{"id":115851,"date":"2018-08-06T12:00:15","date_gmt":"2018-08-06T11:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=115851"},"modified":"2018-08-01T09:49:25","modified_gmt":"2018-08-01T08:49:25","slug":"amusing-ourselves-to-death-the-diagnosis-for-the-future-inhabitants-of-our-dying-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/08\/amusing-ourselves-to-death-the-diagnosis-for-the-future-inhabitants-of-our-dying-planet\/","title":{"rendered":"Amusing Ourselves to Death: The Diagnosis for the Future Inhabitants of our Dying Planet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Amusing-Ourselves-to-Death-Public-Discourse-in-the-Age-of-Show-Business\u201d-Neil-Postman-cover.gif\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-115852\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Amusing-Ourselves-to-Death-Public-Discourse-in-the-Age-of-Show-Business\u201d-Neil-Postman-cover.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"313\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/chris-hedges-quote-Neil-Postman.jpg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-115853\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/chris-hedges-quote-Neil-Postman.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"188\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/chris-hedges-quote-Neil-Postman.jpg 327w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/chris-hedges-quote-Neil-Postman-300x141.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cAnd when they found our shadows (grouped \u2018round the TV sets), they ran down every lead; they repeated every test; they checked out all the data in their lists. And then the alien anthropologists admitted they were still perplexed, but on eliminating every other reason for our sad demise they logged the only explanation left: This species has amused itself to death.\u201d<\/em><br \/>\n<em>&#8212;<\/em> Roger Waters<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cApathy and indifference are nurtured in the modern age as most peoples\u2019 free time is frittered away with worthless trivia like ball games, computer games, movies and soaps, and fiddling with their mobile phones. These distractions might be fun, but after most of them you\u2019ve learnt nothing of any value, and remain ignorant, malleable and suggestible, which is just how the elites want you.\u201d<\/em><br \/>\n&#8212; Clive Maud<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cA truth\u2019s initial commotion is directly proportional to how deeply the lie was believed&#8230; When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker, a raving lunatic.\u201d<\/em><br \/>\n&#8212; Dresden James<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cA lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.\u201d<\/em><br \/>\n<em>&#8212; <\/em>Winston Churchill<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201c<\/em><em>A lie told once remains a lie, but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.\u201d<\/em><br \/>\n&#8212; Attributed to Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler\u2019s Minister of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>*****************************<br \/>\n<em>30 Jul 2018 &#8211; <\/em>30 years ago (1985) Neil Postman (a professor of communications arts and sciences at New York University &#8211; until his death in 2003) wrote the best-selling book <strong><em>\u201cAmusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business\u201d.<\/em><\/strong> The book exposed, among other things, the subtle but profound dangers to the developing mind from the mesmerizing (and addictive) commercial television industry.<\/p>\n<p>The lessons from that book have essentially been ignored by the amoral, corrupted and very sociopathic capitalist system that says \u201cdamn the torpedoes\/full steam ahead\u201d and blindly and greedily promotes unlimited growth no matter what the costs and who or what gets hurt in the long\u2013term in the resource-extractive, exploitive and permanently polluting processes.<\/p>\n<p>But Postman\u2019s thesis applies even more strongly today to the current internet-mediated, age-inappropriate, pornographic violence and pornographic sex-saturated realities with which the prophetic Postman would be properly alarmed.