Further thoughts on MainStream Media’s culpability vis a vis Collapse of the global financial house of cards:
The previous post (IT is MainStream Media’s FAULT) engendered a number of useful observations concerning financial Collapse and the role of the Media:
REID ON THE RIGHT TRACK
At 6:37 AM on 30 December, Reid Greenum put his finger on a key issue: Greed.
He is right to rail against individual greed, but there are two kinds of greed.
The individual moral shortcoming that Reid is concerned about AND
The systemic, institutionalized (small ‘eye’) greed that is a key to the ‘success’ of Agencies, Enterprises and Institutions in the Friedman-Flat-Earth economy. Robert Reich documents this form of greed in Supercapitalism.
Organizational greed could be controlled by enlightened citizens through Agencies but at the current time this systemic problem is the more important of the twin manifestations of greed.
That is because it impacts almost every one of the Planet’s 6.3 billion citizens and because it is seen as a virtue by Business-As-Usual and Politics-As-Usual advocates – especially Consumption-Uber-Ales, pseudo-conservatives.
While systemic greed could be contained by enlightened Agency action, individual greed is genetically hardwired into humans. That is because what we now call ‘greed’ served humans well in most Hunter / Gather and Early Agrarian Societies.
On the other hand, the greed proclivities lead to unsustainable consequences in an Urban society – Mass OverConsumption and dysfunctional human settlement patterns. In a Driven-to-a-Frenzy-by-Technology Urban Society, there are too many choices; too many opportunities to do something “because I can.” This dire circumstance is often are mistaken for ‘freedom.’
That is why greed of both sorts must be controlled in the context of functional human settlement patterns. It flourishes in disaggregated and dysfunctional settlement patterns. More on that in a moment.
The flip side of both kinds of greed is ignorance. That is because even the most greedy individual or Organization will constrain their proclivities and desires if they know they will suffer more than they will benefit. Note the current course of consumer confidence and consumer spending…
This is where MainStream Media comes in. The Enterprises that control MainStream Media benefit from citizen ignorance. If citizens and Organizations fail to understand the cumulative consequence of their actions they will continue to over-spend, over-barrow and in other ways feed Enterprise greed.
BUT WHAT OF HUMAN SETTLEMENT PATTERNS?
If one does not understand human settlement patterns, they will not comprehend why the pattern and distribution of human activities is a key issue with respect to economic Collapse.
Saying dysfunctional human settlement patterns is not in play with respect to financial Collapse is like saying gravity had no role in killing Uncle Pete when he fell down three flights of stairs last News Years Eve. One can blame the rotten banister and too much moonshine, however, but for gravity, Uncle Pete would be alive this New Years Eve.
Saying dysfunctional human settlement patterns is not in play with respect to financial Collapse is like saying electro-magnetic fields do not effect radio reception. But for electro-magnetic fields there would be no radio.
In fact one way to come to understand the economic, social and physical impact of human settlement patterns is to understand gravitational forces and magnetic fields via celestial mechanics and physics.
The first 350 pages in the first Volume of The Shape of the Future detail why human settlement pattern has controlling impact on the economic, social and physical well being of citizens.
THE ROLE OF SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IS SUPPORTING ETHICAL BEHAVIOR
Reid is also correct about “ethics” playing a key role in economic Collapse. But it is not just the “family” that has fallen apart and is not providing an ethical rudder.
Back to human settlement patterns. It takes a Dooryard, Cluster, Neighborhood, Village and Community to engender and support ethical behavior. The more complex the society, the more important each of the organic components of human settlement become.
For a snapshot of what has happened to ‘family,’ see definition of Household in GLOSSARY as to why EMR stopped using the word “family” as in Single Household Attached Dwelling.
As Reid points out, ethics is important. That is not clear with respect to “religion.” There are a lot of citizens going to places of worship – on several different days a week – but few who practice their beliefs in the market or on the highways.
OTHER COMMENTS
Several other observations following the IT IS MainStream Media’s FAULT post deserve a note:
Larry Gross at 3:57 PM on 30 December:
Larry is right on with respect to the federal income tax mortgage deduction!
When Larry finally gets around to reading The Shape of the Future he will see that the mortgage deduction is high on the list of damaging subsidies driving dysfunctional human settlement patterns.
The last time EMR looked, something like 90 of benefit of the deduction went to top 20 percent of the Ziggurat. EMR has no problem with well considered Agency help for those in need of shelter assistance but those are the wrong folks to help. In fact they are the only one who do not need help.
There is absolutely no justification for the subsidy other than Business-As-Usual and driving Mass OverConsumption.
Larry will not admit it but this is another major cause of putting The Size Wrong House In The Wrong Location.
Larry Gross, 8:54 AM on 29 Dec:
It is not just citizens READING the wrong stuff. MainStream Media has other outlets besides material that is “read.”
It is hearing and seeing the wrong stuff and reading, hearing and seeing it over and over again – all slanted to encourage consumption and Mass OverConsumption.
NovaMiddleMan, 9:49 AM on 29 Dec:
NMM said… (“In quotes”)
“MSM is not relevant anymore.”
Some may wish that were true but if so, why are billions spent on advertising?
And if MainStream Media goes away tomorrow, where would citizens get any information? From self-serving, dysfunctional Agencies without geographic legitimacy? From Institutions funded by those who want to drive their own agenda? From the other Enterprises that do not even pretend to provide useful information? From Alternative Media? From Anti-media?
Achieving a sustainable trajectory for civilization requires that new “citizen media” take over the abandoned Fourth Estate before there is no source of information. See THE ESTATES MATRIX.
“People say other people read the wrong stuff because you can pick whatever “news” you want”
Now, there is an important statement! Reading only what one wants to believe is worse than reading what MainStream Media presents as ‘balanced’ – if that is possible.
“‘News’ anymore is just another wing of politics.”
No, it is not just Agency babble (aka, politics) but also and even more important Enterprise babble and Institution babble.
At 3:07 PM on 29 Dec MIGHTYBIGMEDIA provides a nice summary.
And in the meantime WaPo has concluded today (31 December) a “balanced” three part series on the crash of AIG and credit default swaps (CDSs). This follows up on their coverage of collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) on 16 December and the three part series on The Housing Bubble in June.
Again, WaPo did
not get to the root causes. They tut-tut over the wreckage and have nice photos of the scape goats.
Interestingly, on 28 December the front page of the Business section of WaPo ran a great graphic showing how responsible, conservative, saving citizens have had no place to “invest” for a decade. Nothing but the ups and downs of gambling venues.
And to this day, there is nothing to encourage conservative citizens to save, or reward those who have saved.
Happy New Year.
EMR