The War On Hype
This is a series of opinion articles from a San Francisco papers' website, by different authors. They all take on the excessive amount of publicity that keeps us (meaning you, not me) in a constant state of fear of everything from terrorists to plagues. The purpose is to put a little perspective back in your lives, and try to snap you out of the politically motivated trap that causes people to demand more and more protections just to "make us safe". I try to stress that point whenever I can, because I know that's a fruitless pursuit. No one can ever make you safe. It's always to the benefit of the power structure that you be made to fear anything and everything since those in power want nothing more than to create more power for themselves, and less for you.
Here in America, this is not a new phenomenon, it's a natural part of any society whose leaders (in government, business, religion, media) succumb to the taste of power. Power is a force unto itself, and consumes everything and everyone in it's wake. No matter how benevolent it is at birth, it always grows, if allowed, into an unstoppable entity that will sooner or later become intolerable to even the most meek and tolerant. Some societies are created by force, to overcome a previous force, and retain that ideology of force. Others, like ours, used force to overthrow colonial governance, and replaced it with governance by consent.
The problem today is one that grew throughout the last century. It grew from a desire to act outside of the wishes of the governed. Because dictitorial force was considered anti-American, a method other than pure force was used; manipulation. Our society has fallen victim to mass propaganda efforts designed to allow authority to take greater and greater power over every aspect of our lives, by convincing us that "it's for our own good". It's done subtly through the media, government, and the pulpit. It's done through marketing campaigns that gauge your current opinions, and devise ways of altering it to serve the purposes of others. Leaders learned that if you can be easily manipulated into buying a certain brand of food, car, or household product, you can be manipulated into accepting anything. If a marketing campaign can be established to convince you that you can't live without a new product that you never needed before, and could still do without, you're putty in their hands. All they have to do is market fear.
The only protection is awareness, and to that end, I submit these articles:
Link
Here in America, this is not a new phenomenon, it's a natural part of any society whose leaders (in government, business, religion, media) succumb to the taste of power. Power is a force unto itself, and consumes everything and everyone in it's wake. No matter how benevolent it is at birth, it always grows, if allowed, into an unstoppable entity that will sooner or later become intolerable to even the most meek and tolerant. Some societies are created by force, to overcome a previous force, and retain that ideology of force. Others, like ours, used force to overthrow colonial governance, and replaced it with governance by consent.
The problem today is one that grew throughout the last century. It grew from a desire to act outside of the wishes of the governed. Because dictitorial force was considered anti-American, a method other than pure force was used; manipulation. Our society has fallen victim to mass propaganda efforts designed to allow authority to take greater and greater power over every aspect of our lives, by convincing us that "it's for our own good". It's done subtly through the media, government, and the pulpit. It's done through marketing campaigns that gauge your current opinions, and devise ways of altering it to serve the purposes of others. Leaders learned that if you can be easily manipulated into buying a certain brand of food, car, or household product, you can be manipulated into accepting anything. If a marketing campaign can be established to convince you that you can't live without a new product that you never needed before, and could still do without, you're putty in their hands. All they have to do is market fear.
The only protection is awareness, and to that end, I submit these articles:
"Conventional wisdom says that none of us is safe from terrorism. The truth is that almost all of us are."
"The conventional belief is that in response to terrorism, the federal government has spent huge sums on homeland security. The fact is the increased federal spending on homeland security since Sept. 11 pales in comparison to increases in the U.S. defense budget. But homeland security has costs beyond spending, costs that conventional thinking rarely considers. U.S. homeland security policy conjures up a flawless enemy that could strike at any moment, in any place. That policy institutionalizes the fears terrorists created and harms liberal values."
"Rest easy, America. As a response to the Sept. 11 attacks, the Princeton, N.J., Fire Department now owns Nautilus exercise equipment, free weights and a Bowflex machine. The police dogs of Columbus, Ohio, are protected by Kevlar vests, thank God. Mason County, Wash., is the proud owner of a half-dozen state-of-the-art emergency radios (never mind that they are incompatible with existing county radios)."
"All of these crucial purchases -- and many more like them -- were paid for with homeland security grants."
"Americans receive a steady stream of warnings and alarms about new and horrific perils that await them. Pandemics, dirty bombs, cyber attacks, bioterror and other exotic threats are always on the verge of being unleashed onto a shamefully unprepared republic. Yet, judging from statistics on life expectancy, violent deaths and war, we live in much less perilous times than any generation before us."
posted by Fred | 2/25/2006 10:04:00 AM
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