Ignorance by Content and Omission

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http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_charles__060331_ignorance_by_content.htm

 

 

March 31, 2006

 

Ignorance by Content and Omission

 

 

by Charles Sullivan

 

http://www.opednews.com

 

As a nation and as a people we have come to where we are as a direct

result of the information we receive through the commercial media. In

terms of democracy creation the news is useless if its intent is to

inform and to educate. It is effective if its intent is to purvey

propaganda and to deceive the masses. So many well intentioned people

fall in line behind the president because they fail to understand his

policies. They lack historical perspective. Having the ability to

understand current events from an historical perspective brings them

into clear focus. Certain unmistakable patterns emerge to explain things.

 

No thinking person should take any government at its word, especially

this one. Governments lie in part because they represent special

interest groups rather than the ordinary citizens that comprise the

great majority. Most governments fear and loath its citizens because

they are clandestinely betraying them. The less transparent the

government, the more it has to hide. Lying is the only recourse that

undemocratic governments have to make the citizens support and

implement their hidden agendas. This explains why the Bush cabal is

incapable of speaking truth. It also explains why it is the least

transparent government ever to occupy the oval office, bar none.

 

The Bush cabal and its enablers in Congress are thus forced to call

into service noble sounding euphemisms to hide the selfish motives

behind their policies. Who but a fool or a madman would volunteer to

kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people for the sake of

increasing the already obscene profits of defense contractors and oil

companies? It is precisely because the agenda of those in power

conflicts with the interest of the people that governments lie and

distort. Those who carry out the agenda of Plutocratic Empire must be

made to believe that they are serving noble purposes rather than

feeding the insatiable hunger of corporate greed. They must be

convinced to betray their own class by acting against its best

interest. It would be impossible to accomplish such a monumental task

of behavior modification without the aid of the commercial media.

 

Know that the consumption of commercial media content, whether news or

entertainment (they are really one and the same these days), is

hazardous to your health. Owned by only five major corporations the

world over, the content is sweet to the taste but devoid of nutriment.

It consists of addictive substances and empty calories—the kind that

leads to mental and spiritual obesity typified by an array of serious

health problems that may result in permanent blindness. The sole

beneficiaries of this content are the corporations who manufacture and

sell them and their servants in government. As always, the consumers

are the victims.

 

At a time when only the most venal would argue that America is not in

the midst of serious decline, it is amazing that so little formal

opposition has managed to organize itself into action. Even staunch

conservatives are distancing themselves from George Bush, whose

approval ratings have fallen to thirty-four percent and probably have

yet to bottom out. There has been much talk but so little meaningful

action. Talk is safe and easy but action requires commitment and

sacrifice. In the end it is thoughtful action that gets things done.

Propaganda is a powerful wedge that keeps us apart and renders us

ineffective.

 

The illegitimate cabal at the head of government obtained power with

the complicity of the commercial media. Despite the virtual ownership

of the corporate media and hence its content, the cabal's hold on

power is nevertheless tenuous. Imagine what Bush's approval rating

would be if the people were actually informed. Can you imagine an

approval rating of say, minus four hundred? Without the aide of the

worlds most prolific and effective propaganda machine the neocons

could never have come into power. The fact that they are losing favor

with the people despite the useful lies purveyed in the corporate

media indicates just how badly they are behaving. Despite the monopoly

they enjoy their approval ratings continue to plummet. This is clear

evidence that the special interest agenda is not America's agenda.

 

No thinking person should assume that the corporate media is neutral

or objective. They are not; however, they try to give the impression

that they are. All for profit institutions have an agenda—the

accumulation of private wealth. Credibility is important to them,

facts are not. Like their brethren in the defense and oil industries,

the corporate media is amassing fortunes by supporting an agenda of

war and world domination. In a capitalist society the role of the

media is not to inform and to educate—it is to make money by any and

all available means. Capitalism does not care how its fortunes are

made. Its modus operandi is Machiavellian: ends justify the means.

Capitalism is unbridled greed unleashed upon the world for the

privatization of wealth. It allows a small group of business owners

and investors to get rich by exploiting the under class of all nations.

