The Ministry of Truth Marches On
I had made a posting on Christmas Eve, which I concluded by wishing my readers a Merry Christmas, noting that this would be the subject of a future blog. I had intended to write something about the absurd "Christmas Under Attack" theme that was being promoted by Fox News (a/k/a "Faux News") and other right-wing outlets. ("Boxing Day Under Attack" would really be more accurate -- when was the last time anyone wished you a Happy Boxing Day?). I have subsequently seen quite a bit written about this and I concluded that I really did not have much to add to the discussion.
However, I do want to pass along an interesting and illustrative anecdote. On Christmas Eve, my wife and I had come home from a frenetic bout of last-minute shopping, and we had one of those experiences of simultaneously saying that we wanted to relate to each other an interesting incident we had witnessed during the day. It turned out that the incidents were virtually identical. We had both been in lines at different stores and when the cashier completed the transaction, she wished us a Merry Christmas. In both of our incidents, the person on line behind us made a comment that was something like, "Well, I'm surprised that the store still lets you say that -- I thought that Christmas had been outlawed!"
I really found this experience quite chilling. It was as though Bill O'Reilly had occupied the bodies of the people standing in line and was like one of those aliens in "Independence Day," using the mouths of these people to speak for him. I mean, here we were standing in stores in which the symbols of Christmas were literally everywhere, yet these people were still expressing the opinion that Christmas was somehow under attack. And it is even more frightening when you think about the fact that both my wife and I had experiences that were virtually identical.
As Orwell would have explained, none of this should have come as a surprise. It is simply a manifestation of what happens when you have an efficient propaganda operation doing its job. Just as War can be made to equal Peace, so too can a society which is virtually obsessed with Christmas be converted into a society that allegedly subjects Christmas to ruthless attack. Propaganda causes people to reject all objective evidence and believe that which the propagandist promotes, regardless of the facts.
Sound familiar? How else could a genuine war hero be converted into a coward and a genuine coward be converted into a war hero? How else could the catastrophe that is the Iraq War be converted into America's finest hour?
Once again, Consortium News said it best: "It's The Media, Stupid!" We know the source of the disease; if we could only find a cure.
Again, I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and may the New Year bring some good news for a change.
However, I do want to pass along an interesting and illustrative anecdote. On Christmas Eve, my wife and I had come home from a frenetic bout of last-minute shopping, and we had one of those experiences of simultaneously saying that we wanted to relate to each other an interesting incident we had witnessed during the day. It turned out that the incidents were virtually identical. We had both been in lines at different stores and when the cashier completed the transaction, she wished us a Merry Christmas. In both of our incidents, the person on line behind us made a comment that was something like, "Well, I'm surprised that the store still lets you say that -- I thought that Christmas had been outlawed!"
I really found this experience quite chilling. It was as though Bill O'Reilly had occupied the bodies of the people standing in line and was like one of those aliens in "Independence Day," using the mouths of these people to speak for him. I mean, here we were standing in stores in which the symbols of Christmas were literally everywhere, yet these people were still expressing the opinion that Christmas was somehow under attack. And it is even more frightening when you think about the fact that both my wife and I had experiences that were virtually identical.
As Orwell would have explained, none of this should have come as a surprise. It is simply a manifestation of what happens when you have an efficient propaganda operation doing its job. Just as War can be made to equal Peace, so too can a society which is virtually obsessed with Christmas be converted into a society that allegedly subjects Christmas to ruthless attack. Propaganda causes people to reject all objective evidence and believe that which the propagandist promotes, regardless of the facts.
Sound familiar? How else could a genuine war hero be converted into a coward and a genuine coward be converted into a war hero? How else could the catastrophe that is the Iraq War be converted into America's finest hour?
Once again, Consortium News said it best: "It's The Media, Stupid!" We know the source of the disease; if we could only find a cure.
Again, I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and may the New Year bring some good news for a change.
posted by democratic core at 6:57 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home