“What the American People Want ...”
Cake and circuses. At lease that’s what the marketing says.
“Give us Barabbas!” seems an appropriate metaphor during this holy season of presidential controversy and media ratings.
Here’s something I’m still laughing about from one of the Sunday morning news programs. The MSNBC host was criticizing President Trump’s media prejudice referencing his leanings toward outlets like Fox News and Breitbart. The media “expert” pundit she was interviewing was ...Jerry Springer!
Let’s face it, it all boils down to show business and ratings. Most Americans get their news from TV, the 24 hr. cable news networks. CNN, MSNBC, Fox, or as I like to say Faux pas news. Many get their information from social media ...and the plethora of online outlets like Breitbart, BuzzFeed are just political mosh pits for negative commentary. Then there are the trendy, hip outlets like Vice and Democracy Now! ...all of them bucking for your social conscience and loyalty, and advertising dollars.
We Americans are a diverse and patronized amalgamation of age, preferences, rights and beliefs. We are a rife market to those who would proselytize our Constitution and First Amendment rights for profit, sometimes at the expense of the truth.
But, like the Barabbas metaphor, “It’s what the American people want.”
How many times have you heard that patronizing cliché from a politician who thinks he knows who the American people are and what they want? He may know whatever few constituents who take him seriously want, but it's painfully obvious he doesn't know much about anything but his own self-interests.
He knows the media, however, and how it can work for him.
We, you, elected Donald Trump President of the United States. I’m not saying he won’t be a good president (although it’s not looking good right now), only time will tell, but he used the media to do it. He used their ratings to get his best demographic coverage and he used his showmanship to win your heart and soul. He convinced you that he knows "what the American people want."
And you bought it.
If you are offended by what I say you should be. You should be offended by what we collectively see in the media mirror. And what you see is reflected in the vote. Perhaps not your vote, but the collective, majority vote. And in the majority rule, you are one of them whether you like it or not. But not just the vote for your president and leader, but your vote for how you get your news, what you read, what you believe to be true.
What you want.
We are all striving to be our individual selves awash in this wonderland of American freedoms. So many choices. So many voices. It all adds up to who we are and how the rest of the world sees us. And, apparently, we do want cake and circuses. The sad proof is in the marketing and the ratings.
We look at ourselves through the eyes of our media. Because the media has become our eyes. Not just the news media but through television programs, movies, music, clothing styles, automotive dreams, trending fads and sex appeal. Our education system. Even our history is written with a show biz zest that captures our imagination as heros and leaders.
Everyone loves a winner. But in society even the greatest loser can be the winner. Here and today it’s “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” ..then, and there it was Barabbas. Depends on who’s writing the history, the movie script, or the song.
Or who’s writing the news.
I’m talking mainly about the mainstream 24 hr. cable news channels. The old news networks (CBS, NBC, ABC) have been reduced into a whole new category ...write-offs.
Print journalism continues to implode, it’s all online now and protected by the firewall of social media, and the fact that “nobody reads anymore.”
But, really, who are “you” and what do you want, America? If we Americans are so diverse in so many different ways, how dare anyone suppose to feed us what we collectively want?
Who are these American people? They are the people who elected Donald Trump ...they are the people who are influenced by their favorite 24 hr. cable news personality, they're the people who are chasing the American dream and some their own tails, a social conscience while climbing the corporate ladder...most just trying to survive ...the people who the politicians and advertisers play and pretend to know, “what the American people want.”
Sadly, cake and circuses. Entertainment.
The key to fostering an American identity while maintaining individuality is to adopt an individual “responsibility” ...to yourself and to your fellow Americans. To everyone. We, you, are responsible ...for our air, our water ...each other. Use your best instincts and best judgement to be your best self. Look, read, listen and try to understand everything that’s thrown at you. Use your head. The truth will filter itself out, if you let it. You are designed with a built-in sense of right and wrong. Use that instinct ...before you lose it.
It may not be what the America people want, but it’s what America needs..
John Kushma is a communication consultant and lives in Logan, Utah.
