Something Shiney

ne of the recurring phrases mentioned in the circles we travel in is a humorous pseudo-excuse why something didn't get accomplished. It goes something like this: Someone will ask someone else about a task that was supposed to be done, a product that was supposed to be ordered, or something similar. The associate will then respond "I was working on it, but then I saw something shiny."

This contemporary equivalent of "the dog ate my homework" is related to the obviously short attention span that has swept over our sound-bite driven society. Like the proverbial puppy that goes outside to do his deed, he usually stops to sniff an unexpected something on the way. This frequently turns into a lengthy excursion that was completely unplanned when he decided to go outside.

Unfortunately, people function with essentially the same sort of pathetic lack of focus; and worse yet, the hidden powers in our social structure have learned to utilize this shortcoming in a masterful fashion. For example, in listening to this morning's news, half of the entire news cycle had to do with an inter-racial couple that recently staged a jailbreak.

This story has all the ingredients vital to a news program that functions as the high tech media equivalent of "something shiny" -- sex, criminality, murder, and even racial undertones -- a story that news directors dream about. But in a nation of 260 million people, the misbehaviour of 2 small time miscreants has crowded out the stories that should be told.

Not a word today about the million dollars stolen from the UN by the Russian procurement official who will likely implicate political figures from a dozen countries in the huge Oil For Food scam. No word yet concerning which cities the Al Quaida terrorists have targetted with their suitcase nuclear bombs. No information is available on why over 40 microbiologists have mysteriously perished around the world. No-one was around to cover the 300,000 Israelis protesting the Gaza evacuation in Israel that threatens to boil over into civil war -- and perhaps a larger conflict.

The news anchorman might as well say "I was going to cover the Pentagon's leaked plans to attack Iran with tactical nuclear weapons, but then I saw something shiny."

The fact is, the world's conspirators depend on celebrities like Michael Jackson, or OJ Simpson, or the attractive but disturbed teachers caught having sex with their students in order to keep us occupied. Like the hypnotist waving his watch in front of 200 million television sets, they don't want us asking why we're bombing weddings on the other end of the world, or spending a billion here, or ten billion there on goods we could make in America that would create jobs for all the silly people that are unemployed sitting there watching the hypnotist on their television sets.

Apparently, we don't want to know the truth about the immigration crisis, the dollar's potential collapse, or Red Chinese control of the seaports on our Southern flank. We mustn't ask why Alzheimers and Parkinsons cases are soaring because it's really Mad Cow in humans intentionally misdiagnosed to protect the billion dollar beef industry. Besides, no-one was available to tell us the truth that the world is about fall into the most horrifying catastrophe in all of recorded history in an unprecedented Apocalyptic convulsion. Even if there was someone willing to tell us what's really happening, the decision makers wouldn't dare allow it, because they themselves are too busy looking at something shiny.

August 12 2005 -- James Lloyd

Copyright © 2005, 2008 Christian Media Network

See Also

Strongholds And Stumblingblocks