MADNESS AND MEMORY: A POLITICAL PERSPECTIVE
8/12/07
I was cleaning out my office yesterday trying to make sense of and organize a thousand news articles I’ve collected over the last two years; that I’ve read on my radio shows. The thought occured to me, while I was mulling over the millions of words and memories of the last two years; that either I have gone completely mad trying to bring all of this alternative news and over 100 interviews to my listeners , readers and viewers, or the world is completely mad.
I didn’t realize until yesterday, how much information I have covered over the last few years. This doesn’t include the several thousand other articles I’ve collected from 2003-2005. Articles from almost every major newspaper and and major website in the world. This mad attempt to bring relevant and current information to the public is truly insane. I am not certain how I do it. I just do it. My delivery may be good, bad or mediocre, but it does get the information out .
As I waded through hundreds of articles on the 2006 elections, I felt a strong sense of deja vue. I realized that nothing has changed, the politicians are all talking the same game. Out of Iraq, Stay in Iraq, Support for Israel, Immigration, Healthcare, Education, Ethics and Finance Reform, Corruption, etc,etc. The 2007 mainsteam media election articles could have easily been rewrites of the 2006 articles, even the 04 articles, except for one great relief; that John Kerry hasn’t been mentioned anywhere since 2005. He has become totally irrelevant to the media, to the U.S public and even his own constituents. No one wants to hear from him or about him. He only provokes thoughts of cynicism and disgust.
All the 2006 Republican scandals have managed to fade away, as has the Republican Party. Mit Romney just won the Iowa Straw Poll yesterday. Woopie! Guiliani, McCain and practically everyone else didn’t even enter. Iowa is irrelevant to everyone; except to a few thousand Iowans, who actually vote in the straw poll. It may also be relevant to a few Iowa farm animals, with names like Betsie or Marybell or Daisy . So Mit Romney can be very proud of his Iowa straw victory. He spent 2 million dollars to win it. If 2000 people actually voted in the poll, Romney paid one thousand dollars for each vote, regardless if they voted for him or not. Does this say anything about the relevance of Romney’s candidacy, or the relevance of Iowa, or even the relevance of the U.S political system ?
Getting an accurate historical perspective on the past two or three years by being in the media, creates a unique form of madness; that few can relate to unless they are in the same business. It appears, from this odd perspective, that nothing except the people in the news change. All that changes are names and places. The events and crimes and wars and strategies, corporate and government incompetence, and conpiracies are all the same. Money, sex, power, drugs, corruption, protests, revolutions, murder, elections, robberies, kidnappings, molestations, accidents, weather, and animal and human interest stories. This is what we talk about, this is what the news is , this is what the world is . It always seems interesting , it always seems new, it always seems senseless, it always seems the same. Remarkable isn’t it ?
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting to achieve different results. I guess that is what the news is. I keep looking for something different to report, something that might spark a glimse of hope or understanding of the human condition and the world. Something that might make sense to me and to my listeners. Something that might give us hope, inspire us to see beyond the madness and mayham that encroach our consiousness and impede our sanity. Once and a while I achieve that in my reporting of certain news. Sometimes I achieve that in my interviews with my guests. This is why I continue doing what I do. It is because I believe what I am doing is getting positive results. I may very well be mad for continuing to prospect for gold in the harsh and arid environment of censored and sound bite media, and inaccurate news reporting, but my rewards are very personal, and the achievements are individual, my expectations are high, and possibly greater than my talents to inform the public. However I feel a need to continue. I feel a need to wonder and research and find the answers to the continual questions I have. It may be madness, but so is swimming in sub zero temperatures for fun, or spending billions on space flights to Mars, or murdering millions of innocent people in the name of Democracy, or having G.W Bush as President of the U.S, and leader of the free world.
L.A. STEEL
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