<\/p>\n<p>Aldous Huxley, in his classic \u201cBrave New World\u201d (1932), wrote about the new form of totalitarianism that has now come to pass in the developed world. A good example is the massively-privatized drug, medical and psychiatric corporations were once, in happier times, controlled by well-meaning, altruistic health practitioners who were mainly concerned with relieving human suffering and trying to holistically and permanently cure their distressed patients\u2019 ailments &#8211; rather than managing \u201cclients\u201d as permanently paying consumers of their unaffordable cocktails of vaccines and prescription drugs.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, Huxley\u2019s book was also about the imaginary psychotropic drug SOMA that predicted Eli Lilly\u2019s drug dealers, makers and promoters to make the false claims that Prozac would make its swallowers \u201cfeel better than well\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>One of the characters in Brave New World said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><em>\u201c<\/em><\/strong><em>And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why, there\u2019s always SOMA to give you a holiday from the facts. And there\u2019s always SOMA to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering. In the past you could only accomplish these things by making a great effort and after years of hard moral training. Now, you swallow two or three half-gramme tablets, and there you are. Anybody can be virtuous now. You can carry at least half your morality about in a bottle. Christianity without tears; that\u2019s what SOMA is.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Nearly 30 years after he wrote the book, Huxley said,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cAnd it seems to me perfectly in the cards that there will be, within the next generation or so, a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda, brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods.\u201d (<\/em>See the lyrics to Pink Floye\u2019s \u201cComfortably Numb\u201d further below.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Postman\u2019s very last sentence of his book concerned the prescription drug-infested victims of the new form of totalitarianism that \u201cBrave New World\u201d dealt with the following sentence:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cWhat afflicted the people in Brave New World was not that they were laughing instead of thinking, but that they did not know what they were laughing about and why they had stopped thinking.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>&lt;&lt;&lt;Lessons from Pink Floyd\u2019s \u201cThe Wall\u201d&gt;&gt;&gt;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/the-wall-pink-floyd.jpg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-115854 size-medium alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/the-wall-pink-floyd-222x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"222\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/the-wall-pink-floyd-222x300.jpg 222w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/the-wall-pink-floyd.jpg 321w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 222px) 100vw, 222px\" \/><\/a>One of my favorite psychologically-relevant movies (up there with \u201cOne Flew Over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest) was Pink Floyd\u2019s \u201cThe Wall\u201d, whose major song-writer was Roger Waters. Because it was such an important movie, I included a screening of \u201cThe Wall\u201d in the curriculum for the upper-level psychology class that I taught at the University of Minnesota-Duluth a decade and a half ago.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Wall\u201d was partially about early Pink Floyd member Syd Barrett (the character Pink in the movie) and his descent into so-called paranoid schizophrenia (of \u201cunknown cause). Actually, rather than mysteriously coming down with one of the 300 or so mental illnesses of \u201cunknown cause\u201d that are in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel of Mental Disorders (which the popular press and the psychiatric industry wants us to believe in), Barrett had irretrievably destroyed portions of his brain with the frequent use\/overuse of neurotoxic oral and injectable hallucinogens like LSD, Quaaludes, heroin, alcohol and assorted other addictive, brain-poisoning drugs. Of course there are many other contributing factors that can cause or contribute to emotional or neurological damage, especially in the developing brains of fetuses, babies, children and adolescents. Some of the ones illustrated in \u201cThe Wall\u201d are listed immediately below.