By Ken Walker
Wake up
In a recent CBS/Newsweek poll which approximately 95,000 Americans were interviewed from “coast-to-coast, with a wide ranging income base,” it was found that only a bit over “three out of every ten” Americans questioned the whole subject of attacking Iraq. Some say the real problem lies in Saudi Arabia, which housed 3/4 of the suspects of the brutal September 11, 2001 incidents. Some say the problem is Bin Laden, Hussein and that whole network of sand dwellers that plot the end to America on a daily basis. Yet, the real problem is the mindless species/herd in this country that successfully tells the truth in the outcome of the CBS/Newsweek poll. If only 30 percent out of 95,000 Americans asked are questioning the whole idea of these new situations for emerging war, then what does that say about our country?
On Thursday, September 26, news was released that al-Qaeda operatives are in fact, “deep in Baghdad… and have resided there for months.” Al-Qaeda operatives, members, whatever they are labeled, are here as well. Does anyone realize that? Does anyone realize the timing of the media extravaganza happening now? This is the push to numb the herd. This is the push for reelections and the shove into a dimension where our dwindling economy is going further into war preparation (on Tuesday, the NASDAQ hit a four year low, while the Dow Jones hit a six year low). This is the push to make us all mindless and, as in the poll results, “unquestioning.” Is that what America is turning into?
Are we all just going to plop ourselves on the couch cushions, flick the TV to FOX News and be brainwashed? FOX News, according to Newsweek, is said to be owned, stock-wise, “57 percent by the EIB Networks.” The EIB Networks are those who are funded and owned partially by Rush Limbaugh and Michael Sendy, two notable Republican extremists. Time Warner owns CNN. Time Warner is so broad that they make music albums, publish books, fund film projects, and have one of the largest payrolls in the media industry. MSNBC, a subsidy of NBC, is owned by TSSC Broad. TSSC Broad is said to own parts of the fast food industry. All these channels are part of billion dollar networks or corporations. What can that tell us? They’re quick, hidden and unfocused. Sesame Street used to be brought to you by the number 2 and the letter A, which was sort of a play on commercialism. Today, Sesame Street is brought to you by the number 2 and the letter Z for Zithromax by Pfizer (Amy Goodman, Foreword). Pfizer is a pharmaceutical corporation who also owns stock in FOX News. Public broadcasting, which began in 1967 with the Carnegie Commission Report, has lost complete touch. NPR and PBS used to have true reporting, but now are “85 percent funded by listeners.” PBS is all about Masterpiece Theatre now and Sesame Street and Book Knowledge, etc.
Where is the real media? Where are the ones to trust, the ones not funded by corporate elite organizations, which stand in the top two percent of American standards? When you stand in that top two percent, you are higher than any political office holder. This is a capitalist society and so media is capitalist, but there are only three out of ten of us questioning this matter. It’s all about reasoning for truth. It’s all about human beings, not parading events like films. So why are only thirty percent of us questioning things?
Alas, Socrates notes, “The unexamined life is the life not worth living.” We must be able to personally examine our lives and our society. The only thing we have is questioning. We must always ask questions and make arguments, no matter if you’re Republican, Democrat, liberal, Green, Independent or conservative. You must ask questions to and not of your personal beliefs, or your daddy’s beliefs, whoever you speak. Speak your own but if your father or mother did a good job, like the media corporations, you’re probably too brainwashed to think for yourself anyway.
Without the power of a question, there would be no real knowledge. We must find real knowledge, not the compacted Starbucks knowledge of Fox News and CNN. We can find it in music, books, and alternative media. We must always question because the “unexamined life is the life not worth living.”
