The Vajra Parrot Squawks!

When it comes to shaping public opinion Television, more than any other media, has got to be the number one method for any aspiring demagogue with a brief. Not merely because, unlike the papers, it engages the senses of sight and hearing.

In fact, the TV set is like the extra member of the family in most people's homes, usually enshrined in the very heart of the house, and constantly in use: background noise; company to stave off feelings of loneliness; a diversion from boredom or pressing engagements one would rather not think about; a focus for conversation or common interest; a means to bring people together in silent comfort where conversation and rapport has long since died. TV is a normative force in society.

It is because TV enjoys this privilege and near universal acceptance and 'normality' that it can be particularly dangerous - specifically when media monopolies control vast swathes of the content beamed into people's homes.

As Goebbels so artfully demonstrated with his barrage of Nazi propaganda, it is very easy to shape people's worldview and attitudes by projecting one's own reality as normative via the mass media.

He artfully dehumanized Jews by associating them with images of vermin. How shocking, we say! Yet how shocking that, more recently in Britain, our own government ministry of propaganda did the same with drug dealers in their 'Rat on a Rat' campaign. I'm not defending drug dealers, of course, but they are still human beings; the question remains: where does it end?

This is one glaring and - to my mind - very alarming example, but there are more insidious ones. A Facebook friend drew my attention today to the stereotyping of the gay character, Kurt, in the cult series Glee. It may seem innocuous, but it is a false image, and it is subtly imposing/reinforcing a contrived, fanciful identity, created by an individual in the pay of a corporate body, on an entire group of people. Again, the question remains: where does it end?

Increasingly, we are seeing the continual blurring of State and Corporation in Western society, so questions about whether it's Whitehall or Darth Murdoch who are imposing their reality on society are becoming increasingly irrelevant as we fall ever deeper into the gloom of others' ambitions. What is important is to realise that, once again, the majority are in even greater danger of being manipulated by the few - their worldviews shaped, their minds made up, their wallets opened.. their compliance guaranteed?

If we're sad, happiness only eludes us by the distance of one thought.

Think about it. When we consider that a positive mental state is literally only a thought away, it might help put things into perspective when we're feeling low. Sad thoughts are just thoughts - movements of mind, and not something permanent.

External situations can tip the balance of the scales towards the positive or negative, but the situations in themselves don't create happiness or sadness, rather your mind's reaction to them does.

We can make castles in the sky or dungeons in the abyss with our mind, but these are still just thoughts, the artifice of consciousness.

With your thoughts you create your identity, your world and everything in it. That's it.

Think happy.