Musings on if the human mind can even take today's media

[get the red out]

I don’t believe that the human mind has evolved to be able to withstand the constant media onslaught. The media wants to create an adrenaline rush from one story to the next; outrage is their bread and butter. I don’t feel like there was any way for the human psyche to advance as fast as would be necessary to digest sanely all that the technological media gives us. It is a blessing when a person can step back and simply take what they need from various media, and discern whether the story is hyped for effect or even necessary to broadcast to begin with. When I am on my game and can do that, I can and have utilized modern media to great benefit. The problem, at least for me, arises when the media becomes the morning’s shot of whisky or hit of cocaine. When the outrage becomes addictive and coming back down after participating HURTS. I have experienced that as well and always say I’m not doing that again, and then dig right back in. Only in recent months have I been able to start getting more significant stretches of distance from participation in this maddness, and it has helped me greatly.

I am finally doing better, for now, at looking at our society in a detached manner (no guarantees about tomorrow on that score). And I really don’t think we, as a society, have taken a breath during the rise of the 24/7 news cycle, we just gobble it up and look for more, living on the bad drug of the next rage. If it isn’t political we can out some celeb’s messed up private life and go after that a while, feeling at least a little superior to some rich athlete or movie star. Then its back to how we’ve been betrayed as (fill in the blank political/religious/other persuasion), doesn’t matter who or what, the formula is EXACTLY the same for media induced outrage. I get as pissed over the right for saying there is a “war on Christmas” as the right gets at being told there is a “war on Christmas”. Change a few key words from Fox to MSNBC and get everybody foaming at the mouth.

I don’t think our minds are built to withstand this, frankly. I can only look at myself but I know that I am happiest when I am not obsessing on everything that is wrong. Not that anyone shouldn’t be involved, and I will always speak out for what I believe in, but when I am not being pounded by the outrage for hours on end, when I am concentrating on things in my own real hands-on life; I am miraculously happy. I am much more well equipped to go to work, come home, fuss around in the kitchen, re-do a few rows of bad knitting, talk to friends about their life, chat with my husband (with whom I have so much in common as long as “media” is turned off), basic life stuff the human mind has evolved to do. This is contentment.

I think the media overdose that I have known internally was happening for so long (even though I have often been powerless in not getting wrapped up in it) has taken a huge toll on our minds. No matter what one believes in any argument discussion is always better than screaming. Debate is superior to rage. But we haven’t been able to turn it off for years and it keeps getting worse. I told someone early in the Clinton years that I thought the news media had its own agenda and was really hurting the country and they looked at me like I was mad. Then 911 happened and the news media went from being the equivalent of whisky to METH. I am more convinced than ever right now that all media has its own agenda and it only corresponds with any established political agenda on the surface level. Whether the media represent the PTB, who knows, probably a damn good chance they do and that many of the members of the media are simply pawns and are as wrapped up in the emotion as their audience. Some I believe are in on the game (more conservative talkers I think are “in on it” than liberal, but the liberal talkers are playing their part without taking a breath).

This is really just my spew, and right now I am working hard on trying to keep my head out of the bad media place I can’t control as much as I can, I will not always be successful, I throw out that disclaimer for when you see me go ape-shit-wild on someone on GD, LOL, I know I am human. I am praying and hoping spiritual practice will help pull me through and keep doing less of that. I feel now that I was given a very mundane but spiritual gift in advance of this most recent onslaught and didn’t realize the significance at the time, I am hoping this small gift from spirit helps pull me through without my reigniting my own outrage addiction.

[OneGrassRoot]

1. Dang, girl, there's so much good stuff here....

I'm with you all the way here. You have fleshed out some really good points and highlighted something affecting nearly all of us in these modern times.

:applause:

I want to come back later as well and start a discussion that you've touched upon. About how perhaps we can "vent" out there if that's what we feel led to do...and it's okay and it's not like we're betraying ourselves or anyone here (btw, that word "betrayal" is a theme...something else I'd like to touch upon later). Just as there are rooms in a house with different functions, the different groups here at DU have different functions and we utilize each one differently.

If we remain true to ourselves at the core, that's what matters, IMHO.

What really strikes me after reading through your OP is the word "mind."

It is affecting our minds tremendously.

The constant bombardment affects us...the friggin white noise I speak of repeatedly.

Which is why I feel it is CRUCIAL for a group such as ASAH to remain intact and true to its mission of providing a respectful place to ask questions as it pertains to spirituality and such.

We need these connections for grounding and to be reminded that we really need to "learn" more and more with our HEARTS, and not our minds, and perhaps gently open the door for others to do the same.

Lead with the heart, not the mind; lead with love, not fear.

Thank you so much for opening this particularly door, GTRO. There's a great discussion ready to play out here.

:)

:hug:

[Missy Vixen]

2. GTRO, absolutely

What an amazing post. I'm going to need to read it a couple of times to digest it all.

I am suffering from outrage overload. It's just too much, at least for me. The constant flow of information, the helplessness that comes from the realization that there is little I can do about the things I find absolutely objectionable, is disheartening and demoralizing. Two mornings ago, my husband woke me up before he went to the office. We were talking a little. I was telling him how upset I am over the nonexistent health care reform, etcetera, and he stopped me with a sentence.

"How do you get out of bed in the morning when you feel this way about everything?"

Good question. I'm going to have to think on this one. In the meantime, again, it's too much, and I can't figure out how to back away.

MV/Julie

p.s. One of my Christmas presents is a BlackBerry. ;-(

[BanzaiBonnie]

3. Can you say adrenal fatigue

We are so worn down by the day to day onslaught that we don't have the energy to do anything extra. We're running on fumes. And that's a health issue of major proportions.

