Truth, propaganda and silence

[Cassmiranda]

Hello Everyone,

I am a new member and this is the first forum that I have ever joined so I am quite inexperienced.

Over the past few years I have become interested in how elusive truth can be to find. One thing that is abundantly clear is that the majority of the human race is being misled, misinformed and generally used. The question now is exactly who is attempting to run this show and why they are doing this. There are various views and theories and a lot to read on this topic, and I have only just begun.

I find it intriguing and horrifying that the people who control our MSM have so much power and influence. However I find it encouraging that some respected journalists are speaking about the things that need to be known. The trouble is that people need to seek out their articles because they probably won’t be in the popular media. Perhaps the biggest public service we can do at this point is to direct those around us to different news sources.

More people around me are now accepting and normalising that governments are not working in the interests of the people. There is distrust but there is also resignation, distraction (eg. sport, reality shows and the need to earn money) and denial. Of course conservative and neoliberal views are alive and well and people who speak up about deception by those in power may be pushed aside, but they are not necessarily referred to as conspiracy theorists. That label seems to be reserved for people who have other ideas :) about what is happening.

This is an edited version of an address by John Pilger at the University of Sydney titled “A World War Has Begun”. He talks about how propaganda is used to manipulate opinions and how journalists have a great deal of power to influence outcomes. He asks why there is silence and who will shatter it. It might be confronting. I have not seen his films or read any of his other work but now I will.

http://johnpilger.com/articles/a-world-war-has-begun-break-the-silence-

You can find links to his work on the website.

This is a first and I can't see how to preview it or check the link so be gentle ;)

Great to be a part of this group.

Cassmiranda

[Ewan]

It was a John Pilger book that first opened my senses to the wrongs of the world. It's as good a place as any to begin. Welcome to the forum. :)

[kirolak]

Hello, & welcome! There is a lot of info here on this subject, & everyone is always willing to help, no nasty trolls :flower:

[Cassmiranda]

Thanks so much kirolak

[shaberon]

Propaganda is pretty much the ancient and continuous story of everything. In classical Greece, infanticide was perfectly common if you had a weird or seemingly weak baby, and their soldiers would go around and slaughter groups of their own healthy, innocent farm laborers because they were healthy and "might" be able to cause trouble. This is the cherished root of our civilization.

Bakunin said you should destroy the church and state, just because. He thought that most people, left to their own devices, were much more honest and helpful than any kind of institution.

Folks are often pretty narrow about what they can tolerate. My own mother, who I think has a lot of great values and is fairly aware of the massive corruption we live in, will just totally draw the line when it comes to questioning the "system" as a whole, and if I mention anything about news coming from Russia or Iran, she dismisses it as if it's automatically worse lies than the domestically-produced ones. When you start telling anyone anything that they're not interested in, you're more likely to go backwards; it all kind of needs to be individually tailored.

I'll go out on a limb and say that there have been a few governments that were a bit more fair/helpful than their predecessors, and even of their own volition when they could have easily been tyrannical. Most are not, and given the fact that for a few centuries there have developed powers that are above the governments, there is a lot to speak against and resist; but if someone is not ready to hear, it is not my place to intrude on their privacy.