My Orwellian Nightmare

So this month, with little notice we have this ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/world/europe/07georgia.html?_r=2&ref=europe&oref=slogin

So we forgive the newspapers of that time, 'Thousands Flee in the face of the Red Scare'?

After the sorrow that i felt in August of this year, and wrote to my friends then...

Guys i have been so depressed, i have spent this month fretting with and such because i... here in Europe, on August 7 my husband i could read on the news that hostilities had broken out between Ossetians and the Georgian government. Russia came in afterwards to stop it, but three days later all the news in the west was saying the opposite. This aggression, started by the Russians, it said....talk about an Orwellian feeling. Around the world young people and old have shouted out, here is two old guys who are trying to speak out but i don't know if people are hearing them Pat Buchanen (if this video is deleted just search intermittently til someone posts it again) http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=UBRl-BvKJII and Gorbachev in the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/20/opinion/20gorbachev.html?_r=1&oref=slogin When this is behind us someday, the powers that be can simply claim they did what they could with the information that they had. An excuse that wears thin in the information age. But let this be a huge wake up call to us all, don't let it be as painful for you as it was for me to accept. How much have we criticized the governments of Bellusconi or Putin for being false democracies by controlling the mass media? There is no need to make a mockery of the intelligence of a literate public. The huge gaps and leaks come from the media itself, who feel cheated. A retiree said, 'The Philadelphia Inquirer, which was a very respectable paper, having won a number of Pulitzers was bought by an ad agency executive and the local Chamber of Commerce. Foreign Bureaus were closed, the paper is now dumbed down and just shell of itself. It isn't the only one to go that route. I'd use the Internet to monitor media coverage in the US just for fun. ' What should we do. I think most people submit to the euphism, 'all media lies anyway', and block it out, don't question the discrepencies, and are only swayed to make a decision based on how much they hate the alternative. Trust me this phenomenon is nothing new at all. Our music, poetry, and film for decades has articulated these issues. Personally my advice to everyone is to keep alert, read, research, don't be swayed by extreemist views. Interesting that anarchists, revolutionary Marxist Communists and libertarian neo-conservatives have so much in common. In their most extreemist form,they strive to throw off the confines of government, have an every-man-for-himself atttitude, and agree that if anyone has too much we should steal it from him. The fruit of the last few years mindset has allowed the acceptance of such things as this, http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN1538661720080815 See how much information and opportunity you can find lately on the types of government (or other outlets) who promote moderation, provide for the health and self confidence of its citizens, look for cross debates on economics.... For myself, i have decided, if religion, media and politics are all in agreement, its probably not a democracy. This is a concern for ALL people, whatever your poltical views are, unless democracy is not what you want. So our enemy is not some world totalitarian government that horifies you into inaction. It's our ignorance and apathy. Learn how to scrutinize your input. Its not a party issue to ask who sponsers your programming, who is that 'expert employed by, etc. That guy retired from the navy when? what does he know about Iran this week? That expert is from 'Coalition for the what? I don't see any reference on them anywhere, did that webpage pop up this week? The headline was so alarmist, but the actual article does little or nothing to back it up. Does this information assume my memory is less than three days old? Do they insult my intelligence by ignoring history? So check your sources, learn a bit about the PR industry, lobby groups,(the richest counties in America are funded how?) what a media mogul is, read and consider other countries news,(yeah radical) etc. XOXO Teresa