<\/p>\n<p>The many psychological traumas suffered by Pink in \u201cThe Wall\u201d help explain the epidemic of so-called mental illnesses of unknown cause in our so-called \u201ccivilized\u201d First World. They were nicely illustrated in the movie with such traumas as: 1) parental neglect or absence; 2) harshness in parenting; 2) having dysfunctional, cruel, domineering figures in positions of authority (teachers, parent-figures, etc); 3) childhood medical traumas; 3) cruelty in the school hallways;4) contagious, inter-generational effects of war; 5) punitive court systems; 6) the humiliating, anxiety-producing, depressing trauma of isolation, loss and loneliness; and 7) illicit brain-altering drugs; and 8) Pink\u2019s obsession with war and war movies \u2013 (actually related to the loss of Waters\u2019 military father in WWII).<\/p>\n<p>(Of course, back in the late 1970s when Waters began writing the lyrics to the album that led to the movie, the world\u2019s medical and pharmaceutical multinational corporations had not yet begun their massive mis-adventure of over-vaccinating vulnerable babies and children with cocktails of neurotoxic ingredients, starting at birth. Nor had well-meaning but mis-informed physicians begun their mis-adventure of prescribing cocktails of (Big Pharma\u2019s) neurotoxic, addictive drugs for little children that had immature brains, So \u201cThe Wall\u201d did not deal with the future brain-damaging and mental illness-causing effects of psych drugs, the withdrawal of psych drugs from the addicted brain or the various neurotoxic vaccine ingredients, all of which can cause neurological problems indistinguishable from mental illnesses of unknown cause.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, many of the scenes in the movie and many of the song lyrics from \u201cThe Wall\u201d offer great insights into what causes fascist ideologies to erupt. The roots of both mental illness and criminalityfascism were valuable lessons for my students.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/the-wall-pink-floyd2.jpg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-115855\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/the-wall-pink-floyd2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"212\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>Below are pertinent lyrics from a number of Roger Waters\u2019 songs from his career as song-writer and performer for Pink Floyd. Some are from \u201cThe Wall\u201d, but they all deal with realities that deal with the media-generated propaganda and brain-washing that is now so effortlessly accomplished in America and the First World\u2019s prescription drug-intoxicated, brain-malnourishing, war-profiteering, corporate-controlled and media-dominated technocratic age that inevitably and predictably produces serious societal dysfunction, including hopelessness, hatred, isolation, cruelty, violence, racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, poverty, educational impoverishment, anti-intellectualism, malnutrition, mental ill health, personality disorders, criminality and ultimately fascism.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Read these Roger Waters\u2019 lyrics and weep for the future of the children and the planet.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Amused To Death<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Doctor Doctor what\u2019s wrong with me<br \/>\nThis supermarket life is getting long<br \/>\nWhat is the heart life of a colour TV?<br \/>\nWhat is the shelf life of a teenage queen?<br \/>\nOoh western woman<br \/>\nOoh western girl<br \/>\nNews hound sniffs the air<br \/>\nWhen Jessica Hahn goes down<br \/>\nHe latches on to that symbol of detachment<br \/>\nAttracted by the peeling away of feeling<br \/>\nThe celebrity of the abused shell of the belle<\/p>\n<p>Ooh western woman<br \/>\nOoh western girl<br \/>\nAnd the children of Melrose strut their stuff<br \/>\nIs absolute zero cold enough?