I got to study a research paper on media history and there I found a very interesting and in some sense very striking happening. It was about the certain shift of concept and terms used by media. Citing several examples researcher says that specially after year 1989 media started using excessively terms such as crisis, catastrophe, cataclysm, plague or disaster. For example, during the 1980s, the word crisis appeared in the news reports about as often as the word budget. In addition, prior to 1989, adjectives such as dire, unprecedented, dreaded were not common in television reports or newspaper headlines. But then it all changed…
This research made me to log all the major happenings of the world in the year 1989. Some of the major ones were a soviet sub sank in Norway; salman rashdie sentenced to death; Jane Fonda, Mike Tyson and Bruce Springsteen all got divorced; the Episcopal Church hired a female bishop; Poland allowed striking unions; Voyager went to Neptune; a San Francisco earthquake flattened highways; and Russia, the US, France and England all conducted nuclear tests. A year like any other I suppose. But rise of term crisis can be located with some precision in the autumn of 1889. And it seemed suspicious that it should coincide so closely with the fall of Berlin wall. Which happened on November ninth of that year.
At first I thought the association was spurious…and it was in some respect, but not entirely. The Berlin wall marks the collapse of the Soviet empire. And the end of the Cold War that had lasted for half a century in the West. This provided the reason for a change, but most importantly the shift in media behavior was an advance step to make itself a party for social control.
There has always been a complex, a nexus which has been a primary driver of the society. This complex has been responsible to fulfill the requirement of every sovereign state to exert control over the behavior of its citizen, to keep them orderly and reasonably docile. To keep them driving on the right side of the road – or the left, as the case may be. To keep them paying taxes. And after the world war, during the cold war era, this responsibility was being soldiered by a nexus called military-industrial complex. Following it’s predecessor ( which was church and temple), this complex was also managing social control through a most dangerous and most used weapon called Fear.
Exactly for fifty years, nations (mostly western) had maintained their citizen in a state of perpetual fear. Fear of the other side. Fear of nuclear war. The Communist menace. The Iron Curtain. The Evil Empire. And within the communist countries the fear of Bourgeois and capatalism. Then, suddenly with the fall of 1989, it was all finished. Gone, vanished. Over. The fall of Berlin Wall created a vacuum of fear. Military-industrial Complex couldn’t sustain it’s monopoly and started losing its domination. They couldn’t pick up a scary subject in urgency and that created a situation like emptiness…a vacuum…and nature abhors a vacuum. Something had to fill it.
And there comes an entirely new complex as a filler, far more powerful and far more pervasive. I call it the politico-legal-media complex. The PLM. And it is dedicated to promoting fear in the population – under the guise of promoting safety. A country like US or for instance any European country is fabulously safe, yet people do not feel they are, because of the PLM. And the PLM is powerful and stable, precisely because it unites so many institutions of society. Politician need fear to control the population. Lawyers need dangers to litigate, and make money. The media need scare stories to capture an audience. Together, these three estates are so compelling that they can go about their business even if the scare is totally groundless. If it has no basis in fact at all. For instance, ‘Banning DDT’.
I recall that DDT was claimed to cause several breath and heart related diseases. Some even accused it for causing cancer also. Despite statistical evidence that this was not true, we saw high-profile news stories, high–profile lawsuits, high-profile political hearings all over the world. Manufacturer was hounded out of the business after paying hefty penalty and in some cases juries awarded huge cash payments to plaintiffs and their lawyers.
And now scientists call it the greatest tragedy of the twentieth century. DDT was the best agent against mosquitoes, and despite the rhetoric there was nothing anywhere near as good or as safe. Since the ban, tow million people a year have died unnecessarily from malaria, mostly children. All together, the ban has caused more than fifty million needless deaths. Banning DDT killed more people than Hitler.
Another example and very much current one. Almost all the newspapers and news channels carrying it everyday in their headlines – Global Warming. News reports say that our planet is becoming warmer every day. Sea level is rising dangerously. Politicians are having conferences on the same subjects. Lawyers are filing suits everywhere in the world. Here I would like to quote some of the scientist studying the Global Warming for decades –
US based Scientist Mc Knight, who is studying ‘Antarctic climate change’ says in a science magazine called nature (in 2002 issue), “ From 1986 to 2000 central Antarctic valley cooled .7’c per decade with serious ecosystem damage from cold”
A scientist named Comiso and J.C quotes in their article which was published in a science mag. Called journal of climate “ Both satellite data and ground station show slight cooling over the last 20 years.”
A group of Indian scientist published an article in 2003 subjecting it as on the secular trends in sea ice extent quotes that “Trend towards more sea ice may be accelerating”.
Lot many other scientific observation I went through and all suggested that 19th century was warmer than twentieth. In fact it gives me the notion that we are heading towards an ice age…The amount of CO2 was more in 14th century than it is today. What I meant to say is burning of Industrial fossils and greenhouse effect are not that alarming as much this nexus PLM is projecting. This is a fund raising tactic of so called Environmental Organizations and all of them are being headed by this PLM Complex. If you don’t believe me then check it out in your neighborhood.
Just think…If it is not all right to falsely shout ‘fire’ in a crowded theater, why is it all right to shout ‘cancer!’ in the pages of ‘The New York Times’ or for the matter of fact any news paper or channel.
We are talking about a situation that is profoundly immoral. It is disgusting, if truth be told. The PLM callously ignores the plight of the poorest and most desperate human beings on our planet in order to keep fat politicians in office, rich news anchors on the air, and conniving lawyers in Mercedes-Benz convertibles.
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