 

Relatively few Americans are aware of the extent to which the

corporate media played in putting George Bush in power, or the

pandering of propaganda and outright lies that keep him there. They

are unaware that under the guidance of ultra conservative Grover

Norquist, a group of eighty of the nation's wealthiest people gathers

in the nation's capital every week. This gathering, as one might

expect, is not innocuous or benign. Its purpose is to create the

talking points that will be purveyed each week in the commercial media

to further their agenda. In essence, this group defines the news for

the week and the manner in which it will be presented for public

consumption. Their reach is enormous and their sole motivation is

profit and power for the elite. Not only does Norquist's group

literally write the scripts followed by Rush Limbaugh and his robotic

drones, it provides the content that defines the evening news and the

daily newspapers. Every mainstream televised and audio program should

be preceded by a Surgeon General's Warning: Use of this product may be

hazardous to your health!

 

Thus every television and radio network incessantly preaches the same

propaganda from the individual pulpits of class privilege. The key

talking points are the same whether on Fox, CNN, CBS or ABC; or the

nation's newspapers. Likewise, conservative talk radio receives its

marching orders directly from Norquist's intimate group of

billionaires. This is not benign advocacy for a particular point of

view—it is blatant propaganda and outright lies packaged and sold as

news. Without the aide of the corporate media and Norquist's

billionaires, we would not have invaded Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of

innocent people would still be alive. We might even have taken global

warming seriously and done something about it before it was too late.

Truth and integrity might still mean something.

 

Little by little the minds of the people have been poisoned by

propaganda and it is called nourishment. As a result the more noble

traits of our culture are incrementally dying. Through the judicious

use of lies and distortions the people are deceived into supporting

the atrocities of war and conquest that are committed in their name.

Historical context reveals the unmistakable patterns that make these

behaviors readily visible and renders them understandable to the

present moment. The lack of historical perspective leaves one

vulnerable to the lies and distortions that have always characterized

our government. Of course, this historical context is not taught in

our schools for reasons that should be obvious.

 

By shamelessly touting the transparent lies of the Bush cabal as fact

the corporate media is generating enormous wealth for the upper

echelon, while our sons and daughters make the blood sacrifice.

Encouraging patriotism (really jingoism), keeps the uninformed masses

in a frenzy and in mortal fear of phantom enemies. It keeps them from

recognizing the real enemies of peace and democracy that misuse

government for the creation of privatized wealth for the privileged.

By content and by omission the corporate media decides what Americans

will be told and thus how they will behave.

 

The purveyance of such powerful propaganda is keeping the coffers of

the nation's defense contractors and the oil companies running over,

while also keeping the people dumbed down. Like bloated ticks fed on

blood sucked from the public teat, the Carlyle Group and Halliburton

are raking in billions. Such obscene wealth is generated at the

expense of working class people who have no health insurance because

their tax dollars support war profiteering and welfare for the rich.

 

The champions of Plutocracy including the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean

Hannity and Bill O'Reilly, are masquerading as people concerned with

the welfare of political conservatives of modest income, even as they

lead them to the slaughter with the rest of us. The millions of angry

white supremacists that comprise their audience should ask themselves

who Limbaugh and the others are working for. What do they have in

common with their listeners? Are they living high off the hog? What

motivates them? Are they profiting? Or are they in fact shameless

opportunists who are preying upon their follower's emotional

vulnerabilities and intellectual vacancies? We have witnessed this

same predatory behavior time and again in the persons of television

evangelists who regularly fleece their flock of their hard earned

income. Every false idol needs its fools, and they are not in short

supply.

 

The effects of this pervasive propaganda are visible all around us. We

see it in the flag-draped coffins that arrive home every week from

Iraq. We see it in the faces of the Iraqi children whose families were

decimated by those whose sole concern is privatized wealth. We witness

it in our dilapidated schools and national infrastructure. It is

visible in the elderly without health care, the millions of nameless

poor that are forced to live in abject poverty so that Bush could

execute his war. The flies are buzzing around the dung heap. This is

nothing new. People have always been deceived by their governments,

regardless of which party is in power. You see, the underlying cause

is capitalism and privatized wealth. So be careful about what you

admit into your mind. It may be hazardous to your health.

 

 

 

Charles Sullivan is a photographer, social activist and free lance

writer residing in the eastern panhandle of West Virgina. He welcomes

your comments at earthdog

 

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