And your cholesterol, hormones, adrenal output, thyroid, and blood sugar instability are all related. Then put all the toxic dump we get from our chemical industry and can you say... heart disease, cancer, diabetes?

[bigmonkey]

4. Two things - the media's goals, and the goals of some in using the media.

First, I think that the MSM are focusing on what they want, namely creating as much drama as they can to capture market share. The news wasn't always a profit center for these corporations, but now that it is they've latched onto what can increase profits, as opposed to what would efficiently inform the public. So, the newscorps want drama and conflict to draw viewers, so they emphasize that whenever they can. So, for instance, Republicans have to be given equal treatment, so that confrontation can be the ongoing story, whether that is a misrepresentation of the situation or not. Informative programming draws fewer viewers. Conflict is manufactured if it doesn't already exist in the story.

Secondly, I imagine that a lot of PTB actors are pissed off that the Internet makes secrecy harder to maintain. So, I think that they've latched onto another way to hide information - drowning it in data. It's been my impression over the past 15 or so years that there are participants online who are deliberately making it harder to discern what's going on. By that I don't mean that they are just putting out contradictory information, but that they are using rhetorical methods to muddy and make more difficult the very exercise of discernment.

I suppose that an increased reliance on intuition has been one of the ways I've tried to keep from individually drowning in the rising sea of data. Unfortunately for me I decided long before the digital age to try to read widely and investigate a lot of areas to try and get at the truth by some sort of triangulation. There's a problem with that now :-)

[northernlights]

5. yes

the challenge I find is to get the news I need to know (like a big nor'easter or blizzard bearing down) and filter out the media garbage, or at least not getting sucked into the outrage and drama.

I find I keep getting sucked into the outrage over the health care debate, and I don't know why. Personally, I've had health insurance and not had health insurance and have concluded I'm better off without it. So other than potential mandates and fines, why do I even care.

The media has really done a "good" job of training us to stay focussed on the latest crazy thing du jour. But you are totally right about staying focussed on the 'task at hand.' So much saner a place to be...

[get the red out]

6. Fast food media

Thanks for all your comments on my little brain storm. I just keep thinking about this and I keep getting the analogy in my head between the massive media outrage overload and junk food. Human health has benefited from better food production and transportation techniques up to a point, but now we see huge numbers of people’s health and the environment greatly compromised by overly processed crap. Our bodies weren’t designed to live on Cheetos! I have seen in myself dramatic health improvements from heating a more wholesome diet and utilizing natural health products instead of begging doctors for more and more pills. I can’t see a lot of difference with the media created outrage and our addiction to it, which prompts the media to simply give us what we want.

I completely agree that the media is simply selling, giving people the product they want, but people die of heart attacks and cancer because of the same deadly dance with food manufacturers.

I don’t think the human mind can perform well under conditions that current over-exposure to outrage media produce. I believe we are seeing the results of this in the deterioration of dialogue and reason in this country.

[BanzaiBonnie]

7. If people are not getting real nourishment

from what they take in - whether it's their food or their contact with others and their world they will eventually become weak and burnt out.

Like your whole body going whacko and it keeps trying to amp up the system to keep going. We can use the anger caused by the media to amp us up emotionally. It's like feeding on stuff that is not nourishing and eventually we are left as burnt out shells.

We eat certain foods to get particular nutrients OR because we want to experience a particular flavor. And sometimes what we crave is not particularly healthy for us.

[northernlights]

8. excellent analogy

and sometimes what we crave is because we have developed a biochemical addiction. And that can apply as much to media-induced addictive experiences that stimulate certain chemicals in the brain as to the food we eat (or chemically-laced hyper-addictive substances in productized tobacco).

[Tumbulu]

9. You have articulated very clearly what I have been feeling

for a long time now. I remember wondering once the exhaustive drama of Bush ended if I would manufacture or look to manufacture dramas to get the rush of it all. Yes, it is an actual addiction, I think,

Thanks for posting and also I agree that it is a lot like fast food.

[get the red out]

10. I worried about that as well

It's like seeking the next fix. I am not saying people should not offer criticism, far from it, but it has gone well beyond that on all sides in our country.

[OneGrassRoot]

11. And The Matrix...

I keep getting a visual of the Matrix and, via M$M, us all being "plugged in" and they're sucking the life force out of us.

:(

:hug:

[get the red out]

12. Life force sucking!

That's EXACTLY what I felt like all last year as I became more and more emotionally invested in every twist and turn of the media's dramatic play calling of the election. I felt drained every day as if my life force was being sucked out. When I started getting that feeling over the health care debate I knew I had to unplug myself from at least the TV media because I don't know if I have another year like last year in me to live. My life force does literally become depleted by the rise and fall of the media's drama concerning things I care dearly about, I loose touch with positive things I can do all around me and start wondering if this world is even worth living in while I hang on every word of the media to see if what I care about is going to "win" or "loose"; if I will win or loose. Lord, I don't want to have that feeling again. I keep praying for the big spirit out there to please help me remember it just isn't worth it. I can be terribly affected by this and now know I MUST pull back and look at the bigger picture. My world is a whole different place when I do pull my emotions off of the media roller-coaster.

It does indeed suck my life force out, thanks OGR for that terminology, it fits what I feel like when I start getting completely caught up in the maddness.

[I Have A Dream]

14. Your comment reminded me of this Dilbert comic strip.

[OneGrassRoot]

15. Ha!

Perfect! :rofl:

:hug:

[Fire Walk With Me]

13. "Be still, and know that I am GOD". (Psalm 46:10)

Television is anti-Meditation. Leaving the radio on is anti-Meditation.