American Psychosis What happens to a society that cannot distinguish between reality and illusion?

[babsbunny]

https://www.adbusters.org/magazine/90/hedges-american-psychosis.html

# Chris Hedges
# |
# 17 Jun 2010

The United States, locked in the kind of twilight disconnect that grips dying empires, is a country entranced by illusions. It spends its emotional and intellectual energy on the trivial and the absurd. It is captivated by the hollow stagecraft of celebrity culture as the walls crumble. This celebrity culture giddily licenses a dark voyeurism into other people’s humiliation, pain, weakness and betrayal. Day after day, one lurid saga after another, whether it is Michael Jackson, Britney Spears or John Edwards, enthralls the country … despite bank collapses, wars, mounting poverty or the criminality of its financial class.

The virtues that sustain a nation-state and build community, from honesty to self-sacrifice to transparency to sharing, are ridiculed each night on television as rubes stupid enough to cling to this antiquated behavior are voted off reality shows. Fellow competitors for prize money and a chance for fleeting fame, cheered on by millions of viewers, elect to “disappear” the unwanted. In the final credits of the reality show America’s Next Top Model, a picture of the woman expelled during the episode vanishes from the group portrait on the screen. Those cast aside become, at least to the television audience, nonpersons. Celebrities that can no longer generate publicity, good or bad, vanish. Life, these shows persistently teach, is a brutal world of unadulterated competition and a constant quest for notoriety and attention.

[valerief]

1. No "it" doesn't. The media does. The media is NOT America. nt

[Fumesucker]

6. Frank Zappa had the essence of it many, many years ago..

And things have gotten far, far worse in the meantime.

I am gross and perverted
Im obsessed n deranged
I have existed for years
But very little has changed
I am the tool of the government
And industry too
For I am destined to rule
And regulate you

I may be vile and pernicious
But you can't look away
I make you think Im delicious
With the stuff that I say
I am the best you can get
Have you guessed me yet?
I am the slime oozin out
From your tv set

You will obey me while I lead you
And eat the garbage that I feed you
Until the day that we don't need you
Don't got for help...no one will heed you
Your mind is totally controlled
It has been stuffed into my mold
And you will do as you are told
Until the rights to you are sold

That's right, folks..
Don't touch that dial

Well, I am the slime from your video
Oozin along on your livinroom floor

I am the slime from your video
Cant stop the slime, people, lookit me go

[Kat45]

10. Man, I wish Frank was still around.

I'd love to hear what he'd have to day today.

[jtuck004]

7. No excuses. The media has no power we don't give it with the "On" switch. n/t

[Triana]

2. And where the media can't find a sensationalist story to sell to the psychotic masses...

...they'll make one up - or pay someone else to do it (like, Breitbart, for instance)

[snagglepuss]

3. Hedges is brilliant and on the mark as usual. Highly recommend.

"And yet, even in the face of catastrophe, mass culture continues to assure us that if we close our eyes, if we visualize what we want, if we have faith in ourselves, if we tell God that we believe in miracles, if we tap into our inner strength, if we grasp that we are truly exceptional, if we focus on happiness, our lives will be harmonious and complete. This cultural retreat into illusion, whether peddled by positive psychologists, by Hollywood or by Christian preachers, is magical thinking."

Thanks for posting.

[snagglepuss]

Duplicate post. Self delete

[snagglepuss]

4. This insight blows me away. Resistance, says Hedges, will dramatically change.

"The goal will no longer be the possibility of reforming the system but of protecting truth, civility and culture from mass contamination. It will require the kind of schizophrenic lifestyle that characterizes all totalitarian societies. Our private and public demeanors will often have to stand in stark contrast. Acts of defiance will often be subtle and nuanced. They will be carried out not for short term gain but the assertion of our integrity."

[snagglepuss]

5. Rebellion won't have an easily definable purpose...

... "The goal will become the ability to endure."

[WinkyDink]

8. I'm sorry, but television per se doesn't make people ignorant. I am a Boomer, watched TV enthralled,

AND READ. BOOKS. MAGAZINES. NEWSPAPERS. ENCYCLOPEDIAS. PRE-INTERNET, EVEN.

[reclinerhead]

9. sort of chilling

I used to make fun of my friends for watching Survivor and what not because I thought it was silly.

Reading that second paragraph gave me a chill, though. There are so many shows with that same theme with the weakest being voted out, suggesting it's every woman or man for themselves. The whole idea that you lose by not putting yourself first. Even shows I enjoy like Top Chef and Hell's Kitchen have that theme.

At some point in the future, will people in this country be willing to vote a group of people "off the island", so to speak, for the sake of the community? Like maybe setting up a new tent city for the homeless and moving them out? Maybe those shows do have an influence. An even more sinister/paranoid thought is that we're well into the conditioning period at this point.

Or maybe it's just TV and the business of tv - a bunch of writers for shows imitating each other?

In any case, good article, and interesting comments at the site to. Thanks to the OP for posting.