CULTURE OF DELUSION

Danny Schechter asks in his article ”Facts, and Understanding, Are Often in Conflict:

Living In a Culture Leads to Denial, Ignorance and Worse posted by CommonDreams.org, August 27, 2009:

“What do we have a right to know? In this web-based age, where we can Google almost everything, you'd think we would be better informed than we are.

We have Freedom of Information laws and a President who has promised transparency, offering some details on what he's doing on an easy to access website.

Yet, there is much more that we still don't know, and maybe never will

At long last, a report on CIA abuse of detainees came out, but years after the fact, and in a heavily "redacted" form—i.e. censored. Already the prosecutor chosen to prosecute says there's not enough information there to do so. Duh? “

“. . . The absence of information, pervasive media misinformation and the spin control exercised by powerful lobbies influences what people know, think, and think about. Or, more likely, don't think about! It gets even worse when people cling to beliefs even when they are not true, as if there is a need to believe, facts be damned.

One Journal reports: "In a study published in the most recent issue of the journal Sociological Inquiry, sociologists from four major research institutions focus on one of the most curious aspects of the 2004 presidential election: the strength and resilience of the belief among many Americans that Saddam Hussein was linked to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Although this belief influenced the 2004 election, they claim it did not result from pro-Bush propaganda, but from an urgent need by many Americans to seek justification for a war already in progress.”

Schecher concludes “. . .our culture not only forges consciousness but also manufactures false consciousness.”

Today in our depressed economic times while many families are hurting, much of the people are apathetic-- mesmerized by the media soundbite formulas. “ The Recession is over, the bottom is in, recovery is just ahead”

What is to be gained by such misinformation, and by whom?

Today’s media lies are more of a denial of information, rather than distortions . After the raw news has been ‘sanitized” the remainder is put in the format of entertainment then served up by attractive media personalities.

It seems that we are being set up for a huge disillusionment.

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN