December 10, 2004
12/10 - Jon Stewart's Most Profound Comment: "This is why fake news is the wave of the future."
The other night on Comedy Central's Daily Show, Jon Stewart made his most profound statement ever. Former Secretary of Treasury Paul O'Neill was telling about the laziness of the media who prefer their stories to be pre-written and were irked with him when he told the truth instead of the usual fluff they are more comfortable presenting. Jon Stewart replied, "This is why fake news is the wave of the future." Which isn't just funny, it's sadly true.
The relevance of this to ocean conservation is that we are living in a society that is deeply ensconced in the comfort of a wide range of delusions, and central among those is that nature is pretty much doing okay (not great, but okay). As for Jon Stewart, there is good reason why the brightest minds in our society today, from Pulitzer Prize winners to former Presidents, are now beating a path to his couch. The days of real, hard news are over. Entertainment is king.
The voice of reality?
Someone once told me:
You have to understand that most of these people are not ready to be unplugged and many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it.
Posted by: Neo at December 11, 2004 11:05 PM