6. Entertainment

When someone is given something to ponder they generally hold the idea in their mind, giving of their attention while considering its importance. Hopefully, if the matter is of the utmost importance they are given all the facts, dispassionately and absent of bias from the source. In complicated situations this is achieved as a feat of great logic. When a matter is presented to someone to ponder and a small percentage of all the facts are included, an emotional coloring of the matter is affected, (however slight), and a bias is evident (whether by omission of facts or with an attempt to skew the matter by means of an emotional component), this information has departed from the realm of logic and has entered the world of entertainment - meant to hold the attention of the reader/viewer/listener with something amusing and/or diverting.

This does not lessen the potential for sober reality or serious consequences in regards to the matter. What it does is lessen, in the mind with ordinary consciousness, the ability for accurate discernment of the matter. Quite often the delivery of the matter is designed to elicit a reaction inline with the belief and desired response of the source. The act of the delivery of this information is nothing short of entertainment, something to hold the attention of the reader/viewer/listener. People read suspense novels to have their emotions charged. This act is amusing to the reader. If it were less than amusing the reader would not engage in the habit. The same goes for readers or viewers of other emotionally charged forms of entertainment. Commonly these forms have romantic story lines or are tales of intrigue, treachery, betrayal and the list goes on. In these easily identified forms of entertainment the whole story need not be told for the audience to be entertained. It is unimportant to get all the facts because there are no real world consequences that will befall the characters in the material. Skip a half step away from the latest movie and you will find yourself in the real world. Here decisions made have real world consequences. Whether you are casting favor or distain upon the characters you view in the real world a string of reactions will follow.

Any parent will understand this scenario: Your child, it is reported to you, is sweating profusely and breathing heavily. You are not allowed to examine your child, nor are you allowed to have someone you know examine the child. The report is all you are given. Now you have to make a decision about what to do regarding your child's state. But you are only given a multiple choice; A. Send the child to the doctor to have the child's appendix removed; B. Induce vomiting; C. Do nothing, the child is simply exerted from playing. Without more of the facts you are unable to make a possibly life-altering decision. Now if your child were not in this seemingly perilous situation this might make an entertaining brainteaser. No one's life hangs in the balance. Considering this scenario could even possibly be amusing and certainly attention diverting. But without having to make this decision, getting emotionally enmeshed in the scene is pointless.

Here is the point. When an important situation arises in your life you seek all the facts, then dispassionately and without personal bias you make a decision to determine the most beneficial and most appropriate course of action. If that were truly the case there would be a lot less nonsense going on in this world. Here is more likely what happens. When an "important" situation arises in an ordinary persons life they quite often response emotionally, with little concern for facts that may be missing or may have been skewed. Quite often rushing to action when no rush is warranted. They place themselves in a priority status for protection and benefits regardless of the circumstances. The conditions required to maintain the individual's appearance of strength and superiority are fiercely sought disregarding all others and all logic. That is how it quite often comes down.

Now we go back to the discussion of entertainment. When given maybe 20 percent of the information and in an emotionally charged and biased manner very little possibility exist for making an informed decision regarding any matter. Of course one could always make a guess, one way or the other, and the source of the information will always accept the outcome, even if only in the short run. Newspapers, periodicals, broadcast and cable outlets are all vaunted sources of the "truth." What is widely overlooked is that these aforementioned media are about one thing more that getting out the truth. By the nature of these media they are about circulation and viewership. That equates to selling advertising space. The one best way to achieve high circulation or high viewership numbers is to publish material that resonates with a large audience. We are attracted to what resonates with us. Whether it is a baseball game, a novel or gardening, something we find to be amusing or otherwise a pleasant diversion. Quite often it is a subject that we can voice our opinion on, regardless of how unfounded. A matter in which we can seek to establish our strength and superiority. Good news does not sell. Bad news sells. Most people have a negative consciousness and a negative outlook on the world. If you rejected that statement you may be more negative than you are giving yourself credit for. So in the pursuit of high circulation and high viewership numbers the prize winning material to publish is negative. People like reading about or seeing situations that are portrayed as disorganized and in ruins so they can emotionally respond with their opinions, establishing themselves as strong and superior; regardless of whether or not all the facts are presented without emotion or bias injected into the story. That is what sells newspapers, periodicals, tell-all-books, television and radio programming.

If you catch yourself exhibiting these behaviors in the future you will know what you are doing. Rising to the bait of the media keeps them all in business. Generally speaking the two sides, the "strong" and the "weak" will continue to bash away at each other - taking turns "winning" - while the attention of the population is amused and diverted. If you think you understand this premise yet continue in this charade you have missed the point: "it is all entertainment." If you understand the point and continue without regarding the subject matter for what it is you fan the flames of confusion. Which is simply what it is.

The most important understanding one might seek is to fathom "what" are we being diverted from. The grotesque reality of playing with the emotions of the masses, turning one group against the other in a ploy to keep emotions whipped up, is interestingly not outside the realm of possibilities of human behavior. Largely, what you hear about in the media is how someone is destroying something, or getting over on someone else, or you pick some "unacceptable situation." That is not to say something worth investigating is not taking place. But knowing a small amount of the facts, delivered steeped in emotion to create the desired bias will not aid to easily render a clearly informed decision. Possibly what we are being diverted from is letting law abiding citizens live their lives, their seeking the betterment of their communities through the discourse of the public forum at large, and the expression of their creative self. Gather all the facts, remove the emotion and bias otherwise it is simply entertainment, as it is, amusing and diverting and holding our attention.