Modern media perpetuates the cycles of desire and longing which keeps the masses uninformed. Television is loaded with images and messages of all you don't have, all you need, all you should strive to obtain. A vicarious window into the lives of the rich, luxuries and amenities, houses and cars, lifestyles and products sent to us on an electronic display. The illusions of grandeur feed into jealousies, urges, and overall distractions from the larger reality and truths of our world.
In Chris Hedges latest TruthDig.com article he assess the corporate press as "a decayed relic that, in exchange for money and access, committed cultural suicide." The media is a conglomerate owned and operated by the elite which is part of the system of extracting and hoarding money of what Karl Marx called “fictitious capital.” The system has gotten back to robber baron extremes but so far the populace is still tamed by the vacuous and corrupt salutes to freedom, war, and a hollowed out american dream. Thereby, order is yet maintained in society via the “incessant bombardment by electronic hallucinations” which diverts us from the “depressing sight that has become America”.
By staying comfortably trapped in our illusions of the world and the vanity of ourselves we collectively suffer for yet another cycle of deprivation.
stuck in america ... 
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-coming-collapse/
http://college.holycross.edu/projects/himalayan_cultures/2011_plans/dsexton/Wheel_of_Samsara.html
