opiates

Marx was rather good at understanding if not religion, then the problem of what religion would be when it was not there-for what but opiate has replaced it
Who after all wants the truth these days? Who believes anything other than the opium delerium?
New papers, and now the Real news increasingly has slipped into conspiracy and mythology model- a model where the thrust of the story matter so much more than the actuality of fact. a world of simplest old testament moralities, which occlude anything else- a world sustained not by truth so such asa collective power to cause its readers to believe, and interact one with the other. A power to feel like every chosen people, there both The Enemy who needs to be resisted (although the way is hard) and a hidden, all powerful friend (call it their own common sense or the past or Britain as it should be) who they are serving, and who will come good for them in the end.
All the small trials of life can be poured into this loving soap opera- this all to a live tragedy. Hence no doubt that secret alliance between soap opera and tabloid reporting- both re heat the 'great stories of the past' ((Greek myth or old testament) and serve them up as stodge in the present. Both then use the quasi-mythological world, where old famously fashioned values. and urban myths infuse one another, to say alledge stuff in the present - of make claims and postures- To appear to find truths - or perhaps sense.
Likewise as with myth it is never really that clear hat drives the agenda forward. I mean the idea of a manipulative man such as Murdoch actually running the show and controlling thought is itself a mere myth. If only the world is simple. The problem is rather that High Priest Murdoch discovered something (a priest are wont to do) de discovered how to make a market for cheap sleaze sheets by confusing truth with myth. a discovery akin to the philosophers tone in its impact. But he doe not drive the mythological agenda. nor do the disreputable bunch of fools, rent-a-bigots or egoists that write for the rubbish. they merely say what they think everyone would say - given absolutely no thought about the issue, given rolling grudges, given no attempt at empathy and given utter selfishness. They then merely constantly run a 'default; lazy unreflective human, as the modern Odysseus, to travel the choppy waters of their hate. Not are the readers who merely read and believe- if only for an hour or a day. What drives it on the meta level are of course figures- garnered one way or others- figures that are thought to mean something. The mean one matters- be they audience for a web or money in the bank. In the best mythological manner the driver of the myth is its way to create ti own power - by pooping into minds, and articulating them in some way or other. The myth thinks it own nature- its own influence even as it spreads.
but why? But what is happening here> It is folly usually to give such mythological spaces a cod psychological theory (they are the province of the onlooker and never that indweller)- and one does clearly come to mind. The myth is working by creating in its readers it own headset- it own way of thinking (this is what make it myth) - The tabloid mind is a reach leach thing. this mind gains power - and resonates because it creates (again in the best tradition sense) a place of exclusion a modern ritual or initiation hut where rules might be different. to read a tabloid is to allow one to suspend the highly complex relation and intuition that bind us to our fellow humans. All that awfully inconvient guilt and complex world is swept away in a handful of prejudices and a dose of small mindedness. The world as difficult is the transformed, and one sees if but for an hour a day (or so) a simpler 'purer' world - a world beyond reality. Escapism perhaps, but one that is shared, and rammified across others belief- and one that breeds its own little community of believers, and has the possibility at least at certain times, and in certain ways manfesting in this world. That is escapism that has real elements of reality caught up with it- real policies that might happen - real effect of the escapism of modernity and the modern complex intricate self.
a moment then for utter mythological non-self indulgence.
and yet and yet the indulgence has the double coast- it warps one when one does return to reality- making ones views that little bit more intolerant, and creating always the other narrative in ones head-the world where the Tabloid might be right....It is always possible after all. ad worse that that there is always relationship between those in power and the myth makers of every culture- a relationship that is never that happy or simple (kings and popes). At some point then their are trials of power, but also moments where the actual powers of the land have to be seen to listen to the myth makers to keep their influence and bend to their judgement. Points then where the rulers need to pretend if only for awhile the myths are true and they too are real BELIEVERS - a belief of course to be demonstrated by action- the tabloids have then the effect of warping actual reality, as rulers listen to myth and e world becomes a little darker and more stupid because of it.
The real problem though is that all the screetching that and my ilk do on the sidelines has no more effect that the Luciferians on the medieval catholic church - we screetch, we know we are wrong, and then we have little power and may well end up burnt (or the media equivalent of being utterly ignored). And it is only the Anti-pope, wit their ability to ape the catholic church and lead followers new mythological paths that might break this impasse - And that will only happen - if the rulers want some answer to their church. a long call at the moment and one of course beset with its own tyrannies).