As I half-watch and listen to the morning "news" coverage on CNN and MSNBC, I am struck, once again, by the breathless, melodramatic reporting about the CA wildfires. To paraphrase, 'multi-million dollar homes destroyed! 30,000 neighbors evacuated! The fickle fires of choosing to destroy this "beautiful mansion" and not that one! OH THE HUMANITY!
Meanwhile, there's ho-hum, low-intensity coverage of actual tragedies like massive civilian casualties in Afghanistan. And attempts to spin the unemployment numbers as a sign of recovery. And ridiculous non-analysis of the Republic 'rebranding' effort.
Am I surprised by the vacuous, wealth obsessed, "stunningly superficial" coverage? Not in the slightest- but I'm gonna rant about it!
Follow me beyond the jump and through the looking-glass...
In my opinion, the burning mansions in wealthy Santa Barbara, CA, provide an apt metaphor for the state of our national media and may provide us an opportunity to abandon certain cultural assumptions and adopt a more constructive worldview.
At the top of the hour, the TOP STORY is the wildfires- followed closely by Manny Ramirez's use of banned substances- with a short note about the fiscal crisis in Cali sandwiched between with slightly less intensity. This is CNN!
The majority of the homes in this part of Santa Barbara are huge, opulent, pseudo-palaces of American Royalty. One of Oprah's many homes is in the area and, while not exclusively, most of the residents have at least 2 multi-million dollar homes and none of the reports I've seen have had much (or anything) to say about the impact on "regular people" who live in the area.
Why, then, is this the top story? I think it is because the mainstream media (more precisely, their corporate owners) would like us to remain wealth-obsessed and sympathetic to the owner/investor class in this country.
Don't concern yourselves about the millions of poor and working-class American families who have NO home or are in imminent danger of losing their home.
It's pointless to worry about the 1 in 6 U.S. children who are not safe in the homes they have.
Don't bother to try to understand the "very complicated" economic crisis and resulting loss of savings and abysmal joblessness rate.
Forget that we are responsible for millions of civilian deaths in Iraq, Afghanistan, and dozens of other parts of the world that human beings in far-flung parts of the world call home.
Never mind that our continued thoughtless material consumption and waste are threatening to make our collective home uninhabitable.
Be very, very, anxious, though, about the potential loss of luxurious Montecito mansions!
This particular social construction is definitely threatened as more of us become aware of the incredible immorality of the wealth gap in our nation, the lack of action on climate change, and the failure of all of our systems to substantially address or correct the aforementioned issues (and many, many others).
The "roof" (of this social construct) is on fire and "we don't need no water- let that motherf#%@er burn!"
Comments welcome and encouraged...
UPDATE: Based on the few comments that have been posted, it is clear that the metaphorical nature of my post is not clear enough. I've made some changes to make my point clear. Hope it helps...