Good question Jay. <In America, from the overseas perspective, it may be that folks view that American politics is beholden to the media that in turn shapes public opinion. To put you on the spot, do you or anyone else on this thread think this is a fair description :0?>
Years ago, Calvin, of Calvin and Hobbes fame, explained that TV creates and validates reality.
It's easy to leap to the conclusion that the media controls the population. But this implies a mindlessness in the population, which, while tempting to accept based on the expression of that mind as seen through tv, isn't really true.
There is a feedback loop. Actually, multiple feedback loops. The media viewers are influenced by the media, who monitor the viewing [they all need ratings to get money which feeds the process] and adapt their media to maximize their ratings and revenue and profits.
There's a vast array of media, all in their swirling vortices in the mainstream. The information flow in the USA is way above the Reynolds Number. It's highly turbulent. There is no control. Sure, there are big whirlpools, which carry huge numbers of people along, but there are quiet little eddies too.
The media feed the people who feed the media who feedback to the people who feedback to the media who adapt their production to the feedback which adapts to that feedback which swirls around and around though moving overall down a vast and rapid river with the flow of existence. I do like my hydrological metaphors!
Politicians are right there in the swirling torrent, feeding back and being fed back. The politicians act, the media mediates, the public feeds back, the media react, the politicians react, the media feeds, the public perception shifts, the politicians react, the media feeds back, Tim McVeigh acts, the media reacts, the politicians react, the public feeds back, Michael Jackson reacts, the media goes nuts, the parents send their children to Neverland, and so it goes.
It's like a single consciousness in some ways, but with a fractal pattern and ever-shifting form.
I recall watching an Oprah Winfrey show which was about all the different cultures in the USA. It was all women. There were maybe 10 different brands of woman. Native-American, Irish-American, African-American, Greek-American, American-American; I forget what types exactly.
They were all burbling on about their wonderful cultures and specialness and blah blah blah. To me, they all looked and sounded the same. Sure, they had little baubles and stuff. But the voices, the language, the demeanour, the big hair, the make up, the whole scene showed how integrated they actually were. True, there are some differences, but try plopping an African American down in Liberia and see how they like it. Suddenly they will find that they are American American and have zero in common with Africa. Same for all of them.
In China on the other hand, the feedback loop is truncated by the politicians who hold power and gaol or kill anyone they feel like attacking for whatever reason they choose. The feedback loops are as you say in the Mandarin groups. There are obviously some feedback loops, but trivial compared with the raging torrents of the USA.
China will remain a circumscribed life as long as information flows are truncated and controlled. The place will do okay economically, but freedom is the big thing which they won't be able to adapt to. Wild and wacky, eccentric and self-determined is where the Einsteins and inventors come from. A mob kneeling like so many sardines to Allah, shouting Sieg Heil to Hitler or the equivalent to Jiang Zemin will never compete with The Enlightenment. Which, I hasten to add, exists only on paper and imagination. The USA is not free. NZ is a realm of repression. But they are more free than China.
Okay, that's enough pontificating and thinking out loud for me. The drizzle has stopped, the sky is, [peering out the window], 98% blue after 100% overcast. Utopia and Waimarino Golf Course call. Utopia is the name of a cafe/restaurant in Ohakune [4 km away from Rangataua]. Waimarino golf course could equally be called Utopia. If this isn't paradise, it's a nice imitation.
Don't worry, be happy.
Mqurice |
