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Nan DeVincent-Hayes, Ph.D
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Lies We’ve become a society of lovers
of non-fiction, especially the pithy, how-to types.
One of those quick, easy reads is You Are Being Lied To
by editor, Russ Kick, 2001, published by The Disinformation Company,
which pretty much defines the book’s entire contents. Its complete
subtitle is “The Disinformation Guide to Media Distortion,
Historical Whitewashes, and Cultural Myths.” In it, Kick offers a compendium of articles by noted authors on what the
state of the world is. For
example, one section is on “The News and Other Manipulators”
where the likes of world-famous author Noam Chomsky discusses how
the media controls our lives, giving us whatever
misinformation or disinformation they deem appropriate.
Normon Solomon’s article, “Journalists Doing
Somersaults,” tells us that only a handful of people own the
world’s media and that they dictate what they want us to know or
not know in their preferred versions. In the section on “Tripping,” Charles Bufe relates the lies about
the AA while author Dan Russell pens, The Unconscious Roots of
the Drug War. In an
interview with Allen Smith we learn Who’s Who in Hell in
the section on “Holy Rolling.” Other sections include “The Big Picture” (how things
really fit together in this world as mandated by others, and how
unimportant we are in it); “Blinded by Science (cloning,
archeology, environmentalism); “Condemned to Repeat It
(conspiracies, the ideology of Western Civilization); “The Social
Fabrication” (media violence, alternative groups, art);
“Official Versions” (school shootings, votescam, Rabin murder
cover-up); and “Politricks” (The War Secrets Senator, oil,
terrorism). Each section gives insight as to: How this world is becoming a global
society not so much for the benefit of us small people but more so
for the wealth of the conglomerates; how we are losing our rights;
how the government is corrupt and has pre-planned the route we’re
taking; how the many people (respected and ridiculed) are behind the
transcontinental collusion for a New World Order; and how we are not
being told the truth on just about everything. Chomsky, for example, says, “...the elite media, sometimes called the
agenda-setting media because they are with the big resources...set the
frameworks in which everyone else operates....[and] if you get out of
line and produce stories that the elite press doesn’t like, you’re
likely to hear about it.” He
also claims that universities are non-independent thinkers
ruled by the media and the elite: “Those of you who have been
through college know that the educational system is highly geared to
rewarding conformity and obedience; if you don’t do that, you’re a
troublemaker. So it [education] is a kind of filtering device ...for
people who are really trying to internalize the framework...” That might explain the lack of creativity in our students.
Adds Chomsky, “The media believes that the general population are
‘ignorant and meddlesome outsiders.’” Normon Solomon offers correlative views: “Freedom of the press is
guaranteed only to those who own one....In 2000, half-a-dozen
corporations owned the media outlets that control most of the news and
information flow in the United States.” Imagine: Only six big
corporations internationally own all the media. This is the push for
globalization, a one-world society. “The media system in a democracy
should not be...dominated by a few very powerful interests.” But if Chomsky and Solomon are tough on the media, more writers in the
book have attacked other underhanded American activities, such as seen
in Earl Lee’s “School Textbooks” where we’re told that what
our children are taught is either altered history or cherished
mythology, and that religion is seldom treated in textbooks
(especially creation vs evolution controversy), and many of which
textbooks are erroneous anyway. In the “Politricks” section, Ali
Abunimah says about terrorism, “Latin America and Europe have each
accounted for a greater number of terrorist attacks than the Middle
East and Asia combined.” One wonders if he would have said that
after the 9/11 horror. If you want to read something that wakens your dulled senses, turns your
thinking upside down, pushes you out of your comfortable apathy, then
take a look at this book. The nice thing is that each article is
self-contained so you can read for as how long you desire. I give it six mighty pens.
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