NPR, BBC and PRI, been listening to it a lot lately, and honestly, its nice to stay informed about the world, universe etc. I dislike wasting time on this topic, but Rupert Murdoch, his crew and the whole cell phone hacking scandal have been dominating the news stories lately; even though there are pressing matters such as the economies suffering all over the world, famine in Somalia, War in Libya, etc etc etc. No Murdoch and his new empire which was thriving on way to much power, was proven to be corrupt in the end, will make front page news everyday. When we give so much focus, energy and attention to such a "not good" thing, we are in fact giving it more power. We need to stop.
So this whole Murdoch deal, like all other things which are given so much power, is a classic example of Juvenal's quote (Circa 2nd Century AD) "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?". Who Watches the Watchmen? So who keeps and eye on the police? Who keeps the people who keep justice in check, in check?
So there's this crazy balance/imbalance in our lives... (which I can later go on to prove that everything is relative and there is no perfectness in a universe so full of chaos, because it is in the end a perfect chaos! {maybe Einstein would appreciate that observation, it might be that profound}), which is that the one's who would once give us the news, and expose the truth, became the one's forfeiting that "trust". That trust has long been owned by who knows... people like Murdoch? Politicians? People in power (power = money)? Trust being the newspaper, which is now generalized as "media".
I just happened upon this quote from the German punk rock scene -
"When justice becomes injustice, resistance becomes duty"
(I shall tie that in to all the above now... and to the title... I tend to ramble, but thank god, no one is grading me on it! That is why it is a blog)
On a program on KCRW (NPR, BBC, PRI) they brought on a Shakespeare expert to analyze what was being said about Murdoch case becoming a tragic Shakespearean drama, example King Lear. however in King Lear, we feel sorry for the great who has led himself to trip over his own doings. The speaker goes on to say a more proper comparison would be Claudius from Hamlet. Claudius is the manipulator from the beginning, we dont feel sorry for him, as he makes calculated plots, and then loses everything in the end. Things got out of control there, and with Murdoch's company. They didn't care about the means, because they had the power, but they got the job done. So ethically its not right, morally its not right, and no person who wants a clean conscience would do that. However sometimes we get hungry and greedy for success, power and wealth. We have to check ourselves, because sometimes there is no one checking us.
A different point of view, sure there will sympathizers of Murdoch, example his peers and friends; they would want to see him have justice, but then what kind of justice? "With great power comes great responsibility" and with that there also comes great penalty (Spiderman is fiction).
So the victims of the injustice they should get their justice. It's easy for him to dump the blame on his employees, but in the end he is the owner. With any success it is always shared success, but when there is a failure, a true leader will come forward to take full responsibility of that failure, without pointing fingers.
This is what has been taught over centuries, as good ethics and morals. However it seems we have forgotten humanity and the world, and become utterly selfish and self serving in our motives.
(I might break out into a rant of love, but I shall hold my tongue currently). So if Murdoch had apologized sincerely, and had taken the blame for the corporate irresponsibility, then he would have won the public hearts. However his arrogance and attempts to cover up, have made him untrustworthy.
So there are no doubt good genuine leader's out there, and then there are ones that make bad decisions.
Shakespeare wrote a lot of plays, and all of them had political undertones. We can all relate to one or more of his characters... who will you be? who do you want to be?
And just a side note, personally I think Obama is a great leader, carrying the troubled, and burdened times of this country and the world. Yet he is harshly judged. I was sad to hear that NASA had to end it's space shuttle program and Outer Space travel is becoming commercialized/privatized. The federal budget can not support it any more... We spent too much money on WAR!
I will end on the note:
There was never a Good War
Or a Bad Peace.
But was there EVER a peace?
Breathe!
(When I end on "Breathe", it's to remind us that we are here, and now. We are alive and breathing is so pure. So let us let that purity into us).
