MEDIA PERSPECTIVES - September 27, 2017

Editor's Note:

I just wanted to let my readers know that I've created a blog where I will be posting essays and articles I've written on digital and online marketing. It's an extension of Media Perspectives. I hope you continue to read and enjoy!

Here's the link: Jaffer Ali's Blog - Perspectives from a Media Contrarian

Thanks for Reading!



Interview with Jeff Einstein, digital media pioneer.

Jaffer Ali [JA]: Jeff, what do you see as a major problem of the 21st Century?

Jeff Einstein [JE]: Like the citizens of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, we are undone in the digital 21st century less by the things we fear and more by the things we love and invite into our homes and lives.

JA: Jeff, you have been writing and speaking about how media has changed and is changing our lives. Why did you decide to make a film about it?

JE: In today's visual world, each photo or image is worth much more than a thousand words. So when in Rome...

JA: What is the major premise of your film?

JE: Brave New Digital World: The Revelation describes what happens to our time and money and freedom in a dystopian society ruled and controlled by a state-sanctioned meta-addiction to digital media and digital media devices. It explores what happens when addiction emerges as the default social condition, the rule rather than the exception.

JA: Why do you think that Huxley's dystopian vision is more on point than Orwell's vision?

JE: Although Orwell's Big Brother and Newspeak are clearly hard at work in 21st-century America, his vision of a society ruled with an iron fist by the things we fear has been eclipsed in recent years by Huxley's far more insidious vision of a dystopian society ruled by the things we love and trust, the very things we invite into our homes and lives.



JA: How did we get to where we are so fast? Or has it been gradual?

JE: There's a reason why secular fascism and radio both emerged at the same time in the early 20th century. Unlike print, which promotes linear thought and reason, electronic media all promote raw emotion, tribalism and corporatism. The political legacy of print was democracy whereas the political legacy of electronic media is fascism. As I say in the video, contrary to what the drug lords and high priests of digital media tell us over and over, the true bias of digital media isn't personal empowerment, isn't freedom and certainly isn't democracy. The true bias of digital technology and media is the accelerated consolidation of institutional power and wealth among institutions -- corporations and government agencies alike -- already far too powerful and far too wealthy. That's why we've seen such a rapid and dramatic polarization of wealth in the first digital generation. Digital merely amplifies and accelerates the inherent bias of all electronic media, from early radio to smartphones. Sometimes we forget that the Age of Reason ended more than two centuries ago.

JA: Is "fake news" really new?

JE: Hardly. The Spanish American War was an invention of yellow journalism. The Viet Nam War was predicated on news reports of a fake attack on a U.S. warship in the Gulf of Tonkin. The war in Iraq was predicated on news reports of Saddam Hussein's non-existent weapons of mass destruction. The dot com crash of 2000 and the housing and credit market crashes of 2008 were both media-driven. Just about every major man-made disaster in my lifetime has been driven by the self-proclaimed watchdogs of democracy and some form of fake news.

JA: What are ways we can find our way to cope with our over-mediated world?

JE: The solution to media addiction is the same as the solution to any other addiction, regardless of the narcotic: moderation. As individuals we need to moderate our consumption of media and learn once again to trust ourselves, our families and communities. We need to reinstate the meaningful rituals replaced by the rituals of our addiction to all things media and all things digital over the past generation. Families need to reinstate the dinner table as the only true source of meaningful -- and actionable -- news. As communities, we need to reinstate a day of rest. We need to push back against the vilification of organized religions as the enemies of all things progressive, and realize that they now stand as the final bastion of critical thought in a society that blindly worships instead at the alters of Apple and Google and Facebook for hours and hours and hours each and every day. We need to stop calling for the diversification of everything except thought. We need to think and act locally. We need to exercise skepticism as the first obligation of free adults in a free society. We need to slow down.

For a link to Jeff's film, visit: www.bravenewdigital.world

Original Article: Interview with Jeff Einstein, digital media pioneer.

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