I know that everybody at several points throughout their lives gets exposed to an unrealistic depiction of how the outside world works, but the dramatic change in this country's methods of supplying its people with information pertaining to many fundamental elements of our culture for the past few years have taken this concept to an overwhelming, borderline sickening level.
Never in the history of the United States has society been lied to by so many different large scale external influences on such a global scale. Those that have the power of being involved in some of the industries playing a pivotal role in the lives of many people have seemingly made a business out of hiding the truth about current events along with what goes on in the inner workings of various social climates from those who will at point depend on these truths to help secure their well being.
Whether it's politics, social norms, the media, or simply what goes on in certain work place, it appears that the population has found it okay to provide those inquiring about the reasons behind changes in society or decisions made by their leaders with fallacious explanations rather than telling them the cold, hard truth.
The primary examples lie within the world of politics and the actions they take on the people they depend on for their support and defense of their rights. We were lied to about why we went into the middle east and started raiding the supposed headquarters of terror organizations. We are still being lied as to why so many people are stuck in the desert, fighting for either an unattainable goal or just for the will to survive in such a dangerous atmosphere.
We have political leaders who lie to us about their policies, intentions, beliefs and the reasons behind what they want to accomplish and also what they have already done while in office. These people are going to have control over rules that influence our income and our rights and yet we don't really know how they will effect our lives or why they have chosen to take these actions until it is too late.
Opposing candidates lie about their opponent's goals and methods of achieving these goals and then make up misleading advertisements that portrays their opponents saying certain things in different contexts than when the words were actually spoken. These people lie about statistics, the effect different historical changes have had on society and who they really want to benefit most from their supposed policies. We don't know where our money goes when it is taxed, we don't know what the government spends their money on, and we don't even know how much control people in the government have over certain issues.
This shouldn't really worsen our mentality about the people in charge because it's safe to say that presidential candidates along with senators and congressman of all sorts lie about themselves and each other so much that we don't even know who we are electing anymore.
Perhaps the only aspect of our every day lives that have less truth in than the world of politics is public entertainment and the media. The past five or six years has brought forth a wave of what is referred to as reality television that is merely a scripted marketing tool trying to get the same messages across as conventional programming but in a different method.
The creators and producers attempt to sell clothing, real estate, basically an entire lifestyle that the television depicts as something that belongs to those who live freely with only minor inconveniences here and there. Different age groups are catered to by different shows, each of them featuring an attitude and agenda that is repeated by so many different people and shows that it seems like the norm.
We are made to believe that the way these people conduct themselves, spend their money and utilize their free time is their true nature and in no way altered by the fact that they are making a career out of making an impression on so many other people. The worst part is that even though we had many reality TV stars openly explain how far from the truth their respective characters are, the public still seems to believe that the things that happen on the show aren't influenced by anything but human nature and random turns of events.
Even our news isn't a truthful source anymore! Now that different networks have learned how to use their opinions to benefit the approval rating of the politicians they want to see in office, the idea of unbiased news is almost completely extinct. News stations claim to be reporting the truth on a certain issues when they are really just broadcasting false information usually dealing with the personality of a politician or his record in office. They tend to only focus on the actions of different political parties that go along the same lines as the pre-concieved notion their biased audience has already developed.
These networks never highlight everything a politician does, only the things they know their viewers will appreciate or solidify what they already thought. What used to be the truth on a particular issue has now been replaced by someone's opinion so they can manipulate people into thinking the same thing. They don't care about informing others, they just care about doing everything they can to prove why they are right and why anyone who believes them is now right as well.
The only explanation I can give as to why the world is so filled with lies at this moment pertains to the economic crisis. When so many industries that we depend on to bring in money are in jeopardy, alternative tactics must be taken to enforce people spending their money and not shifting their feelings towards certain businesses. It doesn't matter if people are uninformed as to how the world really works because as long as they are contributing to the industries that provide money to keep many smaller industries alive, we will be okay. Our money has become more important than our knowledge and well being.
It also seems that most people aren't given their right to be informed because if they knew what was going on behind the scenes of the businesses that run the nation, they wouldn't dare lend a hand to those who only benefit from a decrease in power from those in the lower and middle classes. We're in desperation mode, and if we all knew the secrets or explanations behind all of the aforementioned characteristics it may very well just hurt our economy and the level of trust within our system even more, which as we all know, cannot be risked at this time.
The last question is, do we all know we are being fooled and are just going along with the lies to prevent even more chaos around us? The answer is probably yes, but what many hasten to believe is that the chaos may only get worse if we keep on accepting what we know is not true.
Sean Levinson | Elite.
