Two of my favorites discuss the crazy Trump administration Gaza policies.
George Galloway/Col. Douglas MACGREGOR
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… I will brave a prediction … courtesy of an interpretation of Neil Postman,
Given the last line of this passage … To ask the question "What will Americans DO? is an absolutely meaningless question because there is no meaningful action to be taken. … About “these” situations we will do absolutely nothing, because we can do nothing about them. … Not because there is no desire to do ANYTHING but at this time, the vast majority of the American people simply have no stomach for the “correctives” that are needed. We know what to do, but we will not do it.
People were crying in the hallways over the closure of USAID and we are being asked to … What we are going to do? puhleeese.
‘People crying in the hallways’: USAID worker describes reaction inside building to Trump’s move to shut down USAID.
My God, it takes 15 to 20 years or more to execute people convicted for the most heinous of crimes …
In his book Amusing Ourselves to Death Neil Postman wrote,
“How often does it occur that information provided you on morning radio or television, or in the morning newspaper, causes you to alter your plans for the day, or to take some action you would not otherwise have taken, or provides insight into some problem you are required to solve? For most of us, news of the weather will sometimes have consequences; for investors, news of the stock market; perhaps an occasional story about crime will do it, if by chance it occurred near where you live or involved someone you know. But most of our daily news is inert, consisting of information that gives us something to talk about but cannot lead to any meaningful action.
… “You may get a sense of what this means by asking yourself another series of questions: What steps do you plan to take to reduce the conflict in the Middle East? Or the rates of inflation, crime and unemployment? What are your plans for preserving the environment or reducing the risk of nuclear war? What do you plan to do about NATO, OPEC, the CIA, affirmative action, and the monstrous treatment of the Baha’is in Iran? I shall take the liberty of answering for you: You plan to do nothing about them. (my emphasis) You may, of course, cast a ballot for someone who claims to have some plans, as well as the power to act. But this you can do only once every two or four years by giving one hour of your time, hardly a satisfying means of expressing the broad range of opinions you hold. Voting, we might even say, is the next to last refuge of the politically impotent. The last refuge is, of course, giving your opinion to a pollster, who will get a version of it through a desiccated question, and then will submerge it in a Niagara of similar opinions, and convert them into—what else?—another piece of news. Thus, we have here a great loop of impotence: The news elicits from you a variety of opinions about which you can do nothing except to offer them as more news, about which you can do nothing.”
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One of my favorite books!
[Amusing Ourselves To Death/published in 1985]
Should be reread; again & again.
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How true…I amuse myself each day while having my morning coffee by reading the “news” headlines on The Drudge Report, Zero Hedge, Giza Death Star, various Substack columnists etc. with absolutely no action items when finished reading, except maybe more reading….
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