How The Mainstream Media Stole Your Compassion

I suppose I first thought of this subject years ago when I was working for ASDA (owned by Wal-Mart) and I happened to see the documentary “Wal-Mart the High Cost of Low Prices.” I recall going into work the next day and asking people if they thought that it was morally okay to work there. People looked at me as if I was mental to even be seriously considering such nonsense. Even thoroughly religious and moral people didn't seem to feel that they were in any kind of ethical dilemma by working for a company who exploits their factory workers in places like Bangladesh and China. Then it hit me that we were all being exploited (obviously us not as much as the factory workers). However, we were working for low pay in poor conditions and a lot of the people who shopped there would like to go somewhere else but simply couldn't afford to. But all my colleagues through engagement with the system through the farce of voting were happy keeping things the way they were.

Fast forward a few years and this topic resurfaced when having a chat with someone I asked if it bothered them that the government forcibly takes tax money from us and uses a portion of it to murder innocent people in places like Afghanistan and Iraq not to mention wounding and killing idealistic young British and American men and women who go there for no good reason. This person turned to me and said that it didn't bother him at all, he said he was against the war “in principle” but in fact he rarely even thought about it. It is personally a great source of frustration to me that I'm partially responsible for funding murder abroad but I still couldn't figure out why this didn't bother more people. Even when I asked very moral and ethical people it didn't fuss them one bit, it just “what happens”.

What both of the examples have in common is that human rights abuses are taking place in other part of the world and ordinary people in the UK are being dragged into it, the ASDA employees I knew didn't want to be a part of the Wal-Mart empire, they were simply forced to because of an economy where big corporations lobby governments for tax breaks and favourable legislation to give themselves monopolistic control of the market which leads to psychotic and frankly out of control business practices -the system that the people continue to vote for.  And, of course the UK and US governments in particular are also totally out of control and causing their own far worse human rights abuses abroad (which many of the tax payers don't want to be involved in either) so Wal-Mart has good company.

But the fact that many people who make it to these high positions in government or large corporations are clearly psychopathic and crave power is no great revelation, but the question still remains why we as the people are so apathetic. I've been tossing this problem over in my mind. Have we just evolved this way naturally? Or is it by design?

If I may point out that much of what passes for mainstream entertainment these days is horrendous. Whether is be the Social Darwinism promoted in programs like The Apprentice where it is painted as desirable and a mark of someone who's going to be successful by being ruthless and stamping on whoever they like to get ahead. Or the many TV talent shows where the untalented (and in some cases also obviously mentally ill) who were originally mocked in small room by like four people are now paraded out to face the laughter of thousands of people who seem to think that they're twelve years old and in some school playground. And that's just two examples, there is a slew of popular reality shows where ignorance, stupidity, vanity and greed are being advertised as desirable traits in a human being and from what I've seen it's taking effect in a terrifying way in society. And it's this very dangerous “entertainment” that's filling the impressionable minds of our young people. Add to that the indoctrination of the state-run public schools where critical thinking is not taught in the first place and is actively discouraged and it starts to get rather scary.

Now, if I may put on my tinfoil hat for a moment. May I suggest that this is all on purpose? I talk to devout Christians (I'm only picking on them because they're the kind of religious people I speak to most) who don't care about buying products that have been tested on animals or the mass murder of people in the Middle-East or laughing at mentally ill people making fools of themselves in front of millions of people or businesses acting psychopathically to make money. Is it because the these things always happen somewhere else so they feel detached from it all? Or is it because their real religion is in fact Statism? They feel like the state has the authority to steal some of their money and kill people to “protect” them so it must be okay. The state regulates what you can and can't show on TV so those exploitative programs must be okay. The state allows Wal-Mart to do business so it must be okay. The state allows animal testing (which it 'regulates') so that also must be fine.

The people I have met who think like this (and I'm sure you know some too) only care about their holy books for like an hour on a Sunday and the rest of the time the state is their god and as long as they obey that one statist commandment “Shut up and consume what we feed you because what's moral is what we tell you is moral.” It's a sad fact that when you fill your mind with shit every day then that's what your thoughts and actions turn to.

Dan @ http://www.greeningoutpodcast.co.uk

Notes

Wal-Mart's 'Invisible Army' of Lobbyists
Wal-Mart DID Lobby Tony Blair Over ASDA
Animal Experimentation - The Facts