The Interview

I saw the much hyped movie “The Interview” over the weekend.

There was one minor plot point form the movie that stood out for me.
The overlying social commentary throughout the movie about the dark side of the media.

The 4th Estate has always been a weird grab bag of blood, guts, sex, lies, and ’feel-good’ stories.

The first rule in any journalism school is “if it bleeds, it leads.” Other forms of non-traditional media such as movies, music, and the internet capitalize on sex, violence, and feed us with scare tactics and turns into willing participants. Our culture eats this shit up like filet mignon and lobster topped with white truffles. And at the end of the day, ratings, buy rates, and sales numbers increase…ready to feed our insatiable bloodlust for the macabre.

The darkest side of any established for of communication is the bloodsport associated with the dissemination of the information to the intended target.

Our ego-driven society loves the blood and gore. The media knows that as consumers we gravitate toward cotton candy journalism and shy away from real news. Through countless research, focus groups, and rating analysis, media power brokers and producers know exactly what to create. These people know that we gravitate toward cotton candy, sensationalistic journalism and shy away from real news that gives us information and knowledge about the world. These people purposefully taint information with political agendas and force hatred onto us. Like dry sponges, we soak this up, drink from this sick chalice of woe and sorrow, and we beg for more.

These people know that we, as a culture, have turned into addicts waiting on the next fix.

We want to see Kim Kardashian’s naked ass. We want to see the human collateral of a fallen Hollywood like Miley Cyrus, River Phoenix, and Amanda Bynes. Our culture is designed to feed off the sorrow of others and the pain of its fallen souls.

We want to rush over to the nearest web site that houses the kidnapped journalist getting beheaded by the latest flavor-of-the-month terrorist group. We desperately want to see naked pictures of Jennifer Lawrence hacked by a pubescent little boy living in his parents’ basement. We wait in anticipation see the latest fallen actress newest sex tape with yet another washed-up heavy metal drummer with a giant schlong.

We want to see and hear the media turn us into sheep.

We mock ourselves.
We, as a culture, have turned into a parody of our ourselves in relation to our love for sensationalistic “journalism.”

And, more importantly, we mock each other to such a degree in which we cannot tell the difference between self-deprecating humor and self-destructive behavior toward one another. We desperately want to make fun of people, ourselves, and the horrible things that happen to us.

And yet we can’t get enough.

The world can be an ugly, fucked up place.
War, hatred, famine, disease, death.

But we are attracted to this chaos like a moth to an open flame.

We love it.
We can’t stop.
We are so fucking addicted to the pain and suffering of others that we refuse to stop.

We can vote to not give these pushers of our addiction for the sensational by not consuming this bullshit. Low ratings mean cancellation.

We cannot continue to feed our insatiable lust and hunger for this negativity.
Our culture doesn’t have to be this way.
We have to collectively turn this culture around and help and uplift each other.

We have to blaze a trail of positivity and love before it’s to late.
I hope, at least, it’s not too late.