But very rarely is the media perceived as deliberately using their resources and influences as real and very powerful weapons of war. Yet, I believe that is exactly what is happening in America: the major media outlets are functioning as undeclared enemy combatants waging a (hitherto undeclared) civil war in America.
If that assessment is correct, then what are the implications of that, for government policy? and, for the future of this nation?
Of course, such a question begs that other, more fundamental questions must first be answered, namely:
- Who is right? Is the media right to undermine Trump and his administration? Are they correct in their judgment that Trump's platform and policies are anathema to America's best interests?
- Should the First Amendment, with respect to freedom of speech, be understood to protect the the media's supposed "right" to publish anything they want to ~ essentially without regard to truthfulness and accuracy?
- By what process(es) should American domestic and foreign policy be determined?
- Who ought to be the judges and arbiters of such vital questions as these?
Let us first take questions #3 and #4 together. Embodied within the phrases: "By what process(es) should...;" and, "Who ought to be the judges...;" the words, should and ought, imply that some standard exists, whereby the character and merit of ideas (pertaining to the subject at hand) can be judged. Right there is the heart of the matter. At its very core, the present civil war in America is really a battle to establish the supremacy of some (different) Standard for the (re)organization of human society.
What shall be the nature of the Standard that shall prevail to rule over the affairs of all Americans? Shall it be the written Word of God ~ as historically that was the case in America? Or shall there be instituted a new Standard, one based not upon divine revelation but, rather, upon human will and opinion? Today, as the direct result of the apostasy of so many professing Christians, the authority which the Word of God once largely held over the collective will of this nation has waned, until there is no longer a collective will sufficient to support the Bible's authority in this nation.
The authority of Scripture, in other words, has already been supplanted; which represents the culmination of an earlier phase of this war, which began to be conducted (at first, covertly) in public school classrooms at least a century or more ago. Consequently, only a very tiny minority of this present generation of Americans will condition their answers, to the foregoing list of questions, upon the authority of Scripture.
What remains, today ~ given, the spiritual void created by America's wholesale rejection of God's Word ~ is a spiritual (that is to say, a moral and intellectual) vacuum, into which now pour voluminous streams of poisonous ideas issuing from a number of corporate behemoths.
When we return to examine the first two in the above list of questions (#1 and #2), we can unhappily conclude that those corporate behemoths are far more likely to prevail in the war which they themselves are prosecuting ~ by reason of the fact that they very largely control the means of mass communication. They will ultimately decide "Who is right?" and, "What is in America's best interest?" and, "How should the First Amendment be interpreted?" etc.
Only the relative freedom of the Internet provides ~ for the time being ~ an alternative channel through which to counteract the incessant flow of propaganda generated by "the media." But even that countermeasure has been substantially compromised, due to the fact that certain of those "corporate behemoths," above alluded to, are directly or indirectly involved in the Internet's functionality.
It is pitiful to watch as Trump and his administration is subjected, daily, to what every reasonable-minded person knows are "trumped-up" charges ~ many of which are outrageous in the extreme. How is it, then, that such ludicrous, sustained attacks can go on and on ~ even though those are habitually and so blatantly biased? One may be tempted to think that corporations which produce such unprofessional "news reporting" could not long survive in a competitive marketplace. But just there is the not-so-subtle ruse: the suggestion, of a "competitive marketplace," is an illusion.
Am I a pessimist? I think I am not a pessimist, but a realist, one who sees things, essentially, as they are. And I see the presses (literally and figuratively) of corporations such as CNN, ABC, CNBC, and, yes, even FOX (whose role is central to create the illusion just mentioned), as well as certain other, large corporations which finance, if they do not themselves produce, the same kind of trash output by "the media;" I see those presses, I say, as veritable weapons of war. Their massive print rollers are cannon; their 55-gallon barrels of inks are fuel for tanks and aircraft and battleships. Their Internet websites are laser-guided smart bombs, deployed with devastating precision.
Why hasn't Trump supplied the entire Ninth Circuit Court with orange and black jumpsuits? Well, it is for the same reason that he has not pulled the plug on the remodeled swimming pool where the Press Corps swims daily in its swampy waters. There would be an outcry for his impeachment; so loud, in fact, that it would make the current outcry for his impeachment seem like a Christmas Carol sung at midnight, by comparison.
I never in my life would have imagined that a time would come when I would wonder whether Martial Law might be the best thing that a President of the United States could do ~ in an effort to restore a semblance of order, if not of civility, to this nation....
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