Note: Eric Francis will be back later in the day. This column is by Fe Bongolan. Additional astrology blogging is happening at the Cosmic Confidential Diary, part of the 2010 annual edition of Planet Waves. Cosmic Confidential offers excellent affordable year-ahead reports by Eric Francis, prepared for all the signs. Visit Cosmic Confidential here.
Dear Friend and Reader:
I am concerned. It may not be a surprise in this day and age of our country’s polarized political discourse that in this Washington Post article, it was reported that a Gallup Poll found Glenn Beck one of the ten most admired people in America. Even more admired than the Pope.
For those of you unfamiliar with Mr. Beck, he hosts a nightly news-opinion show, The Glenn Beck Program on the Fox News network, where he rants against Democrats in Congress (he’s a self-proclaimed libertarian), promulgates theories that the Obama administration is fascist AND Marxist (two ideologically opposed ends of the political spectrum), and the federal government in general is out to take your dollars and your gun. Beck is the spark behind the national Teabagger Protest Movemment and the 9-12 movement. He could be described as the network pitchman for alleged left-wing conspiracy theories.
With an audience share of three million a night, no amount of sponsor pressure by the group Color of Change to take ads off Beck’s show for racist remarks — could make Beck or his network stand down. Beck’s over-the-top rants, devoid of any rationale based on fact, promote violent revolt that leaks dangerously into the public discourse. He gives permission to people to react without thought to consequences or conscience. He is a useful idiot for his network and their agenda, which isn’t focused on news as reality, but opinion. Beck is a conspiracy theorist “entertainer,” making an influential impact on American culture and politics, and could be in line to become the next “Oprah.”
But we aren’t shocked we have come to this point. The key sentence in the Post’s article was: “Is Glenn Beck bad for America?”…or “Is Glenn Beck America?” In a word, yes — to the latter.
According to a recent article titled “Addicted to Nonsense” by Chris Hedges, the bigger the problems and sense of impotence in a society, the greater the need for celebrity as a distraction from responsibility for those problems. With our current national status: a near decade of job loss institutionalized into the economy and two wars further bankrupting us — the need for distraction is greater than ever.