The Peripatetic Philosopher apologizes for his absence:

The Absence of Mind in the Modern Self –

The Invasion of Media

JAMES R. FISHER, JR., Ph.D.

© October 21, 2017

Note:

This is my first missive in nearly two months as I have been ill.  It has not however stopped my reading, which includes the final volume of the LETTERS OF ISAIAH BERLIN: Affirming Letters (1975-1997), or letters until his death November 5, 1997. 

Henry Hardy and Mark Pottle have edited these letters very lovingly and comprehensively.  I have read nearly all of Isaiah Berlin’s published works, including his biography by Michael Ignatieff (1998), which was published posthumously.

Berlin was perhaps the greatest letter writer of the twentieth century, as he wrote expansively and unselfconsciously.  Consequently, more is revealed of the man (in my view) in these letters than any of his published works.

He has influenced me in my writing in the past thirty years.  This opening anecdote is taken from these letters, moving me to write the following missive.

THE POWER OF A WASHING POWDER COMMERCIAL

Paulina Julia Sygulska’s the first child (born 1984) of Polish author Dr. Beata Polanowska-Sygulska, had seen a TV advertisement for washing powder and conceived from that exposure an irrepressible desire to acquire it.  Advertising had been virtually unknown under Communism, and this was Paulina’s first exposure to it as a six year old in 1990 after the collapse of the USSR in 1989.   

Advertising awakens artificial desires that are not real desires as they arise outside the self and bombard one’s consciousness.  Desires are stimulated by something within whether from the depths of one’s character or through one’s experiences.

Something occurs in one’s mind, something unexpected, something physical, spiritual, moral, emotional or intellectual, something as common as being reminded of someone or something that has previously occurred in one’s life, something that touches the cockles of one’s heart, mind, and soul. 

Of course, chances are one is not aware of these causes, which may be many and totally obscure, difficult if not impossible to trace if we are of a mind to do so.  That is because they are often carried subliminally and planted in one’s conscience like an imaginary drone looming overhead and spraying its message into one’s consciousness.  
We act or react; we don’t know why but think we do, because we want to believe we are in control; that we are in charge!  This arises from what we believe to be our legitimate desire.  But is it?

What we desire remains essentially a mystery to us as we think we desire what we seek failing to understand the influence of our choices on commercials.  Like little Paulina, we sense an irrepressible desire to acquire what the commercial has so carefully packaged.  This has become the only game in town in all dimensions of what can be designated as “media.”

To wit, journalism has become a 24/7 commercial with the repeated histrionics of “breaking news,” fighting for the very limited attention span of a bored public.  It does so by promoting a confection of selective “facts” that support its manifest destiny while tailoring its copy to that audience's collective biases.  

The evidence is overwhelming.  People who watch FOX cable or FOX network news are unlikely to watch CNN or PBS, or the CBS, ABC and NBC networks, or visa visa.    

The “facts” presented are carefully culled from millions of data that support the biases favored by the journalists and their networks, newspapers and/or the journals for which they work, which are now mainly on-line. 

Everyone is fair game and nothing is sacred as “leaks” pour into their coffers from secret and confidential sources.  Everyone seems to have an ax to grind at the expense of someone else.  It is brutal, childish and ubiquitous and therefore cruel.  

Consequently, any story no matter how sacred or mundane can be made a national nightmare in the devious hands of reporters, politicians or broadcasters.  We see evidence of this in the current case of the four brave United States soldiers who died recently in Nassier.  

Politicians who are elected to do the people’s business, but somehow find time to make mountains out of molehills when such activities support their nefarious agenda.  This is as true of those on the right as those on the left of the political spectrum.  

Seventy years ago, President Harry S. Truman gave Congress the designation of the “Do Nothing Congress.”  Little has changed since.   

With 24/7 cable news as well as nightly network news, this is grist for the mill.  Those so inclined think nothing of pouring accelerant on a raging internecine fire, then mockingly seem surprised when the insanity of mass hysteria follows. 

THE ABSENCE OF MIND IN THE MODERN SELF

What one desires, one desires.  It may not be a good thing.  It may even be a bad thing, or even a horrible thing.  That was the case of Stephen Paddock (1953-2017) who killed at least 58 people who were attending an outdoor Country Western Concert on October 1, 2017.  

Paddock barricaded himself in a room on the 32^nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas shooting down on these innocent concert goers from more than a thousand feet away with multiple automatic weapons.  Why?   

His motivation still remains a mystery.  How could this happen to a boy who was born in the very same hospital as I was, although much later, which was Mercy Hospital in Clinton, Iowa? 

Clinton is a sleepy town of some 27,000 residence and the place where I grew up from birth to a young man.  It is a quiet town, an unassuming town of good law abiding citizens, and yet this monster was born amongst Clintonians.  Go figure!

It points out, once again, that the modern mind is not only absent in the modern self, but has been caught up in the paradoxical dilemma of displaying misplaced hubris in the moment.  

Everyone is too busy being busy to realize civil society is collapsing around them, while being unable to generate as much as a hiccup of despair. 

We have these wonderful electronic pacifiers that take us out of ourselves occupying most of our waking hours.  Consequently, we remain a mystery to ourselves and totally unhinged when someone like Stephen Paddock explodes in our midst.  Why?  I confess I don’t have the answer.

It is obvious we should not make a rigid distinction between our “real desires” and our “true nature,” any more than we should make a distinction between our “real self” and our “true self.”  The enemy of our enemy is on display in these two selves.

Our self-demands (“ideal self”) and role demands (“real self”) compete self-consciously for our attention and allegiance.  Advertisers know this; media personnel know this; politicians know this.  

This is a recipe to exploit the collective vulnerability of the audience whether it involves the selling of a soap powder, the slant of a news story or the political rhetoric that generates outrage.

Selling involves "the sizzle and not the steak," claims super salesman, Elmer Wheeler (1903-1968).  He admits you can't eat an image, but the image once it takes residence in the mind, apathy and resistance disappear, which leads to the desired action.  This is Wheeler's genius.   

He may not have understood that we are on automatic pilot or that robotics have become the new distinction, but fifty years later his formula is still being busily exploited. 

Alas!  God has lost His dominion over us as has Nature.  We have lost interest in the teleological process or concern for final causes.  It is all about now: have it now, be it now, experience it now.  

We are drifters, metaphorical tumble weeds, directed and guided by outside sources with false premises, false prospectus, false descriptions, and false objectives as if we have no mind at all.  We have lost our moral compass and our way.

We have arrived at the gates of Nowhere Land as Nowhere Man with an inability to decipher true desires from false desires; as our desires no longer are self-generated from our imagination, experience and character.  

We are renters of someone else's ideas, captives of the bandwagons of true believers who tell us what is real, important, and necessary, and what we should do about it.

Our “two selves,” one dominant the other recessive are in conflict in our subconscious dissipating rather than synergizing our limited energy.

This is a war within; a war that seldom rises to overt action other than purchasing what we don’t need but want or joining a group to feel a sense of identity, then becoming a proselytizer, only to wonder how we got into this mess.  We avoid making choices so choices are made for us.  

Not far from our consciousness lurks horrors and perversions that we are apt to experience vicariously and unapologetically on the never ending commercial that television has become, or through our apps on our iPhone which are television’s stepchildren.  Get used to it as this is unlikely to change anytime soon.