The Cult of Illusion

I just finished watching another fascinating Moyers and Co episode titled Big Money, Big Media, Big Trouble. It was an amazing journey through the minefield of what is called entertainment journalism today.  Bill interviewed Marty Kaplan for the better part of an hour.  The core of the show was focused on how journalism has become synonymous with entertainment, that what passes as journalism is really no different than reality tv.  That in politics as in tv there are the villians, the righteous ones, the sweet ones, all engaged in what could only be described as a never-ending food fight replete with commercial interrupts to push the branding of whatever product or products are meant to be hawked to the viewing audience that night.    I've heard it called the Commercialization of Politics.  Branding the product with a few good talking points that can be repeated over and over again.  The point though that struck me was the fact that the mesmerizing effect of presentation has all but put us on ignore about the actual content that makes the show.  Kaplan used the commercials for drugs that are ever present on tv, the ones that show all the warm and fuzzy pictures backed by soothing music while it describes an litany of horrifying side effects.   Yet it induces us to run to the doctor saying I want some of that!!!  Politics is no different.  We see the mini movies as Kaplan called it, those little 1 minute commercials made in the same way.  We are suckered into the dark music and ominous voices that brand some politician as the next evil incarnate.  Yet we miss the bit about whether the words being said have even a bit of truth to them at all.  It's the same with these that support this or that.  We are mesmerized by presentation.
While I was watching I had flashbacks to when I went to City.  There was one semester that my professor took the time to actually explain with detailed examples of how this worked.  At the time it was about how the Reagan administration has mesmerized the public into buying into the illusion of a Great America Reborn while they did all sorts of illegal activities behind the scenes.  My professor picked apart each step on how this branding was devised, created, produced, and marketed.  He took it a step further to show us just how branding can be an effective tool to pull our attention away from content and onto presentation in the form of sports, tv, and even religion.  What's better he used to say than a good old fashion smack down on WWE, or no hold bars football game that ends with a hail mary pass into the end zone to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, replete with instant reply.  It gets us out of our chairs.  What's better entertainment than a good old fashioned fire and brimstone preacher who can use the same technique, only the things being snatched for the jaws of defeat are our very souls.
Kaplan made the point that main stream journalism has for the most lost its ability to ferret out the truth in the same way as it had during the Watergate investigation.  That editors, newspaper owners, and news entities on TV would rather pull away to present stories on what we clicked like on the last time we logged onto Facebook or what is trending into the top 10 on Yahoo.
The cult of illusion is just that.  It's reality tv or politics or religion, where everything looks real in presentation, but in reality has little to do with anything real.  It reminds me of what I heard in a previous Moyers and Co show where someone was describing Prosperity Preaching.  Where the preacher comes out on stage and states that everyone listening deserves that big house up on the hill, the one with 5 bedrooms, 3 car garage, and an in-ground swimming pool.  I have to ask, where in the hell does it say that in the Bible!!  Yet people flock to these churches, giving money in droves, believing that God wants them to have it all.  Politicians are no different.  They tell us in their slick ads that they will provide us with that house up one the hill, a good job, a car in every garage and a chicken in every pot.   And we believe them!!!  We buy into the cult of illusion.  Make us feel good and we will follow you anywhere; until we get bored or hear someone touting something that sounds better.  We have for the most part become true Capitalists at heart and I do not mean that as a good thing.  Everything is branded to us.  From dish soap, to cars, to clothes, and our very politics.   Kaplan said it best, we have lost our ability to see truth beyond illusion.  I'm paraphrasing here.  He was much more eloquent in how he said it.
I have to say too that denial plays into this to in my opinion.  Denial, the next best thing.  What is better that dealing with reality when you can have the illusion instead.  What is better than watching the ongoing exploits of that Kardashian  or this Jersey boy instead of the reality that we may be being led yet again into war with another Middle Eastern country or down the primrose path of economic destruction by some cock-eyed politician who believes the business of government is business.  Didn't we try both of these before with disastrous results?  Yet the pied piper is playing and we are hearing his tune.