<br \/>\nAnd out in the valley warm and clean<br \/>\nThe little ones sit by their TV screens<br \/>\nNo thoughts to think<br \/>\nNo tears to cry<br \/>\nAll sucked dry down to the very last breath.<\/p>\n<p>Bartender what is wrong with me<br \/>\nWhy I am so out of breath<br \/>\nThe captain said excuse me ma\u2019am<br \/>\nThis species has amused itself to death<\/p>\n<p>We watched the tragedy unfold<br \/>\nWe did as we were told<br \/>\nWe bought and sold<br \/>\nIt was the greatest show on earth<br \/>\nBut then it was over<br \/>\nWe oohed and aahed<\/p>\n<p>We drove our racing cars<br \/>\nWe ate our last few jars of caviar<br \/>\nAnd somewhere out there in the stars<br \/>\nA keen-eyed look-out<br \/>\nSpied a flickering light<br \/>\nOur last hurrah.<\/p>\n<p>And when they found our shadows<br \/>\nGrouped \u2018round the TV sets<br \/>\nThey ran down every lead<br \/>\nThey repeated every test<br \/>\nThey checked out all the data in their lists<br \/>\nAnd then the alien anthropologists<br \/>\nAdmitted they were still perplexed.<\/p>\n<p>But on eliminating every other reason<br \/>\nFor our sad demise<br \/>\nThey logged the only explanation left<br \/>\nThis species has amused itself to death<br \/>\nNo tears to cry<br \/>\nNo feelings left<br \/>\nThis species has amused itself to death\u2026<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Comfortably Numb<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Hello?<br \/>\nIs there anybody in there?<br \/>\nJust nod if you can hear me.<br \/>\nIs there anyone at home?<br \/>\nCome on, now,<br \/>\nI hear you&#8217;re feeling down.<br \/>\nWell I can ease your pain<br \/>\nGet you on your feet again.<br \/>\nRelax.<br \/>\nI&#8217;ll need some information first.<br \/>\nJust the basic facts.<br \/>\nCan you show me where it hurts?<\/p>\n<p>There is no pain you are receding<br \/>\nA distant ship, smoke on the horizon.<br \/>\nYou are only coming through in waves.<br \/>\nYour lips move but I can&#8217;t hear what you&#8217;re saying.<br \/>\nWhen I was a child I had a fever<br \/>\nMy hands felt just like two balloons.<br \/>\nNow I&#8217;ve got that feeling once again<br \/>\nI can&#8217;t explain you would not understand<br \/>\nThis is not how I am.<br \/>\nI have become comfortably numb.<\/p>\n<p>O.K.<br \/>\nJust a little pinprick.<br \/>\nThere&#8217;ll be no more aaaaaaaaah!<br \/>\nBut you may feel a little sick.<br \/>\nCan you stand up?<br \/>\nI do believe it&#8217;s working, good.<br \/>\nThat&#8217;ll keep you going through the show<br \/>\nCome on it&#8217;s time to go.<\/p>\n<p>There is no pain you are receding<br \/>\nA distant ship, smoke on the horizon.<br \/>\nYou are only coming through in waves.<br \/>\nYour lips move but I can&#8217;t hear what you&#8217;re saying.<br \/>\nWhen I was a child<br \/>\nI caught a fleeting glimpse<br \/>\nOut of the corner of my eye.<br \/>\nI turned to look but it was gone<br \/>\nI cannot put my finger on it now<br \/>\nThe child is grown,<br \/>\nThe dream is gone.<br \/>\nI have become comfortably numb.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Waiting for the Worms<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Eins, zwei, drei, alle!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ooooh, you cannot reach me now<br \/>\nOoooh, no matter how you try<br \/>\nGoodbye, cruel world, it&#8217;s over<br \/>\nWalk on by.<\/p>\n<p>Sitting in a bunker here behind my wall<br \/>\nWaiting for the worms to come.<br \/>\nIn perfect isolation here behind my wall<br \/>\nWaiting for the worms to come.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re {waiting to succeed} and going to convene outside Brixton<br \/>\nTown Hall where we&#8217;re going to be&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Waiting to cut out the deadwood.<br \/>\nWaiting to clean up the city.<br \/>\nWaiting to follow the worms.<br \/>\nWaiting to put on a black shirt.<br \/>\nWaiting to weed out the weaklings.<br \/>\nWaiting to smash in their windows<br \/>\nAnd kick in their doors.<br \/>\nWaiting for the final solution<br \/>\nTo strengthen the strain.<br \/>\nWaiting to follow the worms.<br \/>\nWaiting to turn on the showers<br \/>\nAnd fire the ovens.<br \/>\nWaiting for the queens and the coons<br \/>\nand the reds and the jews.<br \/>\nWaiting to follow the worms.