If we didn’t have information disseminated to us via the internet or over the airwaves from radio and television, what would we really know about the rest of the world around us? I’m willing to wager that we’d wake up in the morning look outside the window and decide what the weather looked like and then dress accordingly… And that’s about it. We essentially would have no insights about other challenges or successes occurring elsewhere in our country or on our big green/blue planet.
As a result, our impressions of what is happening — that is, our notion of reality — in the Middle East, or in Europe, or in China — or for that matter — in Washington DC or on the Southern border of the United States, are all highly influenced by the tone and content selected by the media sources. That is, for good or bad, the Associated Press, New York Times, CNN, Huffington Post, and the other organizations that exist to share information, all have an undue influence on our perception of existence.
Unfortunately, controlling this information provides tremendous ‘leverage’ to nefarious groups. Those that favor tyranny (Fascists, Communists, etc.) in particular, use this selective pipeline of information to take a very simple position:
- Reality? You don’t know reality… Reality is what we tell you it is!
Of course, this is closely aligned with their primary political position:
- You don’t know what’s good for you. We’ll stay in control and take care of you.