idea.  They take an idea like capitalism, a system whereby a few people have billions while everyone else is either poor or just getting by and they make this appear like a normal and desirable thing, while any other system like, God forbid, socialism is portrayed as dangerous and something to be feared and resisted.  They make the idea of people living in hunger and poverty in other parts of the world seem like distant events that have nothing to do with us.  

If you think about it, isn’t this exactly what the mainstream media does, taking the most outrageous ideas and blasting them into our living rooms twenty-four-seven until even the most abnormal ideas start to seem normal and credible? 

The mainstream media tells us how to think about the world we live in and gets us to give up our ability, our responsibility to think, to analyze and to question.  George Orwell referred to this as orthodoxy, which he defined as a state in which one does not think, does not need to think.  Someone tells you how to think and you accept the reality that is presented without question.  We may have assumed that Orwell was talking about some dystopian existence in the future, but he might as well have been referring to our current state, only now it’s the mainstream media, not the government that tells us how to think.  We have become unconscious, accepting what is presented to us as reality, as the only way to think about the world we live in.  We don’t question because we don’t need to question.   We don’t ask ourselves why should this be so?  Is this a normal way to exist?  Is any other existence possible?

“Orthodoxy means not thinking–not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.”

George Orwell, 1984

How does the mainstream media achieve this?

Normalizing ideas

One of the powerful ways in which the mainstream media affects our worldview is by normalizing ideas.  You’ve seen the way news is reported by the mainstream media.  They could be talking about a war breaking out somewhere, about bombs being dropped in some distant parts of the world and it’s like the most normal thing is happening.  Maybe we get a cereal commercial right afterwards.  No big deal.    There is no hint in the newscaster’s voice or manner that would suggest that this is an abnormal event.  No questions asked.  Just report and casually move on to the next news item.  What does this do to us?  It kills our compassion.  It makes us unconscious beings just taking in without question what is being fed to us.  The nonchalant manner in which the most insane things are reported lulls us into a false sense that these are normal events and that’s just how our world is.  That’s just how it is and that’s how it has always been and that’s how it will always be.  No need to question how such a thing could be normal.  The thing is, would any normal person one day decide oh, I’m going to kill my next-door neighbour before they get a chance to kill me because I have a feeling, they are planning to one day attack me and take away my freedom?  Only psychopaths think like that, which makes one wonder whether our planet is run by psychopaths.  Think of the immigrant crisis and the utter insanity of allowing people to drown in the seas rather than give them a haven from whatever it is they are running away from.  Is this a normal thing that normal people do, this utter lack of compassion?

Disseminating ideas

One only has to look at the coronavirus pandemic and how it has changed the world in slightly less than two years to understand the power a new idea holds and the power whoever disseminates that idea holds in shaping our worldview.  Whoever gets the story out there first determines how we think about a new idea.  I remember the almost non-stop coverage by the mainstream media that first month when the pandemic started.  I was watching the news almost non-stop and I’ll never forget how anxious that made me feel.  It got to a point where I had to stop listening to the news because I felt like I was going to get a panic attack if I continued watching.  It was clear that the mainstream media had one agenda and one agenda only, to make us as afraid of the virus as possible in order to get us to comply with the authorities.  This idea was projected so strongly and so relentlessly, at some point I started wondering to myself whether the media had ever heard of something called mental health.  Is the mainstream media an expert on public health?  No, I don’t think so but this didn’t stop them from shaming anyone who questioned their views, including dissenting scientists who were publicly shamed and cancelled.  My point is that the mainstream media has the power to disseminate ideas, but what if their worldview is fear-based?  How does this affect us as the ones absorbing these ideas twenty-four seven?  With such power over the general public, we need to start asking who are the people behind the mainstream media houses, what are their agendas, what are their worldviews and whether we want these people projecting their worldview upon us.

Asking the wrong questions

The mainstream media is notorious for asking the wrong questions and leaving the right questions unasked and therefore unanswered.  Take the issue of the so-called nuclear button that the American president has to have close by at all times in case he suddenly needs to start a nuclear war.  Now, what kind of questions does the mainstream media ask?  Oh, do we want Trump to be the one with the nuclear button?  Really?  That’s the question you’re going to ask on that issue?  How about, oh I don’t know, WHY SHOULD SUCH A BUTTON EXIST IN THE FIRST PLACE?  Who thought up this crazy, psychopathic idea?  The idea that nuclear war is something that should take a split second to start is the most insane idea ever invented.  Only an insane mind could come up with such an idea.  Not to mention why nuclear weapons should even exist in the first place.  What kind of psychopathic, insane person would want a weapon that could destroy our entire planet in an instant and have that kind of weapon in anybody’s hands?  Why doesn’t the mainstream media ask such questions?  Maybe because if they did, we would realize that our world is run by psychopaths.

With such power over the general public, we need to start asking who are the people behind the mainstream media houses, what are their agendas, what are their worldviews and whether we want these people projecting their worldview upon us.

Providing “expert” opinions

The mainstream media is very much invested in you feeling that you are not an expert and therefore need to be told how to think about the world we live in.  Let’s say you own a media house and you are very much invested in maintaining the capitalist system because it benefits you personally, what kind of economic experts are you going to invite?  Obviously, experts who agree with your viewpoint and will not threaten the status quo by giving alternative views on this issue.  The same goes for any issue, from climate change to education systems to governance systems.  All you need to do is ensure the “wrong” views never see the light of day and instead the “right” views, your views, the ones that support the status quo are the only ones we get to hear.  It’s not hard to get an expert to support any viewpoint.  For every expert who supports one view, you will find another who supports the opposite view. 

So, what conclusion do we arrive at after all is said and done?  That the mainstream media is a broken lens and we need a new lens.  That new lens is you and me, observing the world we live in and writing what we see and think in our blogs and when enough of us are doing this, then the world will start changing.