editorial..media as villain

Maybe the media is doing its job…much better than I am doing mine. If painting, matting, and framing the unattainable is indeed its objective, then bravo! Maybe that’s what the media is supposed to do? Make us covet, envy, desire, strive, and long for that which can never be!!! It gives us the gift of hope, false hope that keeps the hunger alive…the quest for the holy grail of perfection, which is impossible. Nonetheless, the chase is oh so appealing isn’t it? We all want what we don’t have. The grass is always greener, as the common adage goes. Maybe the media is a human in its most carnal form: the temptress, the murderer, the gossip, and the glutton. The problem perhaps is that we entertain the media as god at best, demi-god at worst, when really it’s just human. Rather than criticize, blame and idolize the human, what if we simply saw it for what it is-a mere mortal? A mighty, charismatic, influential one no less, but alas, it is human.

From this perspective, there is then the dilemma of how to treat it-not in the medical sense, but in the judicial sense. For humans living in modern civilizations, there is a code of ethics and a governing authority. If a man living in the United States commits murder, he too will lose his life: via life imprisonment OR death penalty OR retaliation. Of course there are caveats: intent, self-defense, etc. But there are always consequences for actions, imposed upon the self by a higher power. And every culture has it’s own menu. Singapore serves up severed limbs, for example. But the media seems to be living in anarchy. The older it gets, the more cavalier it becomes. It is its own authority. It is the law. It self promotes and waves giant foam fingers, the pointer on one hand, the middle on the other. Mixed messages are its modus operandi. It loves to stir the pot, start rumors, and hold people against the wall by their throats. Is it human? For human by its very nature is capable of both good and evil, is it not? Perhaps instead, it is the great evil of our time. Its power is supernatural. The heroic villain cloaked in black…the phantom, the chameleon, and the great deceiver. And we are all deceived because we think it’s just like us…wandering mortals aspiring for divinity, seekers of comfort without a cause.