Achtung!: This Blog is Being Moved

Loyal readers:

For a number of reasons, I have decided to move this blog and continue its commentary at another location under a new title. While I did love the old title for its naked caricature and irreverence, I feel the new title better encapsulates the blog vision and theme (and will end any confusion related to the supposed worship of a certain FOX pundit.) "Sean Hannity is God" is, hereby, officially decommissioned.

Commentary will continue under the new title "Notes from the Spectacle". All of the SHIG content has already been migrated to this location. See you there.

Colbert and Stewart on Haitian Relief

Colbert and Stewart deliver a great, if ironic, message in a world where it's hard to find news coverage that isn't adulterated with political agenda.

Rare candor from the Colbert Nation:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Haiti Disaster Relief Donations - Kathleen Sebelius
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Economy

Stewart nails it again:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Haiti Earthquake Reactions
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

The War on "The War on Terror"

Building on the point of false narratives (below), this is Scott Ritter's sweeping indictment of the "WOT" narrative. Pretty compelling stuff. The full article is definitely worth a read, but here's a snapshot:

"The “war on terror” into which Obama seems to have thrust himself (the most recent manifestation being Yemen) remains the largest obstacle for any rational resolution of America’s problems in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Simply put, so long as the United States seeks an enemy that does not exist, it will always be looking for an enemy in its stead. The “war on terror” has the United States combing the world in search of enemies, and because American policymakers are responsive not to the reality that exists in the world today, but rather the perceptions of an American people largely ignorant of the world in which they live, and paralyzed by the fear such ignorance generates, there will always be countries and causes America will anoint as foe."

... the solution to these problems rests not in defining new parameters for action, but rather in the definition of the basic problems faced. From an overarching perspective, the United States needs to realize that there is no “war on terror,” and as such no “enemy” for us to close with and destroy. The human condition has always produced those who would seek to do harm to society. Norms and standards have been adopted, in almost universal fashion, that define how humans, organized into communities and nations, should interact in dealing with such deviations. This body of rules and regulations is collectively “the rule of law,” the principle of which defines modern society.

Deviations from the “rule of law” are best dealt with in collective fashion by those who share not only common values but also a common interest in such a resolution. Giving a criminal element, whether in the form of al-Qaida or a drug lord, the status of community or nation by waging “war” against it represents a failure to define the problem properly, leading inevitably to solutions that solve nothing. The answer to 9/11 is not war, but rather the “rule of law.” Until this underlying premise is recognized and adopted by U.S. policymakers, the psychosis of war will continue to corrupt American policy, and with it American society."

His solution in a nutshell: drop the WOT BS and deal with Palestine and Kashmir- the real issues.

Full Article

Preach this Evangel

The Siren Call of False Narratives

Sorry for the temporary suspension of duty- this entry marks my return from finals and an end to holiday lethargy. It's good to be back.

I'd like to start off the new year by taking a moment to pause and reflect on one of the most powerful weapons in the media arsenal (and a prime obsession of mine): the notion of narrative. This entry is a bit longer than most, but I hope you'll indulge me because it's a rather important topic- and I hope you'll find it interesting. Please note: this treatment is FAR from exhaustive. Those interested in further reading should consult the work of Berkeley Professor George Lakoff particularly Metaphors We Live By and The Political Mind.

If media perform any principal task, it is the construction of narratives- or basic storytelling. The diversity of facts and details the world has to offer is boundless, but the amount of meaningful narratives is relatively finite. (Think why so many Hollywood films seem to utilize the same plotlines.) Without the framework of some type of narrative, the human mind sputters to extract any meaning from media messages. Without a perceived narrative context, information floats like an indiscernible morass of minutiae. This is so much the case that if message producers do not provide a credible narrative to frame the facts, our brains will instinctively scour our memory for the most salient, ready-made narratives to fill this critical void.

The point is that narratives are what provide meaning in our lives- they organize the chaos of sensory data into convenient frames of time and space so that we may better understand how to orient our lives in an incredibly complex world. In fact, we are conditioned to recognize the traditional catalogue of narratives from a very early age (Walt Disney created an empire on this fact). We learn the hero is inherently good and the villain is evil incarnate; we know the grammar of the hero's quest instinctually and we know how we will feel at any given point in the story whether it's a "rags-to-riches" or "boy meets girl" tale. These emotions are not arbitrary, but are organized to promote specific moral principles passed down from one generation to the next. From Homer's Odyssey to Lucas' Star Wars, we repeatedly encounter these "deep narratives" via media representation. As a result of this diligent indoctrination, most of us come to interpret our own lives through these essential epics- after all, what is our own life if not a story with us as the protagonist.

