News and Believing

My personal hero and mentor in so many ways, Henry David Thoreau, said that most news is mere gossip. Once you've heard about one ship wreck or train wreck, why do you have to hear of every single one that happens. Once you've figured out that man is an inhumane creature and that horrors occur every day in the lives of men, why must we dwell on these daily horrors? Once you've heard of one thrid world gov't collapsing to be replaced by a tyrrant, why do you have to hear about them all? I agree to a certain extent. What's the point? Are we to fret over each and every occasion for horror?

Thoreau was talking about the media sensationalizing events just for the fun of it, basically. Today, we have a much more insidious media. It sensationalizes non-events for the purpose of anesthetizing and manipulating the desperate masses, and they do it in a purposeful and complex manner. Although, all one has to do is follow the money.
Someday, the first part of the 21st Century will be used as a classic example of such proletariat manipulation. I shutter to think of what our descendants will think of us. How will you be remembered even 100 years from now? Voter records will be important sources of genealogical research when people are trying to decide the location and character of their ancestors.
But I digress. Take the current "Iran" crisis. The US corporate government still sees the possibility of controlling mid east oil. How the fuck they can still visualize such a farse, is beyond me, but again I digress. Of course, controlling the largest oil reserve in the world controls the majority of the money in the world. So they have fabricated this absurd senario where the Iranians are some sort of threat to the world with their pitiful little nuke program, their non-air force and their army that is equiped with all the latest 1950s hi-tech weaponry. Yea, we Americans with our gigantic, uber modern war machine that we spend unbelievable amount of money on each year should be afraid of these desert dwelling jihadists. Gimme a break.

Take the following news article. It is essential that if we attack Iran, we demonize Russia who will respond by condemning our country for once again invading another nation simply to fulfill our capitalist desires.
Russian president lashes out at West
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer

MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin harshly assailed his opponents and accused the West of meddling in Russian politics, telling a parliamentary campaign rally Wednesday that opponents at home and abroad want to weaken the country.

And nowhere in this article or any other article on Russian politics does anyone mention the fact that xenophobia is a strong part of the character of Russian culture (why is it that we expect everyone in the world to understand our politics and culture as we smash our way across the globe yet we make no effort to understand the cultures and politics of other countries?). So what. A Russian leader displays xenophobic traits in a national speech to his people. WTF do you expect? It the same old same old we've been hearing from Russian leaders for 200 years. It's nothing, but the US mass media will try to use it as a part of their fabricated international crisis over Russian politics which is part of their fabricated international crisis over Iranian nukes which comes in the wake of their fabricated international crisis over Iraqi "weapons of mass destruction."
Never forget, you ignorant proles were convinced that war on Iraq was essential because they were getting ready to attack us with "weapons of mass destruction." Do any of you feel like the ignorant morons that you are for falling for that load of shit?

So yea, it's the same old stupid shit that has been shoved down our throats for hundreds of year, but can we really ignore it when the ignorant slack jawed spew gobbling desperate proles are swallowing the lies and deception like it's manna from heaven and the corporate government relies on their ignorance to destroy our country?