<\/p>\n<p>Would you like to see Britannia<br \/>\nRule again, my friend?<br \/>\nAll you have to do is follow the worms.<br \/>\nWould you like to send our colored cousins<br \/>\nHome again, my friend?<\/p>\n<p>All you need to do is follow the worms.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>In The Flesh<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>So ya thought ya<br \/>\nMight like to go to the show.<\/p>\n<p>To feel that warm thrill of confusion,<br \/>\nThat space cadet glow.<br \/>\nI&#8217;ve got some bad news for you sunshine,<br \/>\nPink isn&#8217;t well, he stayed back at the hotel<br \/>\nAnd they sent us along as a surrogate band<br \/>\nWe&#8217;re gonna find out where you fans really stand.<\/p>\n<p>Are there any queers in the theater tonight?<br \/>\nGet them up against the wall!<br \/>\nThere&#8217;s one in the spotlight, he don&#8217;t look right to me,<br \/>\nGet him up against the wall!<br \/>\nThat one looks Jewish!<br \/>\nAnd that one&#8217;s a coon!<br \/>\nWho let all of this riff-raff into the room?<br \/>\nThere&#8217;s one smoking a joint,<br \/>\nAnd another with spots!<br \/>\nIf I had my way,<br \/>\nI&#8217;d have all of you shot!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Trial (Lyrics from The Wall)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Good morning, Worm your honor.<br \/>\nThe crown will plainly show<br \/>\nThe prisoner who now stands before you<br \/>\nWas caught red-handed showing feelings<br \/>\nShowing feelings of an almost human nature;<br \/>\nThis will not do.<br \/>\nCall the schoolmaster!<\/p>\n<p>I always said he&#8217;d come to no good<br \/>\nIn the end your honor.<br \/>\nIf they&#8217;d let me have my way I could<br \/>\nHave flayed him into shape.<br \/>\nBut my hands were tied,<br \/>\nThe bleeding hearts and artists<br \/>\nLet him get away with murder.<br \/>\nLet me hammer him today?<\/p>\n<p>Crazy,<br \/>\nToys in the attic I am crazy,<br \/>\nTruly gone fishing.<br \/>\nThey must have taken my marbles away.<br \/>\nCrazy, toys in the attic he is crazy.<\/p>\n<p>You little shit you&#8217;re in it now,<br \/>\nI hope they throw away the key.<br \/>\nYou should have talked to me more often<br \/>\nThan you did, but no! You had to go<br \/>\nYour own way, have you broken any<br \/>\nHomes up lately?<br \/>\nJust five minutes, Worm your honor,<br \/>\nHim and Me, alone.<\/p>\n<p>Baaaaaaaaaabe!<br \/>\nCome to mother baby, let me hold you<br \/>\nIn my arms.<br \/>\nM&#8217;lord I never wanted him to<br \/>\nGet in any trouble.<br \/>\nWhy&#8217;d he ever have to leave me?<br \/>\nWorm, your honor, let me take him home.<\/p>\n<p>Crazy,<br \/>\nOver the rainbow, I am crazy,<br \/>\nBars in the window.<br \/>\nThere must have been a door there in the wall<br \/>\nWhen I came in.<br \/>\nCrazy, over the rainbow, he is crazy.<\/p>\n<p>The evidence before the court is<br \/>\nIncontrovertible, there&#8217;s no need for<br \/>\nThe jury to retire.<br \/>\nIn all my years of judging<br \/>\nI have never heard before<br \/>\nOf someone more deserving<br \/>\nOf the full penalty of law.<br \/>\nThe way you made them suffer,<br \/>\nYour exquisite wife and mother,<br \/>\nFills me with the urge to defecate!<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Hey Judge! Shit on him!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Since, my friend, you have revealed your<br \/>\nDeepest fear,<br \/>\nI sentence you to be exposed before<br \/>\nYour peers.<br \/>\nTear down the wall!<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Bravery Of Being Out Of Range<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You have a natural tendency<br \/>\nTo squeeze off a shot<br \/>\nYou\u2019re good fun at parties<br \/>\nYou wear the right masks<br \/>\nYou\u2019re old but you still<br \/>\nLike a laugh in the locker room<br \/>\nYou can\u2019t abide change<br \/>\nYou\u2019re at home on the range<br \/>\nYou opened your suitcase<br \/>\nTo show off the magnum<br \/>\nYou deafened the canyon<br \/>\nA comfort a friend<br \/>\nOnly upstaged in the end<br \/>\nBy the Uzi machine gun<br \/>\nDoes the recoil remind you<br \/>\nRemind you of sex<br \/>\nOld man what the hell you gonna<br \/>\nkill next?<br \/>\nOld-timer who you gonna kill next?