Looks Like I Was Wrong
For the past two and a half years I’ve been digging around American culture and my life, chasing this notion that there was something fundamentally wrong with both of them. Explaining this notion has been one of the hardest things I’ve had to do, because this feeling leaves me at a moment’s notice and has a knack of doing so right when I try to explain it to people. Which was why I was so happy to learn that the media, made up of specific companies and industries that I can point to, have a role in shaping what we do with our lives. It’s this fact that I’m truly proud of this blog for: Unlike Fight Club and Adbusters that advocate ridiculous solutions (explosives) to undefined problems (The things you own wind up owning you? What does that mean in practical terms?), I’m trying to highlight specific laws, businesses and practices that have changed the way we think for the worse. (Just in case I might apply for a job with Adbusters sometime in the future, I think Adbusters does good work but I think they could benefit from being more specific).
Unfortunately because I was so eager to explain everything, when I made the blog I figured that all of our social problems are because of the media, and that isn’t true. The media is only one piece of the puzzle. In addition, I started blogging about things that are other resulting problems of bad media, like the decaying state of journalism and Glenn Beck. As a result, keeping updated in all of these things meant I updated less. Those things are important but they’re not what this blog is about. This blog is about how life in America on a day to day basis is not good for people’s psychological happiness and where these bad habits, rituals and ideas come from, but because they’re important too maybe I’ll cross reference an article every once in a while that talks about that.
So sorry if I’ve been rambling incoherently and have misled you. If it makes it any better, I’ve also been misleading myself. I’ll be revamping the website soon to reflect this new change in thinking that will hopefully make more sense to you all. And in addition, if you can’t see the bigger picture I’m trying to paint drop me a comment that says “WTF is this?” and I’ll sort it all out. I can’t say I’m going to know all the ways that our brains are manipulated and how we’ve come to live in this world, but I can say that it’s a start and we’ll be closer to the truth.
I applaud your narrowing of focus, and am excited to read more!