The media silence :
A conspiracy or  the lazy traditional wisdom ?

It’s a globally acknowledged fact that we live in a communication society, and yet our society has swung to communication of nothing… Never had the media let so many people speak, but people who have nothing to tell… People that have outstanding things to tell are never allowed to speak… So I a mere designer, whose exploits are just a toothbrush, a hotel, rocket or a motorcycle, I’ve seemed to be living within a bubble of complete helplessness… This is why, the day “Telerama” honored me with an invitation to take part in the making of this anniversary issue (the 60th anniversary of the magazine), I answere: “OK! But let’s allow those who are never heard of to express themselves…” Let’s escape from the prefabricated ideas, let’s open up the horizon! Let’s invite the scientists to talk about their respective fields…
Philippe Starck, designer, as the editorial writer of Télérama Nr 3155 July 3d, 2010.
Photo : geralt geralt (Pixabay)

At first, I was very pleased that a mass media had allowed a world-famous designer to lament the fact that the press never let “people that have outstanding things to tell…speak” I thought, “Would a noble unbiased journalism be arising?” Then I realized that the editorial prompted “the scientists to talk”, but did so without adding “the scientists among other people that have outstanding things to tell.” So it seems that Philippe Starck knowingly or unknowingly sifts out what he thinks is fit for publication from what is not, just as the media do.
Once more I took up thinking over the media silence on The Sign ever since thirty-six years.
Even if they would rather keep silent than be subsurvient to powers, to the politically correct, religiously correct views and to popular skepticism, couldn’t the media introduce it in question forms like: Is this book one more big fib or a major event of History? Is Michel Potay an impostor, a crook, or a Biblical prophet ? But it may be—among other reasons—because such questions would allow me to answer them publicly, as a right of reply, that the media have thought it better to ignore The Sign.

Some say to me, “The mass media ignore The Sign and its witness, but off the media there’s a lot of nonsense and slander going about. You can’t reply as long as you are doomed to isolation, excluded from conversations, deprived of any hold over rumor, but the Internet… On the web you could reply, in any case reply a bit more than you’ve done so far.”
Here’s my answer: “On the Internet my replies to disparagers have no more effects on the public than the disparagers have. The Internet houses a few mass media, but the Internet is not a mass media in itself. The Internet is just a huge prattling area. The nature of a mass media . is of functioning, that is, of organized themes and ideas. The Internet quite differently is a muddle or tangle of words and talks going all over the place, it is the street hubbub, a station lounge chatting. If the Internet wasn’t the way it is, the powers would have everywhere on earth put it under their controls. Opinions on all and opinions on the opposite of all in desultory talks cancel each other out, have done neither harm nor good to anything, have never made anything progress or decline. Powers don’t muzzle the Internet, because its influence over men’s minds is statistically insignificant.”

Now, let’s consider something else as regards the media’s silence.
Sometimes an event like The Sign takes place and disconcerts people or makes them think or dream, one unexpected enough to stay non-assimilated for long. It is something of a falling in love or a grip of anger or a feeling of helplessness. The fact that materialistic modernity does not match a supernatural event of that altitude can put in predicament even cynical journalists, moles skilful at burrowing, but not in the least eagles, so much so that they can’t deal with it. Hence possible journalistic behavioral problems in the face of an event so big that the media might figure, “What if the public takes to the news after we’ve run it down? What if the public turn it down after we’ve handled it carefully?” Utter uncertainty! The Sign brings about contradictory emotions. Which of men might has never dreamt of changing the world (Sign 28/7) and changing his or her life (30/11) into definitive happiness? Which of men conversely has never had a bone to pick with ideologies, foolish expectations and faith? Hence, to get the matter settled, the media’s cautious silence, which may mirror nothing but the lazy traditional wisdom. Hence our hard job, our apostolate or ministry to shake the traditional wisdom and all the prejudices it uses as excuses from its laziness and light the Fire in man’s heart again.
All  things considered, only we Arès Pilgrims can break the silence in the proper way.