The morphing of words. Roger Bolton considers.
Mainstream?
Last month Christian Comment looked at Financial (banking) industry cancellation of accounts held by customers that banks’ staff do not like. In the UK this has become something of a political scandal. We commented* in August that one particular UK politician is considered ‘toxic’ to the so-called mainstream media because of his role in the political event known as ‘Brexit’, and who recently had his bank account summarily closed, suffering what might be called ‘internal financial exile’. In that comment piece we promised to revert to the question of what is ‘mainstream’. * see link at foot of this article
We noted in August that Britain’s banks and Media are today run by people born in the 1970s (Generation X in sociological terms) with junior management drawn largely from the Millennials. At managerial level (socio-economic groups A and B) both ‘generations’ are broadly left-leaning and liberal-progressive in outlook. The single word ‘woke’ is a reasonable moniker for this particular cohort ……
An increasingly pressing question today, in an era of controlled speech and licensed speech (as opposed to free speech) is which views and mores are, in fact, ‘mainstream’? Accordingly, can the broad Media today be termed ‘mainstream’? And if the so-called mainstream media is not in reality mainstream (that is, reflecting the views and mores of the broad general population), what should we actually label it?
Mainstream – the Oxford Concise Dictionary (1990) defines it as “the prevailing trend in opinion, fashion, etc. A type of jazz prevailing in the 1930s swing style ….. the principle current of a river …” Nothing very controversial here, then. Most would happily ‘go’ with these ideas. Today, sadly, there is increasing polarization across the political spectrum which appears to be supplanting that wide cross-political consensus which once characterized as broad, open, liberal democracy. Across the Western world that generic ‘liberal’ consensus held sway during the 1950s to early 2000s, arguably. In that era the term ‘liberal’ meant open minded, not prejudiced, and open to persuasion.
Today the term ‘liberal’ has (probably incorrectly by traditional usage) morphed into a moniker describing essentially Cultural Marxist ideology, and in truth is the very opposite of ‘liberal’ by its correct historical definition. Right now so called ‘mainstream media’ and ‘liberals’ regularly ‘cancel’ ideas they detest, and describe everything they oppose as ‘hate speech’ and ‘far right’. They evince ‘inclusion’ and proceed to exclude everyone and anyone they hate! Think momentarily of the recent experience of author J.K. Rowling, of Harry Potter fame.
Social change agent
When people refer to the mainstream media, they generally mean conventional newspapers, television and other news sources that most people know about, and have regarded as reliable. The first time I personally noted deliberately misleading mainstream reportage it concerned the organisation I was then working for (the Civil Aviation Authority or CAA) and consequently one I know about in detail. The reportage in question was on BBC TV and painted the CAA in a very bad light. My impression at the time was that the report was a gross misrepresentation of basic facts. After one witnesses something of this ilk, to a large extent our eyes are opened and we never again quite trust ‘reporters’ in the same way. Perhaps it’s all part of growing up!
At Christian Comment we have in recent years looked at “Lies and Journalists” – see link at the foot of this article. That ‘journalists’ are prepared to be ‘economical with the truth’ and to ‘spin’ stories, is as old as the hills. What has changed today, however, is that the broad Media perceives itself increasingly as a social change agent, if not the social change agent. Yet the values and mores that the broad Media evince can best be described as ‘progressive’, not liberal.
Progressivism holds that human societies are improved through political and social action. It seeks to advance ‘the human condition’ through social reform (social control?) based on purported advancements in science, technology, economic development, but especially through social organization. In the USA Progressivism is increasingly a political philosophy and political movement advocating policies advertised as social democratic , or occasionally social liberalism. ‘Progressives’ are – politically – almost exclusively left of centre.
Into the Lion’s Den
Our old friend Steve Maltz ably critiqued Cultural Marxism in his valuable studies titled “Into the Lion’s Den” (aimed at a Christian readership) and his shorter exploration titled “Noise”, aimed at a secular audience. Critically well received, their main contribution to the subject was in demonstrating the interconnectedness of cultural change with political Marxism. Today’s ‘progressives’ inhabit those issues that lie at the heart of the great Cultural Marxist project: *liberation, *victimhood, *safetyism, *racism, *micro-aggressions, *the family of mankind, *intersectionality, *multiculturalism, *white privilege, *LGBTIQ+ (with now the heavy emphasis on the + bit), *critical theory, *political correctness, *Palestine liberation, *open borders and the *elimination of the nation state in favour of new intranational structures.
Maltz in “Into the Lion’s Den” describes progressives as people who desire a homogenising of society and reduction of individual freedoms: “this is progress ….. we’ve turned away from old supersticions / outdated rules of moral conduct / the restrictions of a patriarchal society”. Maltz likens this to a “retreat from our true foundations” (op cit, page 55).
So called mainstream media (MSM) is undoubtedly not mainstream, in the sense that the MSM now heavily promotes viewpoints and ‘causes’ that do not have broad mainstream support. Right now the transgender political movement (lobby) is profoundly promoted by what – in the UK – is increasingly called ‘the blob’, characterized as socially elite, and strongly Marxist in a cultural sense (albeit Marxism as a political chimera seems to be raising its head again amongst the ‘elite’, as it threatened to do in the 1930s. History repeating itself?)
The majority of people in the West, by a considerable margin, hold normative views about most subjects and are not overly exercised by the ‘issues’ that command the attention of the blob. Indeed most people are broadly ‘middle of the road’ on most issues. A majority of Westerners probably lean towards social liberalism (in the true sense of that word liberalism) but do not adhere to the woke agenda. The mainstream population is, however, easily bullied as we increasingly see corporations and government demanding some level of public adherence to woke agendas. The bullying of the broad western population went into overdrive during the Covid ‘pandemic’, and such bullying is now exercised in the name of ‘climate emergency’ and ‘open borders’. Finally the ‘trans’ movement exercises an influence out of all proportion to the numbers of people who actually identify in this way. This, largely through the medium of the MSM which overwhelmingly promotes the Trans agenda.
Millennials mainstreaming or progressing?
Bluntly, the views and mores labeled ‘mainstream’ are simply not mainstream. For example, most people understand and accept scientifically that men and women are defined by XY and XX chromosomes respectively. ‘Progressive’ views by contrast aim to alter society (might that be ‘altar society’?) by ‘progressing’ from one state of consciousness (the modern) to another (the post-modern). Progressivism is on a never ending mission of experimentation and self-exploration. Self-worship (selfishness?) is perhaps the underlying spiritual motive at play. Let’s cease speaking of ‘mainstream media’ and instead use the correct epithet, ‘progressive media’ which ultimately pits itself against the mainstream – it has to!
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Ephesians 5:14-15 “‘Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’ Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise.”
Colossians 2:8-9 “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy …. ”
Galatians 4:7 “you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are His child, God has made you also an heir.”
2 Corinthians 10:5 “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
?John 8:31-32 “If you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.”
Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
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Steve Maltz – Into the Lion’s Den:
https://www.sppublishing.com/into-the-lions-den-207-p.asp
Book review:
https://prophecytoday.uk/study/resources/item/986-review-into-the-lions-den.html
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Lies and Journalists:
https://christiancomment.org/2020/08/26/lies-and-journalists-pt-1/
Financial shenanigans at NatWest Bank:
https://christiancomment.org/2023/08/02/farage-financial-farrago/
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