Back in 2005 when I lived in San Francisco, my older brother and I used to do this thing
where we would compare the top news stories in Finland and California. I was absolutely shocked by how different the world news was. It really opened my eyes and made me start searching for my own answers. Thankfully I was exposed to media bias early on, I was only 19 then and I haven’t watched TV ever since.
The longer I have been “away” from the news, the more absurd the flashes of front pages seem to me. Murder, sex, money, and sports. Oh, and must not forget pedophilia and cancer. Is there really no better way to spend our precious time and energy than to read the same stories of misery day after day? The news has got nothing to do with information any longer, they manipulate and hide so many aspects of the truth of any situation that it is impossible to know what really is going on and why.
It is absolutely clear to me that the news is only there to show us as much violence and injustice as possible just so that we would accept that the world is evil and that there is nothing we can do about it. The amount of wrong that we are exposed to is so overwhelming, that it has become the norm for us. The news absolutely numbs our sense of justice, and kills our will to act or take any responsibility. We are made silent witnesses of horrid crimes. It is a means of control, of course. We are paralysed in front of our TV screens and newspapers.
It is absolutely clear to me that the news is only there to show us as much violence and injustice as possible just so that we would accept that the world is evil and that there is nothing we can do about it. The amount of wrong that we are exposed to is so overwhelming, that it has become the norm for us. The news absolutely numbs our sense of justice, and kills our will to act or take any responsibility. We are made silent witnesses of horrid crimes. It is a means of control, of course. We are paralysed in front of our TV screens and newspapers.
But there is so much we can do! First of all, we can stop following the news and disconnect ourselves from the massive brainwashing machinery. What I for example do instead, is get updates from campaign networks and organisations like Amnesty International, Care2, SumOfUs and Avaaz, who are actually doing something about the atrocities blasted in neon screens and fat fonts. It feels great to be able to take action straight away - like sign a petition, send a direct appeal on an email or donate money. And these people share good news as well, which is completely missing from the conventional news feed. Of course nothing stops us from starting our own campaigns, demonstrations or petitions either.
The film The Matrix is frighteningly true when it comes to depicting an illusionary world. We really are controlled and used by similar forces to the machines in the film, only in our case they are gigantic emotionless media corporations. They carefully create this web of lies around us, shape our view so that we only see what they want us to see. Many of our thoughts and opinions are not even ours, they are implanted deep in our minds so masterfully that we have no idea of their true origin. How else is it possible that we can justify the genocide of Palestinians, factory farming, starvation or usury? We are all programmed to worship the same god of money and fear. This whole Western society, this upside down system, completely depends on the "sleeping people", their inability to take control of their own lives, and their unwillingness to wake up.
But the story doesn't end there.
Not all of us are asleep.
And not all of us will let the sleeping stay asleep.
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