Common Sense	Common Sense Archive

I have become my own hydraulic effect; the more exposed I am to the harpy media, that endless shouting, the screechy carping by the worst of the species, the less I want to say anything. After seeing Ann Coulter just once, how can one use a language that has been so debased?

I happen to think words are important. I happen to regard thinking as a serious concern. I respect critical abilities. I think artifacts of our culture are important-- well, some of them at least. But with the proliferation of the media, what is worth what in this sea of inanity?

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When there were only three TV networks-- way back when (Dumont didn't count, did it?)-- I think folks took it all much more seriously. Now, with a gabillion media outlets, does anything have the chance of being important? It's also true that anyone, these days, can print his or her book on demand through some so-called publishers, and what does that mean? Well, some stuff gets out that otherwise wouldn't, and that's OK, but so much is just junk and noise, like everything else. The horrible cell-phone, the horrible instant-messaging. They degrade conversation; they diminish human interactions. Is this the goal of the purveyors?

An acquaintance recently lent his copy of Gore Vidal's latest book, Dreaming War: Blood For Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta, to a co-worker. The colleague quickly read it and returned it to my friend (that rare thing: someone who actually returns books lent him) and told him how shocked he was. He liked the book but noted that no media in the USA lets this kind of conversation out into the mainstream discourse. Actually, Gore does pop up now and then on a chat show. I think I saw him earlier this year on MSNBC, the flailing network that recently sacked Phil Donahue and replaced him with a screaming right-wing frother, of which there seems to be an endless supply, a phenomenon I find quite striking-- how is it that so many jerks and reactionary screamers can be produced? Is there a factory? A farm? Are they the Pod People? In the hiring stream of the conservative media, they get the affirmative action, right to the head of the line. Only the good die young.

But it does take me to one of my favorite themes-- why is it the smartest and most critical are barred from the info streams? The Conservative media, led, of course, by the Murdoch Gang, have their own agenda, and give us the Pod People mouthpieces. Do they get the chip in their head early? Get the blonde 'do, like the creatures who were "graduated" from the Betty Ford Klinik? It all gives me pause.

Let's segue into our community's media, always a precarious venture. Have you noticed a trend since the 80s? The 90s? I have seen-- and sometimes read-- the gay media since its post-Stonewall inception. That's over 32 years of scanning the papers of the ambientes. Why are entertainment and underwear the leading features of the gay press? Is it true that the majority of gay readers are interested in the vector of film stars' careers-- will so-and-so "play gay"?-- and the endless loop of swimsuit and undie spreads? Or is it part of the plot by the media types to hunker down to the dumbest level? There are lots of dumb queans in our sphere-- such a burden on the community, don't you think? But if you take the enlightened view, as I do, what avenue is there but an attempt to bring the dumb ones light and truth and some good jokes and, just maybe, they might rise above their current mental status. Dumbed-down as general gay publishing is, I suppose it beats the straight equivalents-- football scores and cheerleaders and hip-hop singers and whatnot. Looking at their world, I am so glad I am not heterosexual! There is no topic which cannot be made to have a popular appeal-- the transcendent theme of homosexuality in German philosophy and literature, let's see someone do right by that-- but it requires the imagination and capacity of people who simply will not get to the control levers in this economic construction in the USA at this time or in the near future.

I think we are in a period of cultural fatigue right now-- the result of media consolidation and the right-wing agenda of making all discourse about personality and entertainment-- and, let's not forget, underpants! It is bad for minorities and it is bad for culture in general. The bean counters at Disney and at Murdoch's satanic headquarters are no friends of ours-- and I don't give a shit how many gay nights they have at DisneyLand, the whole idea of which fills me with revulsion. It would be so nice if half of the media outlets-- many more-- in this country simply were shut down. If the present regime continues with its economic program, this just may well come to pass, a function of the law of unintended consequences. They've done a swell job of killing off the airlines-- and by the time this junta's done, the killing off of what else shall we be witness?

I get older. I see shit still floating, rising right to the top, often with helping hands, grabbing at that cultural turd, offered thus to the nation. It's no wonder some of the loose go crazy, flip out, do horrible things-- they are provoked by the goons and the Pod People. I cannot even listen to the voices of the Pods and the goons; I have my own voices. In these times, they're better.

Author Profile:  Mitzel
	Mitzel was a founding member of the Fag Rag collective, and has been a Guide columnist since 1986. He manages Calamus Books near Boston's South Station.
	Email:	mitzel@calamusbooks.com
	Website:	calamusbooks.com