Moreover, I believe there is a tacit conspiracy to make Americans more ignorant and thereby gullible and easily led. This is done by flooding the media with crass entertainment and pseudo news—programming that appeals to people’s base desires and prejudices and which is aimed at the sociopath, sadist, fool, ignoramus, intellectually lazy, self loathing and narcissistic. How else can the following television programs, which currently air in prime time, be explained? Admittedly most of them are on cable but surprisingly many of them run on the networks. Here is a sampling: Ghost Whisperer, Medium, Smackdown (wrestling), Criminal Minds (profiling serial killers), Kitchen Nightmares, I’m Alive, I Shouldn’t be Alive, Gangland, Swamp Loggers, UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship cage fights), Pride (more cage fights), Dirty Jobs, Project Runway, What Not to Wear, Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura, Disorder in the Court, Full Throttle Saloon, Inside American Jail, Most Daring, Most Shocking, Speeders, Ice Road Truckers, Monster Quest, Nostrademus Effect, Pawn Stars, World War II in HD, UFO Hunters, Ghost Lab, 16 and Pregnant, Teen Mom, and the list goes on.

In addition to the programs that exemplify the inane, insane, base, violent and idiotic there are others dedicated to smart-mouth sniping and howling outrage. This category is peopled by such luminaries as: Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Chris Matthews and others of the same ilk who have become wealthy by reducing serious issues to the level of a poorly written comic book.

So what now represents typical prime-time programming principally falls in the categories of: cage fighting, so-called reality TV, sexual exploitation, the occult, political rant and ridicule, and murder and mayhem as entertainment. Edifying!

Glaringly underrepresented are thoughtful, meaningful and intelligent presentations of the arts, history, science, and social and political issues. That’s because the corporate heads of the media companies are as cynical and shrewd as they are grossly overpaid. They correctly reason that sex, scandal, crime and stupidity have greater appeal to far more people than anything demanding intelligence, sustained attention and serious thinking. They know that far more people will watch two men (or women) beat each other unconscious than will watch a documentary on the global water crisis or a serious presentation on the Constitution. They know many people love to watch other people’s tragedy and loss of dignity. And they know their audiences love to watch politicians insult each other and confess their sordid affairs in public.

So it is that as the American people become exposed to more and more that is superficial, irrational, hyperbolic, biased, and nonsensical they become collectively and individually less capable of sustained attention, reason and analytical thought—their senses having been dulled by all the shouting, quick cuts and decontextualized snippets of word, sound and image. Moreover, with nearly everything being presented as partisan or in the guise of contest there is ever less willingness on the part of the audience to hear, perceive and understand the deeper significance, potential and meaning of what is presented.

All of this contributes to a dumbing and numbing effect on the part of the general public which works to the advantage of the cynical politicians and corporate executives. There are of course good and well-meaning politicians and corporate executives, but they are increasingly being marginalized by the power of political action committees and the “bottom line.” As the saying goes, money talks. And where money talks, taste, ethics and morality walk.

As the public is bombarded with half-truths, nonsense, pseudo science, alleged reality, and spectacles of sex and violence, they become less able to distinguish fact from fiction or pay attention to how their basic human rights and dignity are being taken from them in the name of comfort, convenience, entertainment and security.

We are indeed living in the information age. We are certainly not living in an age where reason, wisdom, taste and compassion prevail.

© 2010 Michael Maurer Smith

As I sit reading and drinking coffee, I overhear some of their conversation. Puffery, earnest pleading, non-committal blather, misdirection, misperception, lies and the occasional truth—I hear it all. This is the sausage being made. What goes on across the street, under Elijah E. Myer’s dome is merely the packaging and sales.

As a bald guy in a polo shirt, chinos and without an id tag the suits ignore me. Like much of the “public” they claim to serve I am practically invisible—not worth a look or nod.

The aroma of the brewing coffee is robust but not enough to overcome the odor of Rome burning while these fiddlers fiddle. Sometimes I want to interrupt their reveries and tell my story. But I don’t. It would be pointless. These folks thrive on stories—playing one against the other—taking pieces from many and weaving them into their own self-serving monologues—smoke and mirrors—fine talk—more evasion, escape and abdication of any real responsibility.

Perhaps it is the inescapable and imposed mediocrity of the committee process that assures that nearly anything decided and implemented by government will be inelegant, inefficient, ineffective and counterproductive. Or perhaps it is the nature of politics that the only thing of importance to a politician is getting elected and staying in office—whatever it takes.

I say to hell with all these overpaid sophists in their patent leather, pinstripes and navy blue—on whose watch the economy has gone into free fall, millions have lost their jobs, millions more have no health care and thousands of young men and women have been sent to their deaths fighting in wars without end and specious justification.

