Media Masturbation

Wafers: I have been working on a new collection of essays; the following article is the most recent in this collection.

There was a time—it seems like centuries ago now—when a university education really amounted to something; had substance, was a challenge, in a word. I think back to 1962, for example, when I was a freshman at Cornell, in the College of Arts & Sciences, which had a foreign language requirement (today’s freshmen can barely get through a decent paragraph of English). I chose Russian as my second language, and the program was so rigorous that after only one year I was able to read Pravda and Izvestia—to which newspapers the university subscribed—without a dictionary. Pravda, in Russian, means truth, and izvestia means the news. The popular joke had it that there was no truth in the (Russian) news, and no news regarding the actual situation of the Soviet Union. Which I found to be the case. The fact of the matter was that both newspapers were boring. Day after day, the headlines were some variant of MILLIONS SUFFERING UNDER CAPITALISM. (That millions were also suffering under communism was conveniently ignored.) I finally decided to read Chekhov instead, which was much more entertaining (to say the least).

What about today’s papers in the US? If our media were to be honest, the daily headline would read ENTIRE NATION GOING DOWN THE DRAIN. Or possibly, STUPIDITY REIGNS AMONG AMERICAN YOUTH. What we read instead is, in effect, trivia. As of this writing, the “exciting” headlines are, for example, What will happen to Bari Weiss at CBS?; Will Todd Blanche get confirmed as Attorney General?: What’s the latest broadside from Marjorie Taylor Greene about President Trump?; Where are Meghan and Prince Harry going to live?; Will Trump be forced to negotiate with Iran?’; and of course, Will the GOP get ousted in the coming midterm elections?

Honestly, what intelligent person could possibly give a crap about David Brooks’ latest op-ed piece? All of this is media masturbation, because in the light of what is really going on in the US, and the world at large, none of this makes an iota of difference. So let’s talk about what’s really going on.

First, as I have discussed several times over the past few years, we are in the midst of two “tectonic shifts,” one large and one huge. The large one is completely obvious: the shift of human energy and socioeconomic/political power from West to East. The real hegemon these days is not America but China; only a fool can’t see this. Iran (which will win the war with the US, if it hasn’t already), India, the BRICS nations, and so on—these are the rising powers, as the energy etc. of America and Europe are being steadily eroded. (Recent headline from Reuters: “BRICS alternatives to dollar no longer a ‘fantasy,’ economist [Jim] O’Neill says.”)

In the context of this world-changing event—which includes the de facto demise of America—what difference does Meghan Markle’s latest egocentric display of foolishness make? And yet, it’s things like this that exercise the Main Stream Media (MSM). (Or even the Minor Stream Media)

As for the huge tectonic shift, studied in depth (for example) by the economist Wolfgang Streeck, along with the World Systems Analysis School (Immanuel Wallerstein in particular), this is the end, or at least significant transformation, after 600 years, of the economic and geopolitical formation known as capitalism into Something Else (the exact nature of which is as yet unclear), certainly by the end of this century. The gigantic wheel of History is turning, as it always does, my friends; and just as the Middle Ages eventually issued out into the Modern Age, so is the Modern Age evolving into the Post-Modern Age. Again, in the context of such a colossal event, are we really supposed to get absorbed in the drama of FIFA, or Trump’s “redecoration” of the White House, or Kim Kardashian’s tushie, or Melania’s understandable disgust with her husband?

A third factor to consider, at least as it involves the ongoing disintegration of the United States, is the nature of the American public. These are not terribly intelligent people, and there are scores of data attesting to this fact. Something like 50 percent of them believe we won the war against Vietnam; 50 percent also believe that Germany was our ally in World War II, and Russia our enemy. (Does it get any dumber than this?) When an American university student does a junior year abroad in Europe, they are typically set back two years in France or England or wherever to freshman year status, because they learned shit during their American university years (having spent most of their time drinking and playing video games), and pretty much know nothing at all. (There is a hilarious episode in the TV series Young Sheldon, in which Sheldon Cooper goes to Germany to study, gets laughed at by the other students—the professor even calls him a dummkopf—and winds up getting tutored by a young Asian girl.) Add to these data on stupidity are the data on anxiety, anger, depression, addiction, suicide, and the all-around selfishness and nastiness of Americans, and we shouldn’t have to wonder why the nation is going under. This factor is, in other words, connected to the factor of the tectonic shifts. (On the whole, by contrast, Chinese students are highly motivated and smart as a tack.)

Do our savvy pundits, our keen political “analysts,” writing for the MSM, point any of this out? Do they connect the dots, see the larger picture? There are, of course, a few exceptions, but in general that will happen when pigs fly in V-geese formation over the White House. In the meantime, let’s all get excited about the coming midterms (which will change nothing), or the most recent activities of Kanye, or an absurd turkey like Diddy Combs. Let’s masturbate our way into oblivion, which is surely where our fair nation is headed.