RAGe Against The Machine
RAGe Against The Machine
National School Walkout Day was epic. If by epic you mean, that maybe, you could skip school and not get in trouble. In that sense, it was epic. As an expression of rage against the machine-gun, it was barely a blip of outrage, a hiccup of anger. That was the reality, which bore almost no resemblance to the press coverage.
Before the internet, if you wanted to protest, to write a book or pamphlet expressing your outrage against injustice, you’d have to pay a printer to print your subversive, life-changing tract, using your own money, and then hang out a street corner, passing it along to whomever you met. Most people would wave you off, or just refuse your subversive brochure, while others would take it, look once, and toss it in the trash. Maybe, if you were lucky, one person in twenty would read it.
Back in the day, Revolution was hard. Rage Against The Machine was damned near futile because The Machine had all the money, owned all the media, print, newspaper, TV, movies, you name it, they owned it. You weren’t just pissing in the wind, fighting The Machine. You were pissing into a hurricane that was blowing right at your feet.
By comparison, if The Machine wanted to, they could make 5 housewives, a couple’a bums, and a stray dog, look like Martin Luther King’s march on Washington. Just shoot the video tight, so those five people look like an angry mob. Then ask leading questions, edit the footage, and, “Voila,” you’ve got a story.
I experienced this first hand, more than once at demonstrations. In spite of the lack of protesters, all the local networks sent reporters to document the event, which was a protest against abuse of mentally ill patients. Because news is news. You’ve got to fill space, and on a slow-news-day, space can be tough to fill. If The Machine liked you and empathized with your cause, the press would bend backward and sideways to turn your little gathering into an event. If they didn’t like you, you were a straggling bunch of hillbillies, or maybe, a group of disaffected subversives, up to no good. It was their ball. If you wanted to play, you played by their rules.
Until the internet.
Today, the game is still played the same way. The Machine has all the money. But the internet is free, leveling the playing field. A modestly clever kid with a video camera, even a decent cell phone, with no more than a few bucks and a YouTube account, can do what used to be possible, only by The Machine. But no longer. Now, people like Steven Crowder, (in the video below,) has a good deal more than a cell phone and can easily challenge The Machine’s narrative. And boy, does The Machine hate it. So much so that The Machine wants back its power, its control, and they damned-well don’t want you interfering, you pack of hillbilly, subversive, Uncle Toms, haters, bigots, rightwingers, and especially, normal people. You must be silenced.
That was the real intent behind Net Neutrality. It was the real intent behind demonetization of any account that The Machine doesn’t like on Google, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, you name it. The Machine wants you in the back alley, printing your subversive little tract, passing it along by hand, radically restricting your reach. The Machine will give you that much freedom. Because it’s their narrative to tell, their information super-highway, even though you pay for it. That’s how The Machine works. And that’s how they create the news, just as they did with National Walkout Day, or whatever-the-hell they called it. That’s because they want your guns, for obvious reasons. They can’t legally take them without something approximating wide-spread support. It will only approximate wide-spread support, mind you, but the approximation is good enough, once you add the selective editing and camera work. Then The Machine will do the rest, they’ll manufacture the news, the narrative, while joyously limiting your free speech. For your own good. Always, for your own good.
The Machine doesn’t really care about you, or what happens to you. They’re happy to toss a bone your way, or a crumb, as it falls from the table. What they care about are profits. The rhetoric of concern is just that, rhetoric, designed to manipulate, obfuscate, subjugate, but never educate. Unless it’s the doctrine of The Machine, then, let the education begin. Just don’t think for yourself, that, The Machine won’t allow.
Mark Magula
National School Walkout Day was epic. If by epic you mean, that maybe, you could skip school and not get in trouble. In that sense, it was epic. As an expression of rage against the machine-gun, it was barely a blip of outrage, a hiccup of anger. That was the reality, which bore almost no resemblance to the press coverage.
Before the internet, if you wanted to protest, to write a book or pamphlet expressing your outrage against injustice, you’d have to pay a printer to print your subversive, life-changing tract, using your own money, and then hang out a street corner, passing it along to whomever you met. Most people would wave you off, or just refuse your subversive brochure, while others would take it, look once, and toss it in the trash. Maybe, if you were lucky, one person in twenty would read it.
Back in the day, Revolution was hard. Rage Against The Machine was damned near futile because The Machine had all the money, owned all the media, print, newspaper, TV, movies, you name it, they owned it. You weren’t just pissing in the wind, fighting The Machine. You were pissing into a hurricane that was blowing right at your feet.
By comparison, if The Machine wanted to, they could make 5 housewives, a couple’a bums, and a stray dog, look like Martin Luther King’s march on Washington. Just shoot the video tight, so those five people look like an angry mob. Then ask leading questions, edit the footage, and, “Voila,” you’ve got a story.
I experienced this first hand, more than once at demonstrations. In spite of the lack of protesters, all the local networks sent reporters to document the event, which was a protest against abuse of mentally ill patients. Because news is news. You’ve got to fill space, and on a slow-news-day, space can be tough to fill. If The Machine liked you and empathized with your cause, the press would bend backward and sideways to turn your little gathering into an event. If they didn’t like you, you were a straggling bunch of hillbillies, or maybe, a group of disaffected subversives, up to no good. It was their ball. If you wanted to play, you played by their rules.
Until the internet.
Today, the game is still played the same way. The Machine has all the money. But the internet is free, leveling the playing field. A modestly clever kid with a video camera, even a decent cell phone, with no more than a few bucks and a YouTube account, can do what used to be possible, only by The Machine. But no longer. Now, people like Steven Crowder, (in the video below,) has a good deal more than a cell phone and can easily challenge The Machine’s narrative. And boy, does The Machine hate it. So much so that The Machine wants back its power, its control, and they damned-well don’t want you interfering, you pack of hillbilly, subversive, Uncle Toms, haters, bigots, rightwingers, and especially, normal people. You must be silenced.
That was the real intent behind Net Neutrality. It was the real intent behind demonetization of any account that The Machine doesn’t like on Google, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, you name it. The Machine wants you in the back alley, printing your subversive little tract, passing it along by hand, radically restricting your reach. The Machine will give you that much freedom. Because it’s their narrative to tell, their information super-highway, even though you pay for it. That’s how The Machine works. And that’s how they create the news, just as they did with National Walkout Day, or whatever-the-hell they called it. That’s because they want your guns, for obvious reasons. They can’t legally take them without something approximating wide-spread support. It will only approximate wide-spread support, mind you, but the approximation is good enough, once you add the selective editing and camera work. Then The Machine will do the rest, they’ll manufacture the news, the narrative, while joyously limiting your free speech. For your own good. Always, for your own good.
The Machine doesn’t really care about you, or what happens to you. They’re happy to toss a bone your way, or a crumb, as it falls from the table. What they care about are profits. The rhetoric of concern is just that, rhetoric, designed to manipulate, obfuscate, subjugate, but never educate. Unless it’s the doctrine of The Machine, then, let the education begin. Just don’t think for yourself, that, The Machine won’t allow.
Mark Magula