Unreality TV

By Dave Wise

07/04/04

I was in a bar the other night, one of those eclectic, rare places where you can find just about every mix of people you would ever want to meet... and occasionally some you might prefer not to meet. Standing there, shoulder to shoulder with some I know and some strangers, is my idea of fun. One never knows what will happen at this place, it all depends upon the energy level of the people around you, and it gets catching! There was a tangible feel of faded cheer in the air, a mix of the wild anticipation of the weekend tempered by the end of another long hot summers workday. People were tired but hesitantly optimistic about where they were going to go play, or maybe spend the weekend getting caught up on some long needed rest or visiting friends in the big city.

The usual crowd of people amble in, from young ambitious car salesmen showing keen interest in middle aged divorcees, to cynical lawyers, rugged Vietnam veterans and pale thirty-something pool players hoping to find solace in a place where they can all tell off-color jokes, drink a little more than enough, light up a smoke and just take a load off. All seems right with the world after a few cold ones and, with the right company, we even seem to find that this world would be a better place if only every one else would just think like you and me!

That's when someone at the table I was sitting at looked up at one the ever present televisions, one of them playing a channel with a continuous feed of mind numbing symbolism and images meant to work you up into a frenzy. You know the one with its conglomerate owned, religious right pandering, government boot-licking programming pounding the drum of indoctrination. "March on Christian Soldiers! Be all the robot you can be! Believe in what we say! It's the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth! Believe it without question or you're a co-conspirator of the enemy and unpatriotic!" (GASP!)

No, I'm not talking about Orel Roberts or Jimmy Swaggart, I'm not even talking about "fair and balanced" Fox News or Bill O'Reilly, I'm talking about C.N.N., the 24/7 "news" channel where they will run non-stop the latest top story usually with graphic pictures of horrible things going on around the world. And they have a knack for picking the ones that will get you riled up the most. Since news is now instantly relayed around the world and into your living room at the speed of light, people have somehow been unable to live without it, especially since our "Desert Storm, (sanitized for T.V.)" land-grab... er... I mean "Liberation of Kuwait" during the first Bush administration. Wow, what we have learned about the world since C.N.N.

Anyway, this guy, staring intently into the television say's "Look at them son'sa bitch's, beheading that guy like that!"

Too tired and unwilling to get into a political discussion, I say nothing.

He continues "Have you seen that video of them chopping his head off?"

I think to myself, "Yes, pretty gruesome alright," but I'm feeling like I need to put into perspective as to what he is reacting to and, for some masochistic reason, I occasionally enjoy throwing a little gasoline on a fire.

So I add "Big deal, that's old stuff now, I like the video showing U.S. supplied Israeli gun ships lobbing grenades and mortars into crowds of rock throwing Palestinian women and children. All their body parts flying and, you know... people on fire and writhing in agony from having their legs blown off. That's more exciting video."

"What...?" he says, staring at me in disbelief as if I was personally responsible for all of the suffering in the world. "How could you say that such a thing is "exciting?" What are you a sicko or something?

I looked at him surprised and said "Are you telling me that you haven't seen that video? Or the one showing us blowing up a wedding party or cluster bombing some school or smart bombing a couple dozen homes in Baghdad?"

"Very funny!" he says as I take a long gulp of micro-brew. "I suppose you enjoy seeing the bodies of Jewish civilians being blown up on a bus in Tel Aviv! Why don't you get some brains you moron?!?"

"Fascinating thing about television, isn't it?" I say "It's like a car crash, you can't look at it but you also can't look away. Those are spine chilling images alright, but what about the video of the military bases and prisons we are building in Iraq, even though we are turning the country back to 'the peoples of Iraq?' Not as stimulating as an execution is it?"

"No, can't say I have, but what's your point? We're talking about the killing of innocent men!"

"Funny, isn't it, at what you will see or never see." I said. "What makes his death more important than the killing of countless civilians in our 'regime change' where the body count is well over 15,000? Or of the 900 plus American servicemen and women coming home in body bags, you don't see that video running non-stop do you? And where was the video of the lives lost during our 11 year long siege of a country by keeping out food and medicines to that place? Amnesty International and a few other groups claim that over a million people, mostly children and the elderly died. Did you see non-stop footage of that? Hell no and you likely never will unless you're a little savvy on the internet and know where to find such video."

He is now starting to get visibly upset. I take another gulp of my favorite libation and say "I realize that it's not as sensational as having a guy getting his dome lopped off like O.J. Simpson lashing at a piñata full of cocaine, but that is what sells, and what they want you to see... shocking stuff. However, don't you think the timing is just a little suspect... that immediately after those photos leak out showing the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison then suddenly, as if to switch your attention, we are now exposed to a endless barrage of executions?"

