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The Media-Saturated Mobocracy
Living in a modern, media-saturated democracy requires me to become a wind-up absolutist dictator, with opinions about every human activity occurring within earth's gravity well, and beyond. Modern media organizations fuel this megalomania, by offering me immense torrents of data from multitudinous hotspots around the globe, combined with public opinion polls regarding every possible topic. They want me hooked to the drug of (apparent) omniscience so I'll come back for more. The Internet is even worse, with real-time unscientific opinion polls accompanying stories about cultural controversies, requiring me to vote early and often to sway the undecided in my favor and smite my enemies. Along with the daily menu of terrorist bombings, imprecise economic statistics, and political paranoia, I'm also tossed News You Can Use, including the latest research on extending my own life by adding yet another drug, vitamin, mineral, vegetable, animal, commercial product, relationship, or exercise routine to my life, while removing yet another drug, vitamin, mineral, vegetable, animal, commercial product, relationship, or exercise routine from my life. Squeezed between all the news items I find virtually unlimited paid advertising — the real reason media exist, the source of their profits and editorial control. The average person views thousands of advertisements each day, advertisements designed to make us feel incomplete, inferior, unattractive, dissatisfied, threatened, and empty. These democratized media lead us to feel both omniscient, and insecure. We are a mob of unhappy gods.
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