As if the corporate media had any morals whatsoever. It doesn't, of course. It pretends such, in order to encourage hysteria, anger and outrage over the slightest things and thereby support the legislation of morality... By an equally immoral government mind you.
Carl Williams died yesterday. The man who inspired a character in a crappy fictional crime series. A convicted murderer and drug trafficker. Son of a convicted drug trafficker and an addict. Grew up surrounded by crime in a world which pretends that some forms of addiction are "success". What hope did he have?
In the scheme of things, workaholics are just as dysfunctional as heroin addicts. The outside shell looks okay, because our culture values money uber alles, but the dys-function, the basic psychological screw up, is the same. Likewise with religious excess. Likewise with enabling behaviour, martyrdom, alcoholism and gambling addiction. All the same stuff. Different facets of the same stone, or different colours in the same fucked up rainbow, but all the same underneath.
In this wonderful liberative, encouraging and supportive culture we have, those who work hard even at the expense of their family life, are the ones most often promoted. We have a Prime Minister who can't even sleep at night, and is also a religious fanatic, and he's supposed to be an image of the "success" in our culture. Psychologically it's just as screwed up as the late Carl Williams but we like it that way so we can keep sinking the boots in to those who fall short, make ourselves feel better. Measure ourselves against this dysfunctional, ridiculous construct of "success" and console ourselves if we don't look like a hollywood stereotype.
Media knee-jerk hysteria, advertising, overlearned stereotypes... It's all the big fuck up of Anglo culture. Media and government harrass, stress and traumatise people to the point where they self-medicate, like the teenage drinkers on the streets in the city. Then the abusers sink the boots in. They make a profit. Like maggots on the body of a victim crawling in deeper without even waiting for them to die.
Images of disaster crowd and overwhelm us on a daily basis. Advertising gets under the skin, past the defences and wrings out your emotional attachments. There's whole armies of people employed in advertising. MBA's, corporate professionals,
psychologists, even doctors and neurologists doing MRI's of people's brains to show how effective ads are at altering the physical function of an adult brain, let alone that of a child. Whole flocks of vultures in suits conniving and conspiring to push your buttons, manipulate your will and trigger your impulses. Without you even realising. Consider the ads for the TAC, workplace safety and skin cancer. It has been demonstrated that advertising which triggers the trauma centres of the brain is likely to be memorable. Memorable? That's because it's traumatising.
Advertising is specifically designed to get past all your conscious thinking and push buttons. Yet individuals and parents, without degrees in psychology or an army of well educated assistants to filter the stuff in this sewer, are expected to make reasonable responses. As if a family home is invaded by a dozen heavily armed SAS troops and the police turn around and say "it's your own fault you should have had a stronger lock." Images of disaster, war, violence and yes advertising are kicking down doors and barging in unwanted, in the minds of exposed human beings, on a daily basis.
We've also learned from working with those poor bastards who were shipped to vietnam back when the Asian communists were threat du jour, that it's possible to be vicariously traumatised by exposure to someone else's experiences. Trauma is an overwhelming breach of a person's emotional boundaries. It results in loss of sleep, anxiety, anger, nightmares... also associated with anti-social and risk taking behaviour and (surprise, surprise) addiction.
There's no point putting the blame on the individual and expecting them to make their own constructive decisions without the support or resources to do so. Media psychology and manipulation is specifically designed to thwart and overwhelm individual decision making. It's purpose is to push buttons and train certain reactions, without a person's permission or even awareness. This is a fundamental and massive breach of those human personal boundaries that have evolved in us to keep us sane and enable us to co-operate successfully as a group animal.
Ever wondered why the western world has plagues of depression, suicide, addiction and domestic violence that won't respond to nagging from governments? We're doing it to ourselves. Every time we open a paper or turn on a tv or (gods forbid) listen to a politician.
So don't let's get all judgmental about poor Carl Williams. He never stood a chance. While the government and media are actively, consistently placing unreasonable stress on people without remission, there's always going to be some who will fall through the cracks and many, many who will self-medicate. While ever we are governed for an economy that requires thousands, even millions to remain unemployed, there will be those who are emotionally destroyed by the exclusion and abuse. You can't have government and corporate leadership by dysfunctional individuals and then get all surprised when the population is also dysfunctional. You can't govern with religious extremism and actively create addiction in people who are simply trying to get by, then act all shocked and outraged. Well, you can, but not legitimately.
The late Carl Williams is simply the most recent and most visible human sacrifice to the god of money and the economy. Until we wake up to what we're doing, he won't be the last.
RIP, Carl. I'm so sorry.
Labels: Australia politics, culture, violence