<br \/>\nI looked over Jordan and what did I see<br \/>\nSaw a U.S. Marine in a pile of debris<br \/>\nI swam in your pools<br \/>\nAnd lay under your palm trees<br \/>\nAnd through the range finder over the hill<br \/>\nI saw the frontline boys popping their pills<br \/>\nSick of the mess they find<br \/>\nOn their desert stage<br \/>\nAnd the bravery of being out of range<br \/>\nYeah the question is vexed<br \/>\nOld man what the hell you gonna kill next?<br \/>\nOld-timer who you gonna kill next?<br \/>\nHey bartender over here<br \/>\nTwo more shots<br \/>\nAnd two more beers<br \/>\nSir turn up the TV sound<br \/>\nThe war has started on the ground<br \/>\nJust love those laser guided bombs<br \/>\nThey\u2019re really great<br \/>\nFor righting wrongs<br \/>\nYou hit the target<br \/>\nAnd win the game<br \/>\nFrom bars 3,000 miles away<br \/>\n3,000 miles away we play the game<br \/>\nWith the bravery of being out of range<br \/>\nWe zap and maim<br \/>\nWith the bravery of being out of range<br \/>\nWe strafe the train<br \/>\nWith the bravery of being out of range<br \/>\nWe gained terrain<br \/>\nWith the bravery of being out of range<br \/>\nWe play the game<br \/>\nWith the bravery of being out of range.<\/p>\n<p><strong>It\u2019s A Miracle<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Miraculous you call it babe<br \/>\nYou ain\u2019t seen nothing yet<br \/>\nThey\u2019ve got Pepsi in the Andes<br \/>\nMcDonalds in Tibet<br \/>\nYosemite\u2019s been turned into<br \/>\nA golf course for the Japs<br \/>\nThe Dead Sea is alive with rap<br \/>\nBetween the Tigris and Euphrates<br \/>\nThere\u2019s a leisure centre now<br \/>\nThey\u2019ve got all kinds of sports<br \/>\nThey\u2019ve got Bermuda shorts<br \/>\nThey had sex in Pennsylvania<br \/>\nA Brazilian grew a tree<br \/>\nA doctor in Manhattan<br \/>\nSaved a dying man for free<br \/>\nIt\u2019s a miracle<br \/>\nAnother miracle<br \/>\nBy the grace of God Almighty<br \/>\nAnd pressures of the marketplace<br \/>\nThe human race has civilized itself<br \/>\nIt\u2019s a miracle<br \/>\nWe\u2019ve got a warehouse of butter<br \/>\nWe\u2019ve got oceans of wine<br \/>\nWe\u2019ve got famine when we need it<br \/>\nAnd we\u2019ve got designer crime<br \/>\nWe\u2019ve got Mercedes<br \/>\nWe\u2019ve got Porsche<br \/>\nFerrari and Rolls Royce<br \/>\nWe\u2019ve got a choice\u2026<br \/>\nAn honest man<br \/>\nFinally reaped what he had sown<br \/>\nAnd a farmer in Ohio has just repaid a loan<br \/>\nIt\u2019s a miracle<br \/>\nAnother miracle<br \/>\nBy the grace of God Almighty<br \/>\nAnd pressures of the marketplace<br \/>\nThe human race has civilized itself<br \/>\nIt\u2019s a miracle<br \/>\nWe cower in our shelters<br \/>\nWith our hands over our ears<br \/>\nLloyd-Webber\u2019s awful stuff<br \/>\nRuns for years and years and years<br \/>\nAn earthquake hits the theatre<br \/>\nBut the operetta lingers<br \/>\nThen the piano lid comes down<br \/>\nAnd breaks his frigging fingers<br \/>\nIt\u2019s a miracle<\/p>\n<p><strong>It All Makes Sense<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And the Germans killed the Jews<br \/>\nAnd the Jews killed the Arabs<br \/>\nAnd Arabs killed the hostages<br \/>\nAnd that is the news.<\/p>\n<p>Hi everybody I\u2019m Marv Albert<br \/>\nAnd welcome to our telecast<br \/>\nComing to you live from Memorial Stadium<br \/>\nIt\u2019s a beautiful day<br \/>\nAnd today we accept a sensational matchup<br \/>\nBur first our global anthem<br \/>\nCan\u2019t you see<br \/>\nIt all makes perfect sense?<br \/>\nExpressed in dollars and cents<br \/>\nPounds, shillings and pence<br \/>\nCan\u2019t you see?<br \/>\nIt all makes perfect sense<\/p>\n<p><strong>Late Night Home Tonight \u2013 Part 1<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>But the cockpit\u2019s techno glow<br \/>\nBehind the Ray Ban shine<br \/>\nThe kid from Cleveland<br \/>\nIn the comfort of routine<br \/>\nScans his dials and smiles<br \/>\nSecure in the beauty of military life<br \/>\nThere is no right or wrong<br \/>\nOnly tin cans and cordite and white cliffs<br \/>\nAnd blue skies and flight<br \/>\nThe beauty of military life<br \/>\nNo questions only orders and flight only flight<br \/>\nWhat a beautiful sight in his wild blue dream<br \/>\nThe eternal child leafs through his war magazine<br \/>\nAnd his kind Uncle Sam feeds ten trillion in change<br \/>\nInto the total entertainment combat video game<br \/>\nAnd up here in the stands<br \/>\nThe fans are goin\u2019 wild.