~ In 1964 Marshall Mcluhan coined the term the medium is the message. Mcluhan was trying to point out that in our media soaked society, people don’t give a damn about the content of what you have to say, all that matters is how you look, sound, and present yourself.
To a certain degree external qualities do indeed play a big role in culture, after all, there are a lot of coffee shops I avoid because I don’t care for the look of the place; some coffee houses decorated in such a manner that they don’t feel warm and inviting.
However, one of my favorite coffee houses to hang out at is arguably the worst decorated place. It’s this little dive coffee shop that has terrible lighting, awful chairs, and walls that are painted dark colors giving the entire place a very uninviting feeling, but I love hanging out there. There are a lot of brilliant people who consider this particular coffee house their main hangout, and rarely an hour goes by that there isn’t a great conversation going on among the regulars. People discuss philosophy, politics, religion, sexual ethics, and much more. Even stranger, is that this is one of the rare coffee shops in the world that you will find more people reading books than staring at their computers.
When it comes to what people believe about politics, science, or religion, the medium is often the message. People will believe what they are told, if they trust the medium. The truth rarely matters anymore. Whether you live in Greece, Iceland, the USA, or wherever, we are all familiar with corrupt politicians. The recently released Panama Papers remind us that political corruption occurs all over the globe. Yet these same corrupt politicians will continue running for elected office, and many of them will win because these politicians understand all that matters is giving the people a certain image during the election.
Many people pass by the little dive coffee house I hang out at because it simply doesn’t look very cool. It’s not flashy and pretty, and so they miss out on one of the coolest coffeehouse atmosphere’s around.
One of my good friends at coffee told me he would be voting for one of the most politically corrupt politicians this coming November,
“I know she is corrupt. I know she takes bribes and money from people, but I’m going to vote for her because she has experience” he told me
Isn’t that strange? My friend admits that he knows this politician is corrupt to the core, but he doesn’t care.
The medium is the message.
All that matters is that a politician, a scientist, or a religious personality produce the right persona and people will believe them; the truth no longer matters. Ethics, morality, truth, all of those things fall to the wayside in this world where the medium is the message.
This past week I’ve written a couple articles about religious and science folk who use fear tactics to scare people into believing their various ideologies. You see, these scare mongers use the medium of fear to scare the hell out of people. I’ve been to religious services where the preacher said quite succinctly, “If you don’t repent of your sins right this moment, you are going to burn in the fires of hell and suffer eternal torment” – How’s that for an interesting way to spend your Sunday morning?
I’ve also sat through scientific lectures at the academic level in which I heard scientists sound like remarkably similar to Southern Baptist preachers,
“If we don’t address the problem of global warming today then there is no hope for the future of humanity!! All life on earth will cease to exist!! We must take this problem serious and change our entire lifestyle now!! The future of the earth depends on us!!” -Oddly enough, I heard that lecture a few years ago so I guess the dude was a bit off on his prediction.
Ultimately, we live in a world that in many ways appears to have gone mad. People listen to Kim Kardashian or various YouTube personalities as though these people warrant our attention. I have spent the last twenty years of my life studying the great books, amassing numerous degrees, and interacting with people around the world…..Kim Kardashian has spent much of the last twenty years working on her makeup and releasing sex videos. It is a strange world we live in…because someone like me who wants to have a serious conversation about Plato over coffee has been relegated to the corner thanks to a woman like Kardashian who want’s to talk about eyeliner and pornography.
I think I really need another cup of coffee right now,
Kenneth
