Ode to Media.



"One percent of Thailand."

On every street corner rests a mugger, rapist, or paedophile. Muslim, equals potential terrorist. Opulence makes you an arse - poverty, lazy and irresponsible. Human beings are scum. Earth is five minutes from Armageddon. Kids are evil, murder is common, and the money’s running out. All this leaves us depressed, full of excuses, fat, lazy, and acting to help no one but ourselves. In essence, everyone is either going to hell, or already living in it. According to mass-media, this is the world we live in. According to my eyes, the world is actually pretty amazing, and their impression is one gigantic, elaborate con; and quite frankly, I am amazed how long they have been getting away with it. Let me explain...

My girlfriend is half Thai (born in England to an Asian Mother), and once lived there teaching English to young children. I have never visited Thailand, yet my imagination of it has always swayed on the deeper side of negative. I imagine Thailand as a seedy hotspot; where pathetic Western men hook up with desperate whores and dangerous lady-boys. A land where the searing heat mixed with seething night-life combines amoral thieves, pissed up civvies looking for wars with soldiers, and every foreign visitor being handed death sentences; for picking their nose in front of a poster of the nations Royal Family.

I view Thailand as a dirty death trap, because this is how it has been sold to me over the years in the media; convoluted in stereotypes and slanted misinformation – designed to reinforce a negative viewpoint, to mine and many other ignorant minds. Why? Because sadly, human fascination with beauty cannot compete with that of its ugly side. And selling it's worse points, is better for promotional numbers - hence, advertising space. It's fucked up that the desire for money would allow people to desecrate beauty in order to attain profit - especially as those who do, are hardly living on the breadline. But this is greed and the media down to a tee; in all aspects of all forms of beauty - destroy a life to gain a star; I guess they see it as winner take all.

My girlfriend is naturally upset by my outlook. She tells me Thailand is a remarkable and beautiful land – rich in politeness (It is known as the Land of Smiles), awash in tender delicacies, lush beaches, and an attitude in which if you are respectful to their customs, they treat you like the best friend you ever had; or ever wished you had, in some cases.
"The other ninety-nine."
Of course it has its rough sides, but these are a minor fraction of an entire country. Imagine visiting New York, as someone moans to you how London is hell, when all they ever saw of the city were the 2011 riots, a Jack the Ripper documentary, and a finely edited collection of 80’s hooligan videos. You would be pissed at such a notion, before you mention Buckingham Palace, the 2012 Olympics, Hyde Park, British hospitality, and the zillion others aspects which make London a wondrous city.

It is the Modus operandi of all sensationalist media; the few genuine publishers are falling faster than the average retail outlet. They interview a thousand people about life. If 999 reply how life is beautiful, and one suggests it is shit, they take the one exception, and promote his viewpoint as the rule; ignoring every other statement. The rule becomes accepted as truth, everyone gets angry and afraid, people lose faith in one another, and life, eventually becomes shit. 

All because some arse decided to sell life as hell, in order to move an inch higher along a pointless ladder of perceived power. They have taken heaven and sold it as hell, to the point where if our collective conscience imagine heaven as hell (beyond the next life, hell and heaven are pure states of mind in this one), we slowly turn it into this place. Is it any coincidence, personal misery has grown in correlation with the powers of technologies which allow us to sell life on such grand scales, in one fall swoop? 

So I ask kindly for mass-media to sod off, and cease to exist. Stop telling me all Muslims are terrorists, when I see loads of them every day, just trying to survive. Stop telling me the rich are all cunts, and the poor thick, when I remember the friendship I struck with an upper-middle-class ex-Personal Trainer - who oozed liberalism and a non-judgemental nature; as much as the council housed writer of this blog, being smart enough to string a sentence together. Stop telling me we are five minutes from an Armageddon, which has been just around the corner for as long as I can remember. Stop suggesting the money’s running out, when your lot attain more funds through misery, than you ever have from smiles. Stop promoting this world as hell; when I live in it each and every day, and realize the only true hell is having to accept the power you have over so many nations, it’s become laughably ridiculous. 

Just, go away. We are tired of it. We don't want you promoting your hate anymore. Hate just creates people like Hitler; and no one with a brain wants another wanker like that around. The world is a beautiful place; it's not perfect but I love it nonetheless, and I don't want you arseholes ruining it for all us decent folk; and there are many more than you can imagine.

One day I will visit Thailand. I look forward to its sandy beaches, and wonderful hospitality. You can try to tell me otherwise media, but I will quietly tell you to bugger off; I view this world through my experienced yet eager eyes, not your black, cold-hearted ones. It leaves me a much happier person...

Lee.

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