Culture Jamming: Hacking, Slashing and Sniping in the Empire of Signs

"We believe we live in the 'age of information,' that there has been an information 'explosion,' an information 'revolution.' While in a certain narrow sense this is the case, in many important ways just the opposite is true. We also live at a moment of deep ignorance, when vital knowledge that humans have always possessed about who we are and where we live seems beyond our reach. An Unenlightenment. An age of missing information."

After reading the Article "Cultural Jamming: Hacking, Slashing and Sniping the Empire of Signs" I felt rather sad. It was upsetting to think how true this article was. Television is taking over our minds. Now a days everyone, adults and children alike would rather flick on the television then open a book. Children don't go outside to play anymore, they stay in and hypnotize themselves in virtual realities, so much so I wonder if we even distinguish between what is real and what is a game anymore. It is shocking that there are people in North America who can't read, and don't even want to. "Theres nothing you can't get from a book that you cant get from a television faster," I stole this line from Danny DeVito's character in the movie "Matilda" because it is so true. This is how we think. No one cares about books anymore. No one ever reads, and why would we when it is far easier to flick on a television and let the information pour in. We glorify ourselves in having all this information, we are so smart and have come such a long way, but why then are their still people in our society who can't even read? Why think for ourselves when we can just flick on a television and get someone else to do it for us? Maybe, this is exactly what the media wants us to think. So many people would rather have someone else make an opinion for them, then to formulate one for themselves. Soon the government won't have to worry about us speaking out against them because we will be to damn lazy and brainwashed to think of anything for ourselves. We will just go with the flow pretending everything is just fine. This may be a bit extreme but in a certain light its true. Some people don't even have common sense anymore, because we have all been taught to memorize and regurgitate. In high school our tests consisted of remember what someone else said, and then spill it back onto the paper; and if we can get every word exactly right we get an A. You don't even have to know what the information means, as long as you can just repeat it back you still look smart and your rewarded greatly for it.
I think the media has the power to control how we think because they have the power to control what information the public is allowed to know. We take so much pride in thinking that we have freedom of speech and freedom of information, but how much do we really have access too, how much does the media really tell us, and how much of it is manipulated and fabricated before we are allowed to view it? We get so brainwashed by what we see that we hardly ever ask questions about it anymore. We are starting to believe everything we hear and even more of what we see without question. We take everything at face value without using any judgment of our own. This is a scary thought because once we stop asking questions, we stop having power over what we believe and even worse, we allow others to think for us. I think thats why so many people don't vote. we have subsided. We are actually stepping down and letting other people make choices for us. By not voting we are literally allowing other people to speak on our behalf. We are saying, "Here, take my voice. I don't care how this country is ran. I totally trust in you to do a good job, but even if you don't, It's okay, its not like I really have an opinion anyways." Its quite disgusting really.
Here I've gone on about how horrible and soul sucking the media is, but to tell the truth, its our own fault we subside to all the images we see. I think to some degree we do have the ability to question what we see. We are allowed to ask questions and disagree. America needs to learn to turn off the television and I don't know... read a book? We need to learn to be aware of what we are taking in and be more sensitive viewers.


Derry, Mark. "Culture Jamming: Hacking, Slashing and Sniping in the Empire of Signs."October,12 2007. http://www.levity.com/makrdery/culturjam.html.