From a psychological perspective, narratives constitute a valuable cognitive expedient. There is no physical way our brains can digest and compute every single fluttering detail the lived world has to offer- we have to sacrifice a great deal of earthly complexity in order to make informed generalizations based on our "best" judgment. Therefore, we are often less attentive to isolated features than we are to patterns of features. This is to say that our brains think metaphorically because it provides the best economy in cognition. It's the patterns that provide us with the most meaning not the details. Details are important, but only in so far as they help us recognize a pattern. Similarly, facts are important, but only in so far as they help us construct a credible narrative.

The problem is that once we recognize and apply a given pattern/narrative in our thinking, we are more likely to try to apply this same pattern in other circumstances where there may only be a vague resemblance. It's been scientifically proven that narratives are self-reinforcing (in the cognitive sense)- our brains become biased towards seeing these old patterns versus seeing something new or "out of the ordinary". In our cognitive scramble for meaning, we tend to eschew or ignore the critical details that may render our favorite narratives obsolete or erroneous. (This phenomenon is the same for cultural stereotypes.) To put it another way, we tend to see what we are inclined to see. (Was Saddam Hussein really part of the "War on Terror" narrative?) Our deep narratives form the primary lens through which we try to see the world- we compartmentalize the facts into the finite set of frameworks that we can understand. Unfortunately, reality should not be treated as a pliable substance.

As far as media manipulation goes, the problem is threefold. The first is referenced above: our brains have evolved to over-rely on pattern recognition- we instinctually seek to apply a certain narrative whether the actual facts warrant this or not. In other words, narratives enable and encourage a certain degree of cognitive laziness. We love our narratives, and we want to employ them all the time. Rather than parse through the tedious facts and arrive at a truly enlightened picture, we want the "executive summary" so we can understand the gist of an event and quickly move on. Media producers (especially the unscrupulous vendors of partisan media) are highly aware of this and exploit it by framing the facts to fit a narrative that promotes their objectives. They don't so much provide the breadth of clinical facts as much as they sell a prepackaged narrative with a selection of facts couched to fit the framework. (Watch John Stewart nail this.)

This leads into the second vulnerability: narratives are never neutral, especially when it comes to news. Narratives are heavily-laden with rigid value judgments. The hero is always good; the villain is always despised. If you can believably frame the narrative in your favor, the desired effects are almost guaranteed. And finally, the third (and most important) vulnerability we have as media consumers is the instinctive and often unconscious nature of this cognitive process. We do not consciously decide to feel this way or that way about a certain narrative or representation of facts, it happens automatically. We may consciously feel the emotions attached to the narrative, but we have little control over whether they are elicited or not. Therefore, we may think we are making a "rational" political decision based on a certain objective set of facts, but in reality we are being manipulated at the subconcious level.

In sum: news media use narrative device to provide an essential degree of context in the presentation of world events. However, narrative is often used by less scrupulous actors as a mechanism to prey on the psychological vulnerabilities inherent in the cognitive process. We must be vigilant of this practice. Our narratives should only serve as rough guides to aid our understanding- especially when it comes to our domestic and foreign policy choices. They should be held loosely and abandoned readily. Whether you subscribe to the so-called "War on Terror" narrative or not, we should all be wary of those who seek to apply such frames dogmatically to every international event. Clearly, this is evidence of an agenda. The world is much too complex for such facile frameworks however tempting they are. We must resist the siren call of false narratives and strive for a genuine, impartial pursuit of truth.

The Tale of Tyger Woods

I've never really paid much attention to poetry (who does), but I've always had a strange affinity for William Blake. As an eccentric Romantic, his work is vivid with mythological imagery that speaks to mankind's unique psychological conflicts. In particular, his "Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience" are two volumes of allegorical poetry that represent the opposing notions of the ideal and the real world. Some poems (like "The Lamb") in Innocence have antithetical poems (like "The Tyger") in Experience.

I suppose this appeals to me because, like Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jeykll and Mr. Hyde, the work explores the duality of man and our internal struggle with good and evil. For our purposes here, I find these inquiries exceptionally relevant as they relate to the dichotomy between public and private personas (whether mediated by a television screen, the lens of camera, or your skin). The tale of Tiger Woods is a sadly perfect example of this: the epic journey from his immaculate conception to an inevitable fall from grace. James Suroweicki's latest New Yorker article is a good encapsulation of his peculiar case. Like Blake's innocent Lamb, Woods has been revealed a depraved (and quite human) Tyger. - Bye, bye Accenture.

Hammer & Anvil, Withdraw & Bribe

Hammer & Anvil: NY Times article on the US AfPak border strategy

Withdraw & Bribe: Foreign Affairs article on lessons from the Soviet withdrawal

Preach this Evangel

Anatomy of Obama's Defining Moment

In case you missed it over the weekend:

NY Times piece on Obama's decision-making process.

And an excellent PBS Frontline documentary on the AfPak realities including poignant coverage of the US Marines and their experience in Helmand Province: