I read some utterly laughable pieces of ‘journalism’ today at ABCNEWS.COM. One was about how to talk to your children about war. It had some pretty funny parts that I think should be quoted. “That happens with countries, too. One country does something terribly wrong, like blowing up those buildings, and they won’t let the people who were responsible be punished. To make sure something like that never happens again, our government is going to send a lot of our soldiers to that country to force the people who did these bad things to be punished. Just like policemen catch and punish bad people in our country, soldiers catch and punish bad people in other countries.” It shows how easily basic assumptions are fostered in our society without the benefit of nuance and complexity or any regard for grasping the actuality of a given situation. Where do people get the idea that war is good, or that law enforcement is here simply for your safety and protection? It turns out that the fairy tales we’re told as children aren’t just the normal ones like bible stories or the existence of the easter bunny and Santa Claus. The brain scrubbing starts young. Children know the score. We don’t give them enough credit.
The other piece was even more funny. The tagline was this: “Will Sept. 11 change our apolitical, slacker youth?”. The article as you can imagine is a generous helping a fluff with some potentially worthwhile bits. I can just imagine a pillar of the community type, white joe six pack at his breakfast table reading something like this shaking his head saying, “Dear God, help our children be more patriotic.” It does however mention the ability of the internet to provide alternate sources of opinion. Although there is quite a consensus among the mainstream media about what should be done with regards to the WTC crash/disaster. The online outlets are not quite so inflexible with their dogma. I think the media suffer from the assumption that Americans don’t want the truth which might be true in some part but does nothing to help things get better. I think the government and the media will find themselves in a predicament if they focus too heavily on international issues. It may foster an interest in what’s going on around the world that could be damaging to the American party line we’re all supposed to support.
There was a illuminating article in the BBC that blames the fight for net freedoms partially on the terrorist attacks. It is illuminating because it shows how troubled world governments are by basic issues of freedom. People having been demanding more freedom from the world’s leading so-called democracies. There has been a similar attempt to scape-goat technologies that threaten the power of law-enforcement like encryption. This kind of attack on the movement towards greater liberty could have the effect of criminalizing anyone who supports such ideals. It reminds me of an American propaganda piece from the 50’s about how to spot a communist. Look for people who like to read or advocate a position that goes against the American government. The same thing could be applied in this case. People who advocate the right to view pornography, to use encryption could be identified as enemies of the state.