Scribbles by W. Patrick

WILL YOU PLEASE KEEP THE NOISE DOWN?

WILL YOU PLEASE KEEP THE NOISE DOWN?

      I grew up in a house with four kids, all of us within five years of each other.  That means that when we became teenagers and all of us had our separate groups of teenage friends hanging about, it got rather noisy and chaotic.  To this day, I can remember both my mother and father shouting,

     “Will you please stop with all that racket?  I can’t think with all of that noise going on!”

     We, of course, found this to be silly and shook our heads as we turned up our record players.  (Yes, record players…I am an old man).  Life is funny, though.  For, try as we might to avoid it, most of us actually grow up to be our parents in one way or another.  Now, I’m not saying that I hang around the house in my boxer shorts and black socks, turning off the lights and screaming,

     “What am I, the power company?  And who put the thermostat over sixty-eight?  If you’re cold, put on a sweater!”

     I'm not necessarily saying I WON'T be this guy, either.

     

      What I do notice, though, is that I share the same sentiment about noise and the inability to think with the continuous racket going on around us at all times.  The difference here, however, is that the din is not being caused by raucous, rebellious teenagers.  It’s being caused by our news and entertainment media, technology companies and our very own government.

     Think about this for a moment:  What are the biggest news stories going on right now?  For that matter, what have been the biggest news events over the past year?  The past few years?  Chances are your answers involved, in some way, President Obama, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Ipods and Iphones or XBOX and Sony.  ‘News’ about these people and things have been crammed down the throat of America with such voracity, that if a researcher only had information from 2013 to pull from, this scientist might wonder why Mount Rushmore did not look like this.

    I understand the tongue alone weighs the same as 3 full-grown elephants!

     Look in comparison at some of the biggest news events of the 1980’s.  Mount St. Helens erupted.  There were assassination attempts on the Pope and on President Reagan.  The first woman was appointed to the Supreme Court.  New Coke hit the market and a hole was discovered in the ozone layer.

     The Iran/Contra scandal is exposed and the Berlin Wall falls!  DNA is used for the first time to convict criminals and the personal computer (PC) is introduced by IBM!

     God, I hope it'll play Skyrim!

      These are only the highlights, of course.  The point is, when news happened, it was reported and the people were interested.  Out of this interest, the public became educated and that is what we are sorely missing today.  For example, ask any random person what is happening over at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan.  Ask that same person about Justin Bieber’s arrest.  Odds are pretty good that you will have more information about the ‘Biebs’ at the end of the conversation and will have to look up Fukushima when you get home.  If you wanted to compare the two, though, it is quite simple.  One of them is one of the biggest disasters the world has ever known and its existence threatens the fate of all mankind.  The other is a Japanese nuclear plant in danger of melting down and taking the planet with it.

     Seriously, though, you should check this out.  It's some pretty serious sh*t.

     Some like to blame the lack of education in this country for this complacency.  I believe that these people have the cause and effect reversed.  People’s education is being compromised and they are being made complacent by the absolute garbage that is being spewed forth from our media devices all day long.

      I believe that this sort of nonsense is being transmitted, advertised, blasted through 64 inch plasma televisions and trumpeted on the radio on purpose.  During the drive home from work on any given day, one will hear the president’s name mentioned at the very least, about a dozen times.  Sometimes it is in defense, sometimes it is on the attack.  Other times it is a recording of a speech he has given and the host of the show is twisting it in whichever way it serves the ratings best.  The point is, the man is in our lives 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  This is unprecedented.  Even at the height of the Watergate scandal of the early 1970’s, the public didn’t hear from or about the president each and every day.  There was other news to be heard, other stories of interest and more things to learn about!

     Okay...maybe there were some things we could've done without.

     Mikhail Baryshnikov defected from the Soviet Union in the seventies.  Patty Hearst was kidnapped and later recorded as she helped pull off a bank heist.  The war in Vietnam ended.  There was a nuclear accident at Three Mile Island.  Mother Theresa won the Nobel Peace Prize and Arthur Ashe became the first black man to win at Wimbledon.  People soaked in the news and, in their own way became part of history as it happened, because they were there.  Today’s people can say ‘they were there’ when Miley Cyrus jumped on stage half-naked and wagged her tongue at the audience as she ‘twerked.’  Call me old-fashioned if you like, but I don’t want to become any part of that particular history.

     That's right!  Makin' history, baby!

      Here’s the thing:  This is not being done by accident.  The lack of relevant news is not because people are ‘more interested’ in the tripe that’s being fed to them.  It is because it is being fed so constantly and so loudly that we can’t think!  Remember that?  ‘I can’t think with all this racket going on’?  Most people don’t know about the tremendous sinkhole in Louisiana.  It is so filled with chemicals, so combustible and poisonous and so very large that it threatens to blow off a good portion of the state and its surrounding areas.  Efforts are being made to contain it, but it continues to grow nonetheless and experts are currently stumped!  This is serious business right here in our own backyard, but if you ask your average person about it, and they’ll look at you like you have seven heads.  Conversely, ask them if you should buy an Iphone 5 or a Galaxy III, and you will receive a thesis on the pros and cons of each.  Why?  I’ll tell you why.  Because the people in charge of what gets fed to the media and, in turn, fed to your brain do not want you to think.

     Garbage in = Garbage out

     A nation of rational, logical, well-educated free thinkers is not good for business.  It is not good for commercial business and it is not good for the business of those who are in power and want to stay there.  Think about it.  If the cows in the pasture knew what was in store for them…if they had the capacity to think it through…do you think that it would then become easier or more difficult for the farmer to lead them to slaughter?  No farmer wants a cow who can think that clearly or problem solve.  Similarly, no politician, no big-business owner and no Wall Street tycoon wants their herd to think clearly either.  How would they then be able to direct us or to make us go where they want us to go, buy what they want us to buy?  How would they ever get us to stand idly by as watch all of our freedoms disappear before our eyes?

     The farmer’s job is far easier, though, as we humans are born with the capacity to think as well as to reason and consider. 

     This is where the noise comes in. 

     This is where that awful racket comes in to play.  This is why we are so constantly bombarded with Kim Kardashian’s butt, Miley Cyrus’s tongue and each and every word that comes out of President Obama’s mouth.  If they keep the noise levels high enough, well, then we won’t be able to think.

     MAKE THE NOISE STOP!!!

     Try this:  Leave your mobile phone in a drawer for a day.  Keep your radio off on your way to work, and just observe the world around you.  Read the stories on page three and four, and not just the front page and entertainment sections of your paper.  Talk to people.  Read a book.  Your stuff will be there waiting for you when you return, and you can turn up the noise just as high as you want if reality gets to be too much.

     "The story ends, you wake up in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe."

      At least, at the end of it, it will have been your choice.  You will have made a conscious decision instead of being lead through the gate like so many other sheep.  Me?  I can’t stand the racket, and I don’t like it when the noise gets so loud that I can’t think.  But hey, that’s only my opinion.  So if you’ll excuse me, I think someone left the lights on in the kitchen.  I’m not the power company, you know.