Don't you find it a teensy bit strange that there is now a continuous loop being spoon fed to the world every fifteen minutes the killing of a few civilians but never any coverage of the carnage our military is inflicting upon Iraqi civilians? And don't you think that these people being executed ought to have figured it out that Iraq is not a safe place for one to hang out and that working there might result in some serious consequences? The killing of a hostage shouldn't be that newsworthy but it is sensational and it gets people's hatred worked up. And just for giggles, before all the families gather for 'Independence Day' they trot out old Saddam so we can be proud of our president for being 'the man!'"

"But that isn't the same thing, these people did nothin' to them to deserve this!" he says.

"Maybe he didn't personally kill anybody, but there are a lot of pissed off people around the world who hate Americans because they find our slaughtering tens of thousands of Iraqi's unacceptable, our arming of Israel to the teeth unacceptable, or the lies we used to invade Iraq unacceptable, and our involvement in other middle east countries over there unacceptable, as we would find it unacceptable for them to do the same to our country. These folks are just luckless enough to get captured. It's a tough neighborhood over there!"

"But WE didn't start it, 9/11 started it and we have got to get those bastards or we will never be safe!" he adds, "When were you born, yesterday? You're a freakin' idiot!"

"So," I say, "You think that continued annihilation of Arabs will make us safer?"

"No, just the ones responsible for 9/11, and I hope they hang Saddam!"

"Uh... well.... if we really want to hold accountable those responsible for the attacks on 9/11, then we not only attacked the wrong country but we are now on a mission to overthrow any nation that doesn't dance to our tunes even if Bush has to lie through his teeth to do it! We now have established permanent bases in a strategic area full of rich oil reserves and it seems clear that we are going to impose ourselves into a region of the globe where people are fanatical as can they get. We are probably going to see even more incidents like 9/11 and maybe even worse! And since when was Saddam a threat to us? He was our buddy a decade ago."

"You can't trust them" he says, "Since the day they are born they are being taught to hate Americans and our way of life! It's kill them or they will kill us!"

"Okay" I said, "Let me see if I got this right. Sixty years ago, the Japanese were indoctrinated the same way. To them their emperor was holy and they were gleefully willing to die for him too. Suicide bombers with planes are nothing new! Then there was the Nazi movement and the 'Hitler Youth' designed to instill hatred for all the ideals of individualism. It is only in recent times that we were being told every day and night that 'the Russians are coming' and we better get ready with 'first strike' capability because we all know that those 'reds' are brainwashed into hating America and we need to put a stop to it!

Did we have to kill all of them? I don't think so, and just because we are living in an alleged "free" country is not the reason they hate us. It's not Baywatch, or braless women having equal status as men, or Brittany Spears, although I wouldn't blame them for hating her. Up until recently, they haven't had any interest in us or ever attacked us. You need to check yourself bub. And while you're at it think about what was it that caused them to attack us and not Brazil, Tokyo, Denmark, France, or England? Why the U.S. and not those other countries that enjoy similar freedoms, and in some areas, considerably more than us? Please explain that logic to me now."

And look at history and tell me why did all hostilities stop when Japan and Germany surrendered? What about the fall of the U.S.S.R., why did they not keep on hating us? Yet even as we speak there are constant attacks against us after being so benevolent by our coming half way around the world to rid a madman of W.M.D.'s.... oops... I mean to remove a madman who is oppressing people. But I see a major difference between W.W.II and now. We can not break the will or 'democratize' a population that by and large chooses to live with strict religious rule. Most of those regions are the place of countless wars and strife between each other and it is is always done with the blessings of the god that is on THEIR side."

"Right" says the man next to me "They're all f**ked up on their religion because their religion tells them that if they kill an infidel they will go to heaven and get 72 virgins supplied by Allah, and as you and I know only Christian nations are free nations, like us. That's why to me burning the flag is like spitting on Christ himself because we are one nation 'under God!' Am I beginning to get through to you numbskull? We are there to help people and it don't matter if a few of em' die by accident, that's war, and war is hell! We're doing it for god and country! God Bless America!"

I pause to reflect upon what he just said. "Oh... yes, I think I'm beginning to see your point, that only our god is the correct god and that our government, blessed by this god, is the only true government, and the subjugating... er 'liberating' all of those ungrateful heathens over there in Iraqistan is our god ordained destiny, right?"

"Right!"

"Well, why didn't you just say so, that we need to make them play by our rules and be free to live in an American style democracy or die, that's simple enough. I just wonder if the cameras will be rolling when we start beheading those infidels... er unpatriotic atheists in America?"

(Note: The situation depicted here is entirely fictional. Any resemblance to those living or wishing they were dead is purely coincidental that they think it is them, because it might be, but I'll never tell. ;)

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