Why REAL Problems Never Get Discussed

Something is being done to skew the national dialogue, (if it can still be called that anymore), each and every night, broadcast by broadcast, year by year, whether it be Fox news or CNN. And this has been going on a long time.

First and foremost, the boundaries of an issue are indelibly marked. While it is perfectly acceptable to discuss whether the debt ceiling should be raised or not, it is absolutely unacceptable to talk about why we have a debt based monetary system in the first place. That issue must remain locked out of polite conversation.

We can discuss the legal issues of both Trump and the Biden family, but no one should investigate the  DOJ as a thoroughly corrupt entity engaged in the production of political theater whose purpose is tantalizing and distracting the public with imprisonment of big political players  rather than actual justice.

Of course, random underlings can be throw into prison or at least until the next presidential pardon which  makes for good ratings. In fact, the whole show, the airing of the countries dirty laundry and a quest for "justice," ensures that authentic corruption will remain embedded in the system right where it was at the beginning. A brilliant distraction.

Political Debate

The second goal of the media is to push both of the camps toward the fringe or extremist positions. As you can see from the chart, I've noted a "left realist" and a "right realist" position located interior to the extremist positions. These are people with real defined griefs who are constantly being portrayed as "crackpots" to the other side. I'm using the term "Crackpots" to align with Ferdinand Lundberg's use of the term in The Rich and the Super Rich: A Study in The Power of Money.  Lundberg, in his sixties at the time, had this to say about the media landscape of 1968.

But this freehanded, irascible labeling of leftists and rightists as crackpots obscures the incontestable fact that both groups are respectively irked by something. In some way a shoe is pinching their adherents. While crackpottism often stems from or is reinforced by purely subjective disorders, objective factors must be present to make it plausible to large numbers of people. Crazy though Hitler undoubtedly was, something was patently askew in Germany and Europe when he rose to power. There may, too, behind a bland exterior (a fact often overlooked), be crackpottism at the center- a moderate, reassuring, tranquilizing crackpottism that bids man accept everything as he finds it, as though heaven-sent. A strong argument could be developed that there is at least as much crackpottism at the center as on either the right or the left-the crackpottism of paralyzed navel-gazing inertia.

As you can clearly see, nothing much has changed. Our country is being rapidly destabilized in the absence of rational discourse between two poles that generally function rather well together. Conservatives tightly bound to tradition and the foundations of the past, are criticized  by liberals for clinging to security, resisting beneficial growth and fostering blindness to systemic corruption. 

True liberals bound to the ideals of democracy, standing up for the little guy, seeing  sore spots in our history in need of change  can be challenged by conservative for disregarding proper caution in moving forward and fostering an unhelpful tendency to throw the cultural baby out with the bath water. In times past, these sides were like iron sharpening iron, helping to steer a course of wisdom through rough water.

Now however, the media is constantly misrepresenting each side, as extremist caricatures, rather than authentic poles sorely needed to prevent the opposing pole from swinging wildly into excess. The overwrought misplaced hostility being created is like combustable fuel being stacked throughout society, a latent angst waiting only for the matchstick.  In this infantile state, dialogue is rendered impossible for those who are still awake and alert to problems. 

Those anesthetized in the centrist position can calmly accept the status quo as though "heaven -sent," self-righteously criticizing the extremists. The media has embraced a non-stop, news-drama, merry-go-round in lieu of their sacred task of identifying the pressing issues threatening society.

Which brings me to the third point, that valid issue oriented movements can be sidetracked by linking them with ignoble leaders in what amounts to guilt by association. Contemptible leaders bring their stink with them to the issues they promote regardless of how honorable or valid the issues. The leaders pushed forward by the political parties and the big moneyed interests.. well let's just say, "they're not sending their best."

And while it is not the media's job to critique particular movements or sets of ideas, [remember, they just report the facts.] they can easily pillory the sock puppet leader day in and day out doing irreparable damage to the movement as they work to make this flawed leader, the "face of the movement."  

Of course, these are not leaders the populace would have selected for themselves but rather those that were forced upon them, the lesser evil among a group of un-exemplary men whose lack of integrity would have unequivocally precluded them from public office in the distant past.

Summary: Skewing the National Dialogue such that never the two sides shall meet

• The boundaries of an issues are indelibly marked.

• Push the dialogue to the fringes burying and negating the real issues each side could and would bring to the table

• Portray each side as a caricature of reality, lacking authenticity (Crackpots)

• Highlight and relentless pound flawed leaders to discredit and distract from any broad understanding of critical issues and possible solutions.

Actually I take that back, I think they do want the sides to meet ... in the streets.

What Can You Do?

The Smart Sheepe Challenge was designed to help you engage your neighbor about important issues without the polarizing politics. Sign up to get a free PDF version of the study guide for One Idea To Rule Them All: Reverse Engineering American Propaganda. A hardcopy edition will become available soon from Amazon.

Could you start a group in your apartment complex? Your neighborhood HOA?  Your church group?

Be part of the solution and not part of the polarized masses. Some of your neighbors are just as tired of the nonsense as you are but don't know where to turn. Find them. Together you can neutralize some the the combustable fuel stacked in and around your neighborhoods. Divide and conquer is as old as the hills. Don't be fooled and don't play along.

The first small step out of the camps of the polarized is to turn the TV off. The next step is sitting down and actually talking with your neighbor.

You never know when you might actually need them...