<br \/>\nBut that\u2019s okay see the children bleed<br \/>\nIt\u2019ll look great on TV.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Too Much Rope<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And last night on TV<br \/>\nA Vietnam vet<br \/>\nTakes his beard and his pain<br \/>\nAnd his alienation<br \/>\nTwenty years back to Asia again<br \/>\nSees the monsters they made<br \/>\nIn formaldehyde floating \u2018round<br \/>\nMeets a gook on a bike<br \/>\nA good little tyke<br \/>\nA nice enough guy<br \/>\nWith the same soldier\u2019s eyes<br \/>\nTears burn my eyes<br \/>\nWhat does it mean?<br \/>\nThis tear-jerking scene<br \/>\nBeamed into my home<br \/>\nThat it moves me so much?<br \/>\nWhy all the fuss?<br \/>\nIt\u2019s only two humans being<br \/>\nIt\u2019s only two humans being<br \/>\nTears burn my eyes<br \/>\nWhat does it mean?<br \/>\nThis tender TV<br \/>\nThis tear-jerking scene<br \/>\nBeamed into my home<br \/>\nYou don\u2019t have to be a Jew<br \/>\nTo disapprove my murder<br \/>\nTears burn my eyes<br \/>\nMoslem or Christian, Mullah or Pope<br \/>\nPreachers or poet who was it that wrote?<br \/>\nGive any one species too much rope<br \/>\nAnd they\u2019ll fuck it up<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Powers That Be<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Game shows, rodeos, star wars, TV<br \/>\nThey\u2019re the powers that be<br \/>\nIf you see them come,<br \/>\nYou better run<br \/>\nYou better run on home<br \/>\nThe powers that be<br \/>\nThey like treats, tricks, carrots and sticks<br \/>\nThey like fear and loathing, they like sheep\u2019s clothing<br \/>\nAnd blacked-out vans<\/p>\n<p>Blacked-out vans, contingency plans<br \/>\nThey like death or glory, they love a good story<br \/>\nThey love a good story<\/p>\n<p>Sisters of mercy better join with your brothers<br \/>\nPut a stop to the soap opera state<br \/>\nThey say the toothless get ruthless<br \/>\nRun home before its too late.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>_________________________________<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/gary-g-kohls-phd-02-200x249-e1528305529648.jpg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-88722\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/gary-g-kohls-phd-02-200x249-e1528305529648.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"125\" \/><\/a><\/em><em>Dr Gary Kohls is a retired physician from Duluth, MN, USA and <\/em><em>a member of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/\" >TRANSCEND Network<\/a><\/em><em>. In the decade prior to his retirement,\u00a0he practiced what\u00a0could best be described as \u201cholistic (non-drug) and preventive mental health care\u201d. Since his retirement, he has written a weekly column for the Duluth Reader, an alternative newsweekly magazine. His columns mostly deal with the dangers of American imperialism, friendly fascism, corporatism, militarism, racism, and the dangers of Big Pharma, psychiatric drugging, the over-vaccinating of children and other movements that threaten American democracy, civility, health and longevity and the future of the planet. Many of his columns are archived at <\/em><em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/duluthreader.com\/search?search_term=Duty+to+Warn&amp;p=2\" >http:\/\/duluthreader.com\/search?search_term=Duty+to+Warn&amp;p=2<\/a>; <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.globalresearch.ca\/author\/gary-g-kohls\" >http:\/\/www.globalresearch.ca\/author\/gary-g-kohls<\/a>; or at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/search\/?q=gary+kohls+articles\" >https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/search\/?q=gary+kohls+articles<\/a>; <a href=\"mailto:ggkohls@gmail.com\">ggkohls@gmail.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>30 Jul 2018 &#8211; 30 years ago Neil Postman wrote the best-selling book \u201cAmusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business\u201d. The book exposed, among other things, the subtle but profound dangers to the developing mind from the mesmerizing (and addictive) commercial television industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":115852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}