The Modern Media Spectacle

So allow me to introduce myself and this blog. I’m a mid-twenties, middle class, liberal, American male. I, like so many of my generation, am overly-connected and overexposed to the world around me through the wonders that are television and the internet.

I have been bombarded with news about everything from how former President Bush was going to be the end of the world to which celebrity flashed a crotch shot this week to how President Obama is going to bring communist-socialist beliefs into every home across the nation. In addition to all of this, myself and my generation have been living in a country that has been at war for pretty much our entire adult lives, with no end in sight.

It Is because of these factors, I believe that my views of the world around me are mostly unrepresented by the modern media, so I am going to use this blog to talk about how I see the big news and politics of the week.

I was planning on writing my first blog here about the absurdity of how every news outlet only followed two news stories across the country last week; first the elected president of these United States having to release his birth certificate because of an eccentric reality TV star/billionaire, and the second story, of course, was how our country (which I’m told hates Monarchies) went absolutely nuts over a royal wedding. Seriously, that’s all you could find anyone talking about at any major news outlet.

There was going to be a whole part about how ironic it is that someone who runs hotels across the country, which undoubtedly hires illegal immigrants, was worried about if a well-spoken black man was born in this country.  It was all humorously planned out, but then there was suddenly an announcement on the news that the president was going to make an unplanned address to the nation at 10:30 pm. For reasons unknown, the press was called back to the White House. Then, an hour later the announcement was made; 10 years after the horrific attacks of 9/11, Osama bin Laden had finally been killed by a strategic strike which was executed by a Navy SEAL team.

As a nation, we celebrated this killing (and rightfully so). It supposedly represents the end of an era of global terrorism. Friends and families of those lost 10 years ago may finally have some kind of closure.

But what happens now? Are any of us really better off now that the proclaimed terrorist leader has been eliminated? What I relate most to the events of 9/11 is our current never-ending ‘war(s) on terror’ in the Middle East. Does this mean we can move onto the next chapter of American history? Or perhaps we as a nation can stop the recent hatred and oppression of Muslim-Americans.

This event, more than likely, will not change our occupation of multiple other countries that are far from our borders. Most likely we will just go about celebrating the death of another human being while simultaneously fearing retaliation from those who praised his ideals.

At this point, we will probably not see any real change in policy or actions taken. You will still have to endure your privacy being violated any time you want to hop on a plane and go somewhere, especially if you have a darker skin tone. Gas prices are not going to go down at all, if anything, they’re still going to keep rising. The real question is, now that bin Laden is dead, do we really feel any safer than we did a week ago?

We already see the media spectacle of the whole ordeal taking place. The story is already shifting from celebrating what most consider a positive event for America to questioning why the president won’t release the images and video of bin Laden’s final moments (and he shouldn’t have to). Can’t we just seize this moment as actually united states and fix the problems we have at hand?