Steven Weber: Mad Men

[babylonsister]

Steven Weber

Actor/wise-ass
Posted: August 13, 2009 02:30 AM
Mad Men


There are mad men in the house.

Stripped of power, backed into a corner, emasculated, mean. Mean and mad.

Dangerous mad.

Guns? Nazis? Euthanasia? Hey: you angry? Then express your anger like a civilized person, not a rake-wielding moron, foaming at the mouth, espousing quarter-baked beliefs of doom and death panels which have been injected into your malleable squash with all the subtlety of a turkey baster filled with cottage cheese shoved into a sheep's rectum.

A dispassionate observer might conclude that such a mentality is ultimately not worth the effort to rehabilitate; that the total immersion into the mob ideology as directed by its de facto leaders (who have more in common with the fascist/socialist dictators their opponents supposedly possess) renders such a person incapable of reason and devoid of sense, responding only to fight or flight, black and white, reward and punishment, good and evil.

Is this what the corporate masters who run the country really want?

It must be because this is what they've made. Like "ring-around-the-collar", a wholly contrived evil has found purchase in the psyches of impressionable Americans and the only action to be taken in response (certainly the only one they can possibly suggest) is an undying fealty to unchecked consumerism. Legions of consumo-zombies, mass victims of Stockholm Syndrome, are fighting not for their own rights but for their captors' profitability.

The potential of media to influence the American public has superseded even David Sarnof's vision of television as a responsibly wielded, publicly owned entity for cultural edification by going it one darker: it is a tool to drive, shape and coerce human behavior to ensure perpetual profit.

If these angry town hall disruptor/birther/swift boaters ever left the sanctity of their plasma screen TV's blaring Fox's vomitous vituperations, and dared venture across the pirate filled oceans or flew in certain-to-crash-or-be-highjacked planes to those lesser, cowardly, backward countries in Europe, Asia or Africa, maybe---just maybe---they would be beyond the range of the persistent signals sent to their pummeled brains and they would begin to experience true independent thought.

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-weber/mad-men_b_258281.html

[fasttense]

1. It continually surprises me how easily Americans are manipulated by the corporate media.

These town hall yelling matches and health care reformer death threats are orchestrated by out of control boundless corporate monopolies.

Americans have been exposed to millions of hours of advertising and media manipulation. You would think they would be immune to it by now. Instead they believe everything they are fed and follow their corporate masters like the rats of the Pied Piper.

[babylonsister]

2. What astounds me is the fact that these people appear so

ignorant that many of them are cheerleading against their own best interests.

[liberal N proud]

3. That is the part that is astounding...

They are fighting against their own best interest.

Many don't even realize it because they have been lied to by the talking heads.

[madrchsod]

4. my father`s generation listened to father coughlin during the 30`s

today there are 100`s father coughlins broadcasting across the country 24 hours a day 7 days a week. they use the basic fear of the unknown to manipulate their audience into hatred. the problem father coughlins face is when good people say enough is enough they lose their appeal and become a footnote in history.

glen beck is finding out what happens when people say enough is enough...he`s losing his advertisers.

[babylonsister]

5. But there's also some good people fighting this fight...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x352789

People of faith are calling on Congress to support reform that makes quality health care affordable for all.

[road2000]

6. Great points in Weber's post.

He manages to dissect the phenomenon while communicating his outrage in well-chosen words.