Informed Knowledge, Common Sense and Independence of Thought

Have We Lost Informed Knowledge, Common Sense and Independence of Thought In This Country?

It was (still is, I think) that two plus two equals four. The first time I saw that equation in first grade, the teacher spoke the words representing the numbers out loud, as she read the number sentence. It was there for me to see and read, in black and white. I could see the statement was true using my deductive reasoning. It made sense. I accepted it as fact.

I would assume that most people in this country learned arithmetic and how to make sense of what they read in the same way. Informed knowledge tested against one’s common sense, independence of personal thought and acceptance of fact. So why is it when Americans read the September 11 Commission’s Report they still can’t read what is written in black and white, use their own common sense, know and accept what it says. I am referring to the statements on pages 61, 66 and 134, whereas the September 11 Commission specifically reads of the “connections” which existed between Saddam Hussein’s regime and the Al Qaeda network.

There are no ifs, buts or maybes about it, the September 11 Commission makes this clear. Yet Lee Hamilton, vice chairman of the Commission had to repeat the assertion by saying “There were contacts between Al Qaeda and Iraq going back clear to the early 1990s, when Osama bin Laden was in Sudan, then when he was in Afghanistan. I don’t think there’s any dispute about that.” to make the point once again. Still a senior senator from Arkansas, Blanche Lincoln was recently quick to claim there really wasn’t much of a connection between Saddam’s regime and Al Qaeda in challenging a statement by Vice President Dick Cheney that such a connection did exist. As a senior senator of her state, she should have read the bipartisan report and used some common sense to connect the dots that are created in the report. And she should read the quotes in the report of Richard C. Clarke, the former counter terrorism chief of the Clinton and the Bush administrations attesting to the connection.

Yes, it is the same Richard C. Clarke, who was claiming there was “no connection” between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein’s regime. Now Clarke is sited in the report as having testified that if the US had apprised the Pakistanis of a U-2 flight to track down Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, and the Pakistanis had warned bin Laden, bin Laden might “boogie to Baghdad” and once there it would be “virtually impossible” to track him down. Clarke also warned that bin Laden, once in Baghdad, would put his terrorist network at Saddam Hussein’s service. In his testimony Mr. Clarke was able to make two plus two equal four, the Commission was able to do the same, so why can’t many Americans and the American media use some common sense and accept the facts.

For years now it appears that many of us in this country will believe only what we want to believe. We are fed carefully selected news by our favorite choice of media. We read or hear from them that “the emperor (metaphor for any hot topic in the news) has new clothes” and we believe it, even if our own eyes and common sense tells us otherwise.

It is astounding that we Americans have become so willing to give up our own sense of what we personally can distinguish as good or bad information. Our innate sense of our own truth should be telling us in our own hearts and minds what are the real and true facts. But we have allowed ourselves to succumb to the fuzzy and the multiple shades of gray presented to us by the media, and we have let it cast a cloud over our common sense.

We have even relinquished our individual independence of thought on which we base our thinking, our beliefs, and ultimately our decisions. We now unquestionably tow a party’s prejudices, a party’s biases, and a party’s line. We are blind to the reinforcement by what we read or hear in the media or newspaper of our choice. And we accept limited knowledge as the whole truth.

We are in grave danger of losing our greatest ability in the country, exercising free thought. Given the freedom of the press and free speech, we have the opportunity and ability to be well and roundly informed, so we can make good, sound judgments.

Ask yourself seriously do you really want someone else telling you what to think? When we limited ourselves to one-sided knowledge, we have handed our minds, our decision-making, and ourselves over to the dictators of that knowledge or news.

Lastly, we are in the gravest danger of becoming a deeply divided, weak and almost brain-dead nation of sheep, each herd led by their wisdom meistered pied pipers who play only the songs we want to hear as we are lulled off into the deep dark woods of a national future in a very dangerous world.

Reflections on Mankind

Further reflection on January 1, 2005 entry

N,

I had posted this commentary on my blog but don't think I sent it to you. It is too lengthy for me to write out again, so I sending it here. It is rare of me to write thoughts such as these which have an underlining concept (sins of the father perpetuating continued hate and war throughout the world) and not just the wondering outloud about whether man has or can access his "higher state of being" and solve world problems.

I've long felt that money (lots of it) usually makes friends of enemies, I just hadn't recognized the seriousness of us whoring our values and integrity to obtain it. I'm not talking about making peace with the enemy, but letting thousands of guys (in the case of Vietnam) and elsewhere, men, women and children, losing life and limb for "wars and causes" that the powers that be never really believed in in the first place, but gave themselves a "trial" at success, throwing bodies and equipment towards the masses who "were" in life the opposite ideology.

There it is again that base element in man.

Can You Trust What You See or Read In Today's Mass Media?

I am writing this article off the top of my head, so it won't have all the quotes and footnotes to support my thoughts about how "You can't trust what you read in today's mass media", but I can assure you this article will make you think!

Just this week there was a poll published that claimed by the results that most Democrats in the U.S. read and go by as truth and fact what they learn via the MSM, aka (otherwise known as) the "Main Stream Media" which is the major news networks such as ABC, NBC,CBS and papers such as The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post to name the major outlet where people get their news and information. I might add here too that all of these outlets are considered to be "liberal" by most of their public audiences.

Republicans seem to get their news from Fox News and conservative newspapers and magazines, none which are so big as to dominate the conservative or moderate media market that they can be readily named.

Now having stated the two sides, which sometimes appears as enemies in the war for influencing the opinions of the U.S. public, (whether it be on The War in Iraq, Terrorism and the Security of our Borders, Illegal Immigration, Abortion, Taxes and even the cause of the rising cost of gasoline) do you believe in what you know at this moment on any of these subjects because you have researched both sides of the issue and then came to you conclusions, belief and opinion on the matter? Or did you just watch your favorite evening news broadcast and broadcaster, and peruse through your preferred newspaper over breakfast or dinner and let the media tell you their version of today's current events.

Did you know that just recently Reuters Wire Service fired a freelance photographer for "doctoring up" a picture he took of the war in south Lebanon? He has been working for them for the last three years and this breach of ethics was just discovered. Do you realize that crucial statements, facts or quotes can be left out of a report or "taken out of context" of a press conference, a public event, an interview and be slanted to appear unrecognizable from what really occurred or was said?

Has it ever crossed your mind as you are reading, watching or hearing any news that you might be getting only one side of the story? Look at the "front page" of your newspaper tomorrow morning and look to see if the "hard news' or the "straight news" as in "just the facts" articles answer only the five Ws of journalism 101 News Reporting, who, what, where, when, and why! Chances are the lead article has the newspaper's editorial opinion written not only in the lead paragraph but throughout the entire article, as will all the other articles on that front page.

The solution? Don't open wide when you're reading or watching the news while you eat your breakfast or drink your morning coffee. Don't eat up all that the Main Stream Media or Mass Media dishes as food for your mind, information for your American heart and soul. Be a little discriminate in accepting what you’re read and hear and see. Do a little research on your own, have a discussion with the other side, check the facts, and then independently make up your own mind.

You can't go down the wrong path like one of the sheep being led to the(political, financial, social) slaughter if you do your own homework gathering your news and making informed decisions based on "just the facts madam" which are more likely to be the truth and reality.