Diversions
The NBC series “The Blacklist” is one of those
interesting shows, mostly because you see James Spader pretty much owning any
scene that he’s in. He’s the
villain-to-end-all-villains, and he’s giving the FBI all the secret cheat codes
that the bad guys have been using since forever to stay one step ahead of the
good guys.
In the premiere for the show’s third season, we are
introduced to the “Troll
Farmer”. He’s a cyberspace
specialist in diversions, employing a network of computer specialists and other
support characters that generate realistic misinformation to divert public
attention (not to mention law enforcement) from
what is really happening. He uses his
skills and people to create thousands of false locations of our main characters
– who are currently fugitives from the FBI – and also spreading phony stories
to confuse the masses so Spader’s character can leave the District of Columbia.
Spader’s character then “rewards” the “Troll Farmer”
by turning him over to the FBI, especially after being told that his services
were no longer “available”. One more
name on the “Blacklist” crossed off.
It’s an interesting concept, and I have to wonder if
we haven’t been plagued by the real thing.
We turn on the TV and we are subjected to the biggest
routine con game in the world. We hear
endless chatter about people who want to be the next President of the United
States and we’re barraged with speculation and fraud and presented numbers in
lieu of actual physical votes. We hear
about who is “leading” in some contest that has no basis whatsoever to actual
elections, as if somehow the former could replace the latter. We hear about who is running, who might run,
who is leading, who isn’t leading, and who could be dropping out before a
single actual real live human vote could ever be cast.
We hear about this family of mostly women and some men
(and one in between) who are in the
media constantly because... well there really is no reason why they are in the
media. Sure, one of them is famous
because he/she was a former Olympic champion, and one of them got our attention
because she likes showing off her curvy body, but everyone else in the bunch
really have no reason to be in the limelight.
But do you know what we don’t hear about? We don’t hear about the economy and how
things have been tough for the vast majority of us ever since the Great
Recession. We don’t hear how the Federal
Reserve has been keeping interest rates at near-zero since 2009 and why they
haven’t raised those rates even though Wall Street has been begging and
pleading for them to do that.
Then again, we haven’t heard the dreaded “R” word in
the media either... but it is out there in the news. It’s being mentioned in the financial
sections, as people are looking ahead and seeing nothing but the times getting
worse instead of better.
There’s little talk about all of the corporations
announcing layoffs. There’s little
mention of McDonald’s closing stores. We
hear that gas prices are... or were... dropping, but we’re not hearing too much
about the oil companies cancelling projects and laying people off because the
price of oil (not to be confused with the price of gas)
is dropping thanks to the oil shale glut in America and the oil glut in China.
Speaking of China, does anyone even remotely think
that their economic downturn can somehow happen in a vacuum and not have an
effect on American finances? Or, for
that matter, the already-depressed economy in European countries like Greece?
But, hey, how about that Taylor Swift? Isn’t she just a wonderful young lady?
Political gridlock is abundant, especially in light of
the recent insurrection within the ranks of the GOP. The GOP and their continual campaign of
legislative sabotage keep pushing deadlines back further and further. They claim to hate making deals, but they
leave themselves in a position where they have no choice but to strike bargains
that they then turn around and condemn at the top of their lungs like the
spoiled children that they are. It makes
for great re-election drama, but the consequences of these brinksmanship games
are never talked about.
But... hey, did you hear about what some presidential
wannabe said about the Holocaust and gun control?
And it’s not just a national thing. Local news seems to have a short attention
span as well. The editorials are full of
so-called “conservatives” who love to talk about being against taxes and
complain about Washington, but somehow the local taxes still go up. They complain about the heavy-handed tyranny
of Washington, but they justify the local police chief or sheriff in their
demand for exponential increases in budgets so they can get body armor and
military vehicles. Street repairs or
expansion or changes are planned and budgeted and then strangely forgotten,
only to pop up again a couple of years later as something that “needs” to be
done. Endless talk is wasted praising
“small businesses”, but you don’t hear about the slow creep of “We Buy Gold”
stores and title pawn shops and little churches that don’t pay taxes. You also
don’t hear, for that matter, about all of those promising stores and
restaurants that suddenly close their doors.
But, hey, did you see who was crowned homecoming
queen? And how about that church
gathering? Wasn’t that just precious?
Let’s get brutally honest here... the idea of a “Troll
Farmer” isn’t just a fictional character on TV.
It’s standard operating procedure for the powers-that-be to keep the
masses distracted so they won’t see just how screwed we all are and how much
more screwed we’re about to be.
Think about it... if more people knew about the coming
recession, do you think they’d be standing in line for the newest Apple
product? Do you think they’d be getting
new credit cards or buying new vehicles?
The thing is... thanks to the Internet, this stuff
isn’t completely hidden. It’s there if
you know where to look. The troll famers
of the real world can only distract us for so long, and only for as long as we
choose to be distracted.
So the real question is, why are we so willing to be
the crop?
No comments:
Post a Comment