Cultural Revolutions (one potato chip at a time)

[ So I really dug Stephen's last post, and devoid of panic attacks (I'm sorry that happened to you man) and refreshing youtube responses as a form of therapy, here's a sort of indirect response... ]

You know it's amazing to think that a portion of our country (it would seem) is being irrevocably lost to Rupert Murdoch and Fox News. It could almost be forgivable if this new juggernaut of political theory were taking the form of a radical third party or some traditional religious belief system. We as a nation have seen those kinds of institutionally based 'insurgencies' before and we as a collective people know how to handle them (I think?). But this new objection to the status quo is different in root, form, and context.

What Fox is creating could possibly be a new evolution of television in the modern American household . Now it's hard to say how and why this is happening but I'm relatively certain that it is truly happening. This is a somewhat mass mobilized movement of couch potatoes. These people (devoid of their actual place in the proposed new tax structures and health care reforms) are the ones who voted republican and stuck with Fox News years ago less because Dubya was doing a great job in their eyes, but more because Larry King gets fucking boring and Bill O'Reily has kooky catchphrases. This is what that entertainment decision has turned into: a bible thumping, abortion bashing, Obama hating, semi-manufactured protest movement that is based mainly on the interests and desires of the anchors, producers, and owners of the Fox News Broadcasting Corporation.

I mean, now their saying they're not sure they even believe in the republican party anymore, and who can blame them right now? But that shouldn't be justification for the waving of signs that read "Beck For Prez!" or "Obama=Anti-Christ". This is what happens when television rots your brain. I never really believed those warnings my mother gave me until now. Maybe this is television's last grasp as a "technology" in our culture, maybe it's flame is burning a few degrees hotter in the waning moments of it's life. I don't know what meaning this holds in present tense, but I do know that this is not a genuine movement. Sure these people care, and sure they probably will be affected negatively by the proposed plans. I'm not so cold and naive to think differently, but this mass, almost anti-American, movement is no different than the left hype machine protests over the war during the Bush era (aside from being openly endorsed by a major corporation and "authority" in news media).

To be completely honest that's the main thing I find so detestable about all of this; the fact that everyone in this "movement" acts as if they have some righteous monopoly on validity, honestly, sincerity, and patriotism. But I guess it's really not their fault since they think how the tube thinks and the tube is the ultimate righteous gospel (thanks Network). These attitudes are not entirely born of the little light boxes in their homes, but at the very least they have been cultivated, nurtured, and empowered by the likes of Beck, Hannity, and O'Reily.

What would Thomas Jefferson think? I mean what we have now is a new ruling class, an external obtrusive force that asserts itself not with taxes, or physical militaristic force, but rather with flashy graphics, snippy commentators, and good ol' entertainment. We are all slaves to this new medium, it's just a disparaging level of self awareness that I think has created this new cultural niche that celebrates MILF's from Alaska and assholes from the gym (the rest of the Fox News cast). What I wonder the most is whether this small cultural revolution will reach a climactic pinnacle, or just simply deteriorate like the many potato chips consumed in it's early anti-matter phase.

Either way I think it's safe to say that Fox News (along with American Idol, of course) is now one of the most impressive cultural fascist on the American landscape. I tip my hat to them, job well done.