We’re the fish, ‘We the People’. The media is the barrel of information in which we swim, in captivity. (Who says we’re free?). This medium in which we live and on which we depend as optimistically pessimistic as our air, water, all our needs and desires -- our information, gossip, news, lies, half truths, suffering truths -- is the bane of our existence.
Who’s the shooter? Anyone who understands the media past Marshall McLuhan’s observations, his doctrine. “The medium is the message.” P.T. Barnum understood it, Walt Disney got it, Roger Ailes ...Donald Trump. They all understood media and how to use it to their advantage. They understood ‘We the People’. ‘We the Fish in the Barrel’.
“The media” is a uniquely American phenomenon and the envy of the world over. Cowboys, Levis, Coca-Cola. Swimmin‘ pools, movie stars. Walter Cronkite, Tom Brokaw, Megyn Kelly. Our American envy, which is our freedom, is what the rest of the world both craves and despises us for.
Oh, Philo Farnsworth, what have you done? What Pandora’s Box have you opened with your television invention? ...that my father referred to as “the idiot box”. Your box shows us what is real even if it’s not real. Your box of fantasies have become the realities that we mimic and to which we aspire. Your box brings us aspirin and Alka-Seltzer, it brings us headaches ...it brings us Disneyland and a man walking on the moon ...it brings us mass shootings and the despicable behavior of our friends, neighbors and leaders. It brings despair ...and hope.
The media can show us grandpa and president Donald J. Trump bouncing a grandchild on his knee as easily as it can show him bouncing Stormy Daniels or Kim Jong-un on his knee. And it can show us Vladimir Putin bouncing Donald Trump on his knee just as easily. The media can show you anything it wants and you’ll buy it. It’s how we roll as Americans.
The media may be the ‘Jokerman‘ Bob Dylan sings about in his ballad of the same name. The Joker. You love him, you hate him. He loves you, he hates you. He is you, you are him. Or she, as the case may be.
So, how does it feel to be a fish in a barrel? Do you like that? All swimming around in the crowded cell of information someone else had been feeding you ...not knowing for sure what’s real and not real, what’s true and not true? Mongo just pawn in game of life?
Here’s what to do. Revolt. Get mad as hell and don’t take it anymore! Write your congressman. Wait! No, don’t do that. That won’t get you anywhere. Write an oped, an opinion piece, for your local newspaper. Send it to every newspaper in the country. Flood the media market with your outrage. Cause a gridlock of reason and sensibility. They’ll have to listen then, and take action on your behalf. Our behalf.
If that doesn’t work, protest (but not at football games and ruin the game for everyone). Stop honoring sports heros and movie stars and media savvy politicians like they are important to your wellbeing. March. Demonstrate. Jump up and down, stamp your feet, scream and shout. Run for office. Vote.
But here’s the problem with all that. Are you smart enough and committed enough to run for office? Do you have character and integrity? Empathy, sympathy? Are you hard enough to make hard decisions? Soft enough to truly care? Can you recognize the true character in a person to vote them into power? There are a lot of wannabe ‘characters’ out there with no character at all.
Because here’s what’s going to happen if you can’t. You will remain a fish in the barrel with all the other fish. The suckers. That’s a fish, right? A ‘suckerfish’. The ‘characters‘ will be shooting you like a fish in your media barrel, taking advantage of you, taking your money and fooling you hook, line and sinker every time like they have been from day one.
Here's the bright side. Look at the Trump administration as the dawn of a new day. An unprecedented opportunity to turn the corner. A new chance to get it right. A new chance to have your voice heard ...if it’s worth hearing. We’re in unchartered waters here and the navigator’s job is open to you, if you’re up to it. As a fish, you can now take advantage of the shooter and break the bonds of the media barrel in which you swim.
It‘s easy to navigate around fish in a barrel. It's safe there. It’s easy to shoot them as well. Don’t be a fish, don’t be a victim of the media and the despots that both abuse and control it.
Be a hero.
John Kushma is a communication consultant and lives in Logan, Utah.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-george-kushma-379a5762
http://newsbout.com/a/John+Kushma
