Crisis

“Never waste a good crisis” is a quote some attribute to Winston Churchill. While Churchill may or may not be the original one to coin the term, there’s a ridiculous amount of truth in what he said. While the ‘intent’ of the quote is pertaining to the idea that there’s opportunity for personal growth/transformation in a challenge, there’s another angle of the quote that I’d love to unpack.

A lot of people wouldn’t take too kindly to the idea of a tank running through their neighborhood and using its cannon to blast each home to smithereens – their home, in particular.

It’d be a lot more outrageous to imagine the tank being built with the help of the residents prior to it blowing their homes to splinters, with the startled residents wondering how such a thing could have ever happened in their community.

Let’s replace the ‘tank’ with a television – or mobile phone – and the ‘homes’ with the minds and families of the world population.

How does this ‘tank’ work? Well, it’s pretty simple.

Your attention is being captured in exchange for advertising dollars and control.

“Never waste a good crisis.”

Not long ago, the world was glued to the news on account of the Titan Submarine disaster. While the news coverage didn’t last very long, the impact in advertising dollars was substantial.

In less than one month, U.S. media outlets pocketed nearly $2.75 Billion Dollars in incremental (additional) advertising revenue on account of the increase in viewership/readership.

Did you know that your time is worth between 15-36 cents for every commercial break? Meaning, advertisers will pay roughly that much to show you commercials.

It might not seem like a lot of money, but multiply 15-36 cents on a national level, and you start to get a clearer picture of just how much money national media outlets rake in while you watch commercials.

“Never waste a good crisis.”

If the Titan ‘disaster” was worth upwards of $2.75 Billion Dollars in advertising revenue, how much more did media outlets rake in during a larger ‘crisis’ such as the COVID-19 Plandemic?

Between $55-$95B.

That’s “Billion” with a “B”.

Said differently, media outlets pocketed nearly $300 for every citizen of the United States during the Plandemic.

If you think these outlets are sincerely interested in giving the world population the latest news so that they can be well-informed and improve the quality of their lives, I’d urge you to think again.

Viewers of the news/media – which includes social media – are nothing more than a fatted cow for the media outlets to carve a piece of flesh out of.

They aren’t interested in helping you raise your family.
They aren’t interested in seeing the quality of your life increase.
They aren’t interested in making the world a better place.

They want your time and attention, because it lines their pockets with money.

News media and politics follow a very similar trend that I see amongst drug addicts; chasing the next hit because that hit will be the one that sets them free.

That politician is finally the one we’ve been waiting for.
This crisis is finally the one we should be outraged about.
This political topic is really the one we should be concerned about.
This new drug will finally be the one that gets me high enough.

Just like a drug fiend will never get high enough – chasing the next hit until they wind up dead cold on the streets of Kensington, PA, most ‘media fiends’ crave a constant supply of crisis, tragedy and disturbing world events to keep their dopamine levels spiked enough for them to feel something.

There’s a popuation of the world that cuts themselves as an act of emotional regulation. I used to be one of them during my teenage years, and can speak quite clearly about why people cut – based on my own experience and the countless other ‘cutters’ I’ve talked with.

They cut because they want to ‘feel something’.

It doesn’t matter that its causing scars in their flesh. It doesn’t matter that it doesn’t make any sense. It doesn’t even matter that it’s messy.

What matters is that in that moment, the cutter feels something that speaks to the emotions going through their mind at the time.

News media fiends chase the same feeling.

That feeling?

“I’m outraged about X”
“Because I’m outraged, I must be a good person.”
“I’m going to convince other people to be outraged.”
“Other people aren’t outraged as much as I am.”
“I’m in the moral high ground versus those other heartless idiots.”
“Now I can sleep.”

The next time you see an advertisement, I hope that you remember that your time and attention is being sold to the highest bidder through advertising programs called “media buying” where advertisers compete to pay the highest price – or CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions/views) for their advertisement.

Keep in mind, this isn’t strictly related to TV and online news. For social media sites (e.g. Instagram, TikTok, Youtube, Meta) your eyeballs are worth about $0.10-0.15 per hour.

How much money could you make if you spent that same hour working? How beautiful would your home be if you used that hour to clean/organize instead of doomscroll?

How much more would a child feel loved, seen, appreciated and heard if their parent(s) deleted these apps and devoted their ‘doomscrolling’ time to their child instead of an algorithm?

That’s a great question.

If you don’t want a tank to destroy your home, stop giving it the ammunition it needs to take its next shot. Your children will thank you.

“Kill your God. Kill your God. Kill your TV.” – Marilyn Manson

“Kill your God. Kill your God. Kill your IG.” – Aaron Plaat