Where is their compassion? Where is their competence? Where is their sense of responsibility to all those they cajoled, coerced and duped into voting for their empty promises? Where is their conscience?

In fairness I do thank the few politicians and lawmakers who from their genuine desire to help others and make the world a better place willingly endure the idiocy, blindness, greed, brutality, ignorance, vanity, and selfishness of the rest. Yet I question their effectiveness—their lone voices howling in the mass-media wilderness—I think of the likes of Representative Dennis Kucinich, made to look radical for being compassionate and sensible.

Sadly, so many of our elected, appointed, and purchased representatives labor under the mistaken belief they have a mandate, when in fact most are in office by default—because most Americans have given up on the political process, convinced it really doesn’t matter who is elected because this is really the United States of Corporate Interests and Banking.

We who are concerned with serious questions of life, meaning, compassion and caring have learned to expect little from politics and politicians. And maybe this is a blessing. Self-sufficiency and real community may be our only salvation. Perhaps, with the the internet and the trends toward community supported agriculture, organic foods, bartering and the like, we will soon devolve into so many tribal affiliations that state and national government will be unable to tax us into bankruptcy and send our children to wars to protect corporate interests.

© Michael Maurer Smith 2009

Carmina was waiting when Tony walked into the Supreme Bean. It was a slow day and other than themselves and the three baristas no one else was there. “Hey Tony,” she said as she waved.

Tony waved in return and then went to the counter. Amanda was at the register. Her dark red hair was pulled into a ponytail and secured with one of those tiny beaded bands that school girls wear—in the practical manner of a college student who had put herself together just enough to be presentable for work. Her face was delicately sculpted and brushed with a trace of freckles. Her smile hinted at playfulness and mischief. He thought she might be Irish—she reminded him of his first love who was—but he never asked her. He enjoyed their counter talk and he didn’t want to make her uncomfortable by asking questions she might consider too personal. The truth was he had a crush on her—mixed feelings—oscillating between the paternal and romantic. It was harmless enough, after all he was nearly old enough to be her grandfather and he was sure that is how she saw him.

“I love that hat. I’d like to get one like it,” Amanda said. She always commented whenever Tony wore one his Australian Akubras. In fact he had noticed that women of all ages gave him looks and sometimes comments whenever he wore one. “If only I had worn them thirty years ago,” he thought. He thanked Amanda and told her where she could get a good deal on an Akubra. Then he ordered his standard Maximo Caramel Supreme and a chocolate chip scone.

When Tony finally arrived at the table Carmina seemed perturbed. Perhaps he’d spent too much time talking with Amanda, he thought. “How you been?” he asked Carmina. “Fine. And you?” she replied. “Fine,” he answered.

“You ever hear of a photographer named Helen Levitt?” Carmina asked. Tony thought for moment and then said, “Yeah, yeah I know the name. She’s a street photographer—works in New York. Why?”  “She died,” said Carmina. “I heard about it on NPR. They said she was 95—said she had studied with Bresson himself—worked with Evans too.”

“She’ll be missed. Levitt was one of the few photographers who could make exquisite pictures of the commonplace. She didn’t do fancy stuff—no tricks or special effects—she had a superb eye—a great sense of framing, timing and light. She proved you don’t have to travel all over the world to make meaningful and powerful pictures. She proved there’s an inexhaustible supply of subject matter in your own neighborhood—your own backyard,” said Tony.

“But Tony, if you know a place so well how can you see it fresh? And what’s the point of rehashing the common and the comfortable? Who wants to photograph or paint what they already know—everyday stuff—boring stuff?”

“Well Carmina, there really is no commonplace. Everything is in flux—ever changing. And meaning does not reside in things and places. It is you as an individual artist, who ascribes meaning to what you do and it is you who establishes the point-of-view in your mind and actual space. Just by photographing in her neighborhood, for more than 70 years, Levitt made photographs as important and meaningful as anything she might have made by traveling to distant and exotic locations. She showed that any subject is worthy if the photographer is capable of seeing, feeling and visually recording that essence—that moment in time—that allusion—that geometry of form which reveals the truth beyond the subject—beyond the props and place. It is this ability that defines a real photographer, said Tony.”

“Well Tony you’ve given me a lot to think about,” said Carmina. “Same time next week?”

“Yep, same time,” said Tony

© Michael Maurer Smith 2009

Mediocrity
Mediocrity is all-inclusive and indiscriminate. Its natural home is the committee.

Excellence
Excellence is exclusionary and discriminating. It can only result from the capacity to say no and the willingness to do so.

Michael Maurer Smith

© Michael Maurer Smith 2009