Thursday, January 04, 2007

Spin & Fear

All news, it would seem, is spin. How it is reported and/or how those reporting it want to project an image is what spin is.

Read this short analysis, for a very good example of how spin is used to control national policy through public opinion:
http://newsbusters.org/node/9932

Now, how about if we throw in highway statistics into that mix? Which is the most dangerous country to live in?

Of course, except for New Orleans, different years had to be used for our cities but it was just to make quite a startling point, after all.

Should we abandon those cities here in the USA? Should we abandon the war on terror? The only way that can be won is to change how those countries that are run by despots are run. The despots have to be removed and safe harbors have to be denied to the terrorists. Once the despots are removed there will naturally be a power grab attempted by those who do not want changes made. They have to be defeated, too. That’s what’s happening in Iraq now.

It is the opinion of this writer that we’d have an easier time doing this if we did it in more places at the same time. If we had deposed the Syrian and Iranian governments at the same time that we deposed Saddam Hussein, there would have been turmoil enough in those countries to have inhibited their coordinated interference in Iraq or with each other.

At the same time, perhaps the House of Saud would have been more eager to help stop terrorism, too; or they should certainly be next. Oil be damned, these people at the top need to be eliminated and the people their take charge of their own fates. Only then would they be occupied with their own fate enough to leave others to theirs.

That would have taken a real ballsy leader, though; and that’s something the world hasn’t seen in a democratic state since WWII; and then only because there was no other option.

Of course a lot of that is due to how the news is spun, how we mostly feel about what’s happening and what needs to be done. The example shown (above) is just a small example of how our thinking is manipulated all the time by people who really don’t know what’s going on but are afraid. They fear the truth, they fear the bad guys, but they fear the power to stop them even more. That’s insane and they are taking us into that insanity with them to our destruction.

Me, I’m on my side. I want to continue living in the best country the world has ever produced. I want this country to continue being the best ever produced and to get even better; but it isn’t. It started getting worse back in the middle of last century and the decline is accelerating, thanks to the spin-masters in control of the main stream media.

Few people can withstand the spin and our elected leaders are no exception. Fear permeates society; fear to do the right thing for fear of repercussions is the killer fear that will be our demise, more even that what the terrorists can ever instill in or do to us. That is why the bureaucracies just keep growing when action is needed. Nobody wants to take responsibility so they just add layers of paper pushers to deflect it.

[How did it help to add yet another layer of bureaucracy to the Intelligence infrastructure (Homeland Security) after 9/11 help, when it was determined that the biggest problem with the Intelligence Community was too much bureaucracy to begin with? How is that even considered sane? Have we lost sight of what sanity is? Simply put (by Albert Einstein), insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Use that as a minimum definition and what does it tell you about that solution?]

Doing the right thing isn’t easy; but it is what has to be done. Watch out for the spin, that is the source of the fear.

[If you’d like to know what needs to be done or if you truly don’t understand the problems facing us, read Colonel (US Army, Ret.) David Hunt’s book, “They Just Don’t Get It How Washington is Still Compromising Your Safety – and What You Can Do About It” – he has some great ideas and presents chilling facts; but, as he’ll tell you, it’s the fear of responsibility that inhibits any good ideas from being implemented.]

The only this that I fear is that there isn't nearly enough being done to win this defining battle for Civilization and that people just don't get it.

I'm Ichabod Crane in the 21st Century, and that's what i think!

4 comments:

DR said...

Welcome From The Maritime Sentry

Ichabod Crane said...

Having never heard of this candidate I was curious why this comment would be posted here. I went to the posters website and still had a bit of a problem knowing who she was! I had to Google her name to find out she was the Governor of Alaska! (I may have discovered that had I read more postings by the author but this made my point as it was - more spin for the machine.
Here is a person supposedly endorsing a candidate for VP (unusual in and of itself) but failed to clearly define who she is. He may not have any nefarious intent but why the mystery? Where is the clarity? How will a virtually unknown governor from a state that carries so few electoral votes help anyone’s chances to win a national election? Where are the answers that his post generates? Why aren’t they there?
I have a hard enough time looking at candidates for president this far away from any election to endorse any one of them; how can anyone be campaigning for VP now? Isn't the best way to run for VP to initially run for President and let people see who she is? Then, if another candidate is ultimately chosen, the one who came in second might be the best choice for VP, wouldn’t they? (They might well bring in electoral votes; and that’s what the election is about, ultimately.) This is very strange when we see people running for second place in a race that means so much to the whole world, this far from the finish line. What does it say for leadership? "Follow me, I'm running to lose!?"
Having moderating power on comments is an odd thing; I decided to do that to see what I’d do, frankly. This one was easy, I allowed it because it does make the case I was shooting for in the original message about spin… Allowing this comment should not be seen as an endorsement for that VP candidate; it’s just an example of irony.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, our country is run by despots. People who call themselves "conservatives" have run up our debt so that it is compounding at $1.4 billion a day. We're involved in a 1300 year old civil war between Suni and Shia. We have increased our money supply %423 over the last 25 years...

Ichabod Crane said...

I don't know that the word despots applies but certainly there are far too many people in elected office who are there to serve themselves and their interest and who have been bringing us to ruin.
As to the so called civil war between Sunni and Shia; if they would have kept it to themselves it would have been bad enough; but some of them have involved the world in it, and in the name of God they kill and terrorize.
All that notwithstanding, complaining will not solve anything. We have to be up and doing.