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TV by James Good
In 1966 Timothy Leary used the phrase, "turn on, tune in, drop out." It is quite obsolete today, I think few of us still believe that psychedelics hold the answers. It has gone too far for that, the problems that we face are external. There is no mantra to save us; it might comfort us and calm us but outside the madness still goes on.
However, the other two-thirds of his triad are still relevant. We are the most propagandized people on planet Earth. Daily bombarded with mindless chatter about toothpaste, deodorant and car insurance. Thousands upon thousands of messages from television, radio and the internet all driven into our heads. Where do you suppose all of those messages go? They become the crowd noise of collective group think.
Which cell phone is better? What TV show is the best? And oh, I hate that guy on Fox, or CNN or MSNBC. For the last decade or longer, America has endured a constant barrage of fear-based messages. Messages of bigotry and hate of violence and intolerance.
I hesitated to write about the TSA and their radioactive scanners, mainly because it is a story so well covered. I don't want to chase after a story already widely reported; instead I watched and I followed the story. I read the CBS news poll that said that Americans by a 2-to-1 margin were all right with the scanners. Then underneath the official story I read the 451 comments that said that they weren't all right with the scanners and the groping.
I read this same CBS poll reposted at Bloomberg and then I read the TSA administrator Pistole warn that officials won't tolerate any needless displays. Then tonight, I read another story explaining that, since there are only 400 machines in operation, holiday flying really shouldn't be a problem.
If the CBS poll is correct, why is Mr. Pistole publicly commenting? If the opt-out campaign has no legs, why is Mr. Pistole threatening? If there are no cancellations, why the conciliatory stories discounting the use of scanners and pat-down searches?
This is message control, the government controlling the message broadcast to the public. Most of the time it works and then sometimes there's, "Heck of a job there Brownie!" For a brief second you can see behind the curtain; that what is being presented as news is really nothing more than play acting.
I was reading a book about the D-day invasion and a GI was guarding a group of German prisoners. One of the prisoners looked at the GI and said, "You have won this battle, but what about New York?"
The GI asked, "what about New York?"
The German smiled and explained, "haven't you heard? Our Luftwaffe has bombed it into smoldering ruins!"
"Strange," the GI answered, "My wife didn't say nuttin about it in her letters."
If you read the comments about the TSA on any mainstream website, people blame Obama and they blame Bush and they blame Muslims. They blame the New World Order and gays and especially Barney Frank. If you read these comments on such sites as Yahoo you will truly fear for your country. These people know much, but almost none of it is true. They still talk about how grateful the Iraqi people are because we got rid of Saddam for them.
They still talk about Muslims being responsible for 9-11. Did Lutherans and Catholics invade France in 1940? The truth is, that this is cheap political cronyism. Revolving door government. Michael Chertoff the former secretary of the Department of Homeland Security represents the company selling these radioactive scanners. The Europeans passed on them and the Israelis said no, as well. So Chertoff comes back to visit his old office buddies and walks away with a $25 million order.
Trouble is, when the TSA put the scanners in its budget request, the House of Representatives said "No." The TSA bought them anyway. That was wrong, but who will take them to task? Barack Obama? Not in this lifetime, he fires the innocent and covers up the guilty. He has to, it is all about public perception. A scandal at the Department of Homeland Security and the Yahoos would be shouting that this Kenyan, Muslim, Communist who is trying to destroy America isn't keeping us safe.
Leary was wrong, it should be, "turn off." Turn off your TV, turn off your radio, think! Let you and your mind decompress from the media's full-court pressure cooker. They are only telling you what they want you want to hear. "We're BP and we care about the environment. Hungry? Run on down to McDonald's and eat a nasty preservative-laden piece of slime, and while you're there, pick up a game piece for your snowball's chance in hell of winning a big prize!
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