“The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” - Malcolm X

The ability to influence information as it is delivered to the masses is arguably the most sought after power in history. After all, what good is conquering a kingdom if you cannot also conquer the minds of it’s people. You might just as well start planning for the overthrow if you can’t figure out how to win the crowd. The richest people will tell you money is only as good as the influence it buys to create favorable conditions for your method of gain. If that’s war, you buy war advertisement on mainstream media. You sell it in the stories of victims and heroes. You sell it in the tales of injustice and violence and chaos that humans consume like an addictive drug. If you method of gain is in the markets, you leverage the lower classes against themselves to boost your own profits. You create panic because you have the power to do so, knowing you are safely insulated from the fallout. You skew the system at it’s root just enough to send the whole ship wildly adrift by the time that tiny course diversion reaches the masses.

Currency itself only has the value humans assign it, which is based on what we have been told for centuries. The almighty dollar only became so because we were told it was, and we believed it. Even when the United States did away with the “Gold Standard” in 1971 when they terminated the convertibility of the dollar into gold, the nation insisted upon clinging fiercely to the belief that these printed sheets pumped into the economy still have value… because we were told they did.

We are the problem.

We shoot up the drug of fast and loose information, paid for by the richest of the rich, for the quick and deadly high that violence and fear feed us. We eat without satiation from the gluttonous feast of fables spun by professional story tellers and we insist that it is real food, while it disappears even as we consume it. Even when the “facts” are proven lies shortly after. Even when “conspiracy theories” come true and the “science” changes according to stock market prices for massive corporations… we still eat it up. We are the problem.

There are truth tellers out there. There are good journalists and there are outlets who are intentionally fact-finding at best or at worst, unintentionally misled by the corporations that own them. There are critical thinkers. The storytellers are not the problem.

The feeble-minded children that feed off the voluptuous tit of mass media, social media and every easy outlet for information are the problem. That’s us. WE are the problem.

The same problem since King James had his way with the “infallible” word of god in 1611 and fed Shakespeare’s artsy and politically driven interpretation into the state-mandated church crowds. This is not a new tactic.

The same problem when Hilter told the German people that the Jewish population was hell-bent on their financial ruin and exploitation.

Advertising poster for the antisemitic film, *Der ewige Jude* (The Eternal Jew), directed by Fritz Hippler. Germany, ca. 1940.

We listen, we read, we nod our heads in agreement and devour what we are told from the poisoned well of our choice. We are told to turn on our neighbor. The neighbor that loves guns and hates gays. The neighbor that denies biological gender and murders babies. THEY are the problem. The good people next door with their garden and their cats and their curly haired children. Clearly THEY are the problem. Not the ones controlling the algorithm that feeds you the reasons to blame your neighbor. Not the ones (ironically the same) that control the voices coming out of your TV and podcasts “news” reports. Not the SAME ones who can be found with their fingers laced intricately into the dark, matted mess behind every political “story” you share on your social media platforms. THEY aren’t the ones responsible for How Terrible things are. They’re just telling us how it is, what our neighbors have done to us with their pathetic voting habits. And we believe it.

And we share. And we post. And we perpetuate the garbage that distracts us from the real work that needs to be done. Helping the neighbor weed their garden. Getting their kids to school. Keeping those kids safe at school. Teaching those kids how to be kind and treat everyone exactly how they’d like to be treated so that they don’t grow up to hurt other kids. Instead we shove screens full of violence, indulgence and self-gratification at them so we can stare at our own screens of violence, indulgence and self-gratification.

We are the problem. We’re too busy scrolling and clicking and reacting and numbing and liking and sharing and posting in outrage and fear and superiority to see the damage we are doing. After all, we’re just doing our part to keep people informed.

What if we didn’t? What if we skipped all that? What if the neighbor with guns was actually really good friends with his transgender neighbor even though he was told not to be? What if differences made communities stronger and better? What if we didn’t share the post about the idiotic people who have been put in places of power by idiotic people with idiotic amounts of money? Let those monkeys have their circus. What if we quit clapping our hands like performing seals and got down in the dirt with the people we live and work with?

Illustration of a printing press and a composing stick from the first edition (1768–71) of the *Encyclopædia Britannica*, vol. 3, plate CXLVII, figure 1.

Social media and “information” accessibility in the last decade is a revolution comparable to only the development of the printing press at the end of medieval times, which led to the Enlightenment. Printed material began to permeate the developed world and literacy became more widespread. The power of information control was gradually removed from the ruling classes (which included the church) and placed in the hands of the people. Thought reform took off globally in all directions.

We stand at the crossroads of a similar revolution but we have failed to realize the ruling class still own all of the presses right now. The social media platforms we use are controlled by the ones who also hold the keys to the political, financial, and yes, religious kingdoms. The only thing that ended the dark ages was the proliferation of printing technology throughout geographic, philosophic and ideologic realms. This is why monopolization, centralization and control of media and social media technology is so dangerous. We can move toward a new age of critical thinking and enlightenment, or we can allow the current ruling class to dictate a future of division and distrust. We don’t have to be marionettes, dancing like fools for the infants in power. We can change our algorithms.

We can end the problem.