To define modern media is to be dashed to pieces on the shores of self-ruination.
It breaks down all barriers of distance. It defies every cultural separation. It contaminates the most hardened advocate for Truth, decimates the foundations of the morally upright, and eviscerates every core value for good left in the world. Its bed is with Deceit and its foe is Conscience. It has no regret. It has no pity. It has no control. And with every year that passes, it becomes stronger and more powerful. And this will continue until the end comes.
The end of the world, that is.
Let’s review: Throughout the centuries, there was nothing more important to the world’s greatest leaders than the media. Dating back to Old Testament times, the rulers of Israel devoted their lives to writing what we have today as the Scriptures. The ancient Greeks considered art the most important quality of their society. Rome’s entire empire was built on pleasing the mob, and had enormous, football stadium-sized structures built to sate the people’s need for entertainment. And probably since the early 1300’s, the written word, appearing in the Bible of the Catholic church, newspapers, books, laws, and telegrams controlled entire continents with their persuasion; whole empires built on words.
Visuals, like paintings and sketches, from deeply-buried caverns that have never seen sunlight, to multi-billion-dollar masterpieces displayed in art museums the world over, have defined our cultures for millenia. Within the last century, film and video have become a staple of our media, used to relay news, stories, and social references at amazing levels of intimacy. Within the past thirty years, the internet has broken almost every boundary, becoming integrated in every home and business, and cementing itself into the instant-media culture of today.
In other words, media has become an instant, easily-accessible, and common communication method.
This is not a bad thing by itself. It’s been the goal of mankind for the past few thousand years, actually, and now we’ve got it…and have no idea what to do with it. So we fill it with information and communicate with people we don’t know and get our news from it and have video chats and steal credit card information and access pornography and upload photos and write blogs about abstract topics that never get to the point and…well, it goes on.
But the goal has changed. What used to be the most valuable way to control people has become so mind-numbingly-commonplace, higher powers have to dream up new, innovative schemes to lead people in circles. So they bombard people with information that peaks emotion. “News” that gets citizens riled up. “Truth” that achieves the goals of the wealthy. It might be a conspiracy theory. It might be the mind of a deceived and lonely sheep. Or it might just be way too much coincidence to ignore.
My main point is the misuse of the media we have today. News networks that work with motives give me the same chill that scientists who don’t understand science do. The degradation of real people and morals through the use of fake characters and situations constantly invading homes as if it were the norm makes me grimace and sick. And if there’s any hope we can draw from it, it’s that we’re above this tactic. We can choose not to get involved with the crookedness. We can make a conscious decision to be the remaining true media in this world.
That’s what I choose. I refuse to be the cause of society’s decline into stuttering idiocy. When I create something, from now on, it will be for the betterment of my audience; uplifting to their souls, spiritually fulfilling, and encouraging. The standards I uphold in my own life will not be thrown away for the sake of accepted “art”. Beauty is not so weak that it is open to interpretation by others. Media doesn’t have to be corrupted, so I won’t be the one to corrupt it.
That’s my take. You can join me, if you want. There’s plenty of room here.
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