I saw the link to Bruce Charlton’s short book Addicted to Distraction on this post at Social Matter. If you read my piece at The Mitrailleuse you’ll know what I’m trying to do–disentangle myself from the web that I’ve been in for quite a few years.
I won’t be writing anything responding to Mass Media anymore. I realize now that posts like this, and this, were just touching the Tar Baby of foulness that the media is, and has been for a long time. I’ll keep writing, but only about the timeless things, about sound minds in sound bodies and history and tradition, about the Good, the True and the Beautiful.
About sanity. And nothing in the media is sane, not even the “good” stories about good people.
Read Charlton’s book. I’ll see you again soon, with something that doesn’t engage with the Foulness.
Sanity in The Diamond Age 
I think there’s a place for the responses you talk about. I just wrote one, and Dalrock in particular uses them as a staple. They prevent you from focusing on what’s really important, but by the same token they are more accessible to newcomers. I came in through Dalrock, for instance.
None of which is to say that you should feel in any way obligated to go dredging through the muck. We do need to spend more time on the good, the true, the beautiful.
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The zombifying influence of the Mass Media is one of the biggest problems that the modern world faces, but as it is the dominant source of information for most people this reality is one of many ‘Emperors New Clothes’ situations that exist today.
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Thanks for the link and notice – I am delighted you found the book useful.
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