'Buddhist Extremist Cell Vows To Unleash Tranquility Upon West' [link]
By: The Onion
I love the Onion and follow their YouTube channel quasi-religiously. Even though they are a mock news site, and none of the events they report on actually happened, I feel they do a much better job of reflecting many realities of our society that we choose to ignore and not talk about, especially by the mass media. Our [western] television programming is increasingly being fed by fear mongering and it excreting biased news sources *cough*FOX NEWS*cough* and terrible dogmatic talk shows the likes of Alex Jones and Glenn Beck.
The genius in this particular article is how it presents a ridiculous situation, where a Buddhist monk threatens the Western world with Enlightenment, and at the same time brings attention to how much we actually need such a "terrorist" attack. I, at least, wouldn't mind at all being one of those 42 hostages taken, Buddha knows I need a good meditation. We all do. Badly.
I went on a similar rant in my post on pet peeves, but it's important to note, we live in a society permeated with noise and interference. We chitter chatter and pratter at ourselves, squeeking away like wet balloons; saying nothing.
The Onion is great because they always make you reflect on deep and interesting notions, but at the same time it's fun to read and it's always quite cleverly written. The fact that they mock very serious, recent issues adds to it's greatness. It's very similar to what Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart do with their programs. They're both news, but they're also on Comedy Central. I don't watch TV anymore, but these are the kinds of shows I find most palatable when I do.
We're constantly reminded of the "threats" from "outside", but we're encouraged not to think about the threat from within. We're sold the idea of terror, constantly being reminded of just how scared we should be: Security Alert Level is at orange... well what the fuck does that mean?
I think, and I believe it's the thought or general intention of whomever wrote that article, that the threat of our own country and how we think and what we believe is much more immediate, much more real. This article does a good job of calling attention to that, by establishing an dichotomy; what if our society of Terror were intervened by a society of Peace. Deep thoughts.
What kind of society would you rather be a part of?
Good stuff, Onion. Write on.
If you enjoyed the satire exercise, here's a good satirical movie that reflects on the banality of recent times. It's good.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1912398/
By: The Onion
I love the Onion and follow their YouTube channel quasi-religiously. Even though they are a mock news site, and none of the events they report on actually happened, I feel they do a much better job of reflecting many realities of our society that we choose to ignore and not talk about, especially by the mass media. Our [western] television programming is increasingly being fed by fear mongering and it excreting biased news sources *cough*FOX NEWS*cough* and terrible dogmatic talk shows the likes of Alex Jones and Glenn Beck.
The genius in this particular article is how it presents a ridiculous situation, where a Buddhist monk threatens the Western world with Enlightenment, and at the same time brings attention to how much we actually need such a "terrorist" attack. I, at least, wouldn't mind at all being one of those 42 hostages taken, Buddha knows I need a good meditation. We all do. Badly.
I went on a similar rant in my post on pet peeves, but it's important to note, we live in a society permeated with noise and interference. We chitter chatter and pratter at ourselves, squeeking away like wet balloons; saying nothing.
The Onion is great because they always make you reflect on deep and interesting notions, but at the same time it's fun to read and it's always quite cleverly written. The fact that they mock very serious, recent issues adds to it's greatness. It's very similar to what Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart do with their programs. They're both news, but they're also on Comedy Central. I don't watch TV anymore, but these are the kinds of shows I find most palatable when I do.
We're constantly reminded of the "threats" from "outside", but we're encouraged not to think about the threat from within. We're sold the idea of terror, constantly being reminded of just how scared we should be: Security Alert Level is at orange... well what the fuck does that mean?
I think, and I believe it's the thought or general intention of whomever wrote that article, that the threat of our own country and how we think and what we believe is much more immediate, much more real. This article does a good job of calling attention to that, by establishing an dichotomy; what if our society of Terror were intervened by a society of Peace. Deep thoughts.
What kind of society would you rather be a part of?
Good stuff, Onion. Write on.
If you enjoyed the satire exercise, here's a good satirical movie that reflects on the banality of recent times. It's good.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1912398/
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