Wednesday, February 28, 2007

What we think about

From The Spirit's Sword
I think of the Read Report from the early seventies. The report was commissioned by the federal governement to look into the influence of newspapers on Canadian society, specifically, did newspapers control what Canadians thought? The answer to that question, according to the report was, in paraphrase: no, not exactly. Canadians often disagreed with the opinions they found in the papers. So newspapers did not control what Canadians thought. But on the other hand, Canadians debated the news they were presented endlessly, and they got that news from the papers. Therefore, while newspapers did not Control what Canadians thought, to a great degree they did control what Canadians thought about.
And here we are. Corpses and haircuts, stars on red carpets, who is in rehab and who is not in rehab and who is back in rehab, and the affairs and breakups, followed by more affairs, and more breakups. It is like living in a sewer, surrounded by filth and rats. At most I feel pity for the people involved, and offer prayers that they may turn and see the Truth. But to know about these people and to know why we know about these people is to be degraded.
Yeah, that is thought control. You can have your opinion, but they control the topics. And as noted, the topics usually are nothing but gossip.

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