“American Mania: When More is Not Enough”

Response to email by Lee Pedersen

July 18, 2013

Concerning professional athletes salaries:

Lee, well said. A public boycott of professional sports is in order.  The twisted values these "sports" are teaching our children: Greed. Greed.  Greed.

Unfortunately, the masses lives are so hallow that they are addicted to this drivel to the extent that, like all addicts, they are unable to stop using without help.  The health care professionals are almost as addicted.  Breaking our national addiction to TV and the media's (all owned by the super rich) constant message of CONSUME CONSUME CONSUME, which used to be limited to junk no one needed, but is now the major source of keeping the masses distracted from issues that really matter. The mass media has expanded to control our values through the heroin like addiction of TV.  If anyone thinks that profound change in this country without FiRST dealing successfully curbing our TV addiction, is just plain delusional. As of the most resent census the hours per day watched by American is STILL on the increase.  Those that oppose TV on the basis of content, have missed McCluhn’s main point, which is contained in his most influential book “The Medium Is the Message”.  If a person does not understand the title, they simply do not understand the profound revelation contained within.

In addition, any such efforts focusing on content amount to another distraction to the root problem, which leads us further and further from a solution that can work.  When the mass media starts a major propaganda campaign touting the benefits of television, then we will know we are on the right track.  These statements are not mere philosophical ramblings, but come from hard science.  Marshall McCluhan's predictions that TV would make us mentally ill in the late '50s, was proven by breathtaking breakthrough after breakthrough of the science of the biology of the brain and how profound these understanding demonstrated how these understandings effected human behavior.

By c. 2003, the sum total of the research from genetics, psychiatry and neurophysiology has turned our ideas about human behavior upside down.  Unfortunately, these cutting edge researchers in these fields of study was moving so fast, the participants barely have time to publish scientific papers, much less writing to inform the general public of the profound nature of their work, there is little in print to help up grasp what has happened and what is continuing to happen.  The best book is "American Mania: When More is Not Enough." by Peter Whybrow, first published in 2005, and updated (slightly) and re-released in 2011.  If this essay grabs your interest, please read this book and “The Medium is the Message”

Mo

BTW  Peter Whybrow also wrote the definitive book on depression: “A Mood Apart” in the early 90’s.