Conscious media

     Recently I’ve been reading a white paper on the Conscious Media.  Even though I didn’t know the concept had been formalized until recently, I’ve shared its goals for years.  

     Granted, a great deal of my overall focus has been on the right wing political propaganda machine because that’s where I find the most generous opportunities. They are as easily had as low-hanging fruit.  But make no mistake, the left has its opportunities too.  It’s just that their message is not as coherent and they’re just not as good at packaging it.

     So what is this goal that I share with Conscious Media? An awakened consumer. How does it do this? It naturally questions the status quo and provokes its audience to reconsider the range of possible questions and answers to the world’s problems. Do we need it? Check out the daily news about the condition of the world on any given day.

     Typically, the Conscious Media consumer is on a journey that follows a path.  It starts with being asleep.  Asleep is a condition that feels like being awake because you can interact with others in the same condition and re-state, discuss, and debate traditional interpretations of current events.  For instance, “capitalism has built the most abundant way of life in the history of man. Continuing unabated, it will make our lives even better.  So more consumption will make us happier. The only question that remains is how do I consume more so I can be happier.”

     The next step is awakening. It is a state where you begin to notice that some very qualified people are questioning the future effects of capitalism on the web of life, the planet’s natural resources and the myth of “more is better.”  These may be folks you’ve never heard of but their arguments make good sense to you. You can relate to the unfulfilled promise of happiness from material goods. You know about the trillions of dollars in private retirement funds lost due to unethical financial practices on Wall Street. You’ve become aware that not a single executive has been charged with a crime.   

     Once you begin to awake, it’s a short step to exploring.  This is a state in which you seek out other sources of information rather than the traditional main stream media and favored individual sources like Fox News or MSNBC, capitalist organizations themselves.  In other words, the profit-making machines called “corporate news organizations.”  If you can tolerate the discomfort of consuming news that sounds disagreeable and doesn’t confirm your biases, the next state, transformation, can begin.

     Transformation is a state in which new thinking emerges with the help of new input from the above mentioned non-traditional sources. Your confirmation and disconfirmation biases are challenged. What used to sound like “facts” dissolve into questions. And you begin to realize that higher levels of consciousness come from tolerating the questions and not seeking a new set of doctrinal truths. The fuel of this transformation is the full-body realization that you cannot know anything for sure, regardless of the sources.  

     Finally, you are awake.  Awake is a state in which you will see the same reality as though with new eyes.  For instance, being aware of the simple truth that the core value of capitalism is infinite growth and cannot continue on a planet with finite resources.  Or that our continuing striving for a better life through consumption robs us of appreciating and enjoying the good life we already have. Or there exists a new organization in capitalism called “too big to fail.” And its executives are “too big to prosecute.”

     But beware: Our minds demand certainty and when you think you have it, you’ve regressed into slumber. So although the journey is rigorous, you are always tempted to go back to sleep. It’s so much more familiar and many of your friends will be there to welcome you home.  

Robert DeFilippis