"But as I reflected on this coverage of this story, I began to realize the ultimate irony: our news media is selling us the most pervasive drug of all. It is the altered consciousness of fear, hysteria and outrage. These altered states take us out of the present moment and land us in a terrain that is it own high.
Outrage is intoxicating in the extreme because we can leave behind the troublesome, inconvenient and irritating need to discover for ourselves what's really going on and thereby learn something new. Instead we get to move immediately to the euphoria of knowing we are right, regardless of the facts.
It doesn't matter whether we are by nature conservative or liberal. Both Fox News and MSNBC are equally happy to push our rage buttons and sell us something that promises to fill the emptiness.
Being "right" is a powerful elixir, it allows us to immediately simplify this complex world into categories of white hats and black hats. Being right allows us to embark on one crusade after another that is deeply satisfying to the ego. We don't need to listen to anyone else because we already know the truth. Ignorance, as they say, truly IS bliss. However, it's a bliss we can no longer afford. There comes a time when we must say enough is enough. There comes a time to turn off the constant din of media driven hysteria and begin to listen to the inner voice. And that, in itself, is an altered state of consciousness. It is called "sanity.""
- Paul Rademacher
The Monroe Institute
