While the media obviously cannot dictate how we are to think, they certainly set the agenda on what we are to think about. Who has the time for tedious stories of government conspiracies and financial manipulations when the newspapers and airwaves are filled with crime, accidents and celebrities? Who bothers to notice when a prime-time TV network "breaking news" story contains nothing but sports scores? For most people - perhaps the majority - avoid real issues and things that are of substance and of great importance to our country's and our own survival. So they bury their minds in the safe, conventional world of the local newspaper and their favorite pundit on Fox News or CNN, who nightly tells them everything is really ok - just after delivering the day's litany of death and sorrow. These people then assure themselves they are well informed.
Added to this self-assurance is the regular media infusion of conventional thinking by various so called "experts," most of whom owe their livelihood to government in one way or another. Most yield to the immense pressure of the status quo and say nothing publicly that might cause controversy. Those who do are usually branded as kooks or profit seekers.
The truly skeptical must evaluate experts - particularly government experts - in the same manner they would any individual: Has this source proven trustworthy in the past? Unfortunately, the government's track record in the veracity is shameful. If the U.S. government were an individual, no one would have anything to do with him.
To get beyond such a restrictive mind-set, one must be open to all possibilities - to seriously consider alternative theories and explanations. One most look past the media pundits who narrowly define the issues and paradigms of the day. One must seek truth in whatever form it may appear - whether in alternative publications, video documentaries, newsletters or even comic books. Only after absorbing as much information as possible, can the thoughtful individual being to gain the overview necessary to determine the realities at hand.
James E. Smith,
Tiffin
