Turn Your Fucking Television Off
I'm reminded of a story my Dad told me a few years back. You see, I spent a chunk of my youth without a television, and this relates a bit to that fact. We were talking about the media and paranoia and how the media feeds into that feeling of being in danger's path. He was talking about some friends of the family and how they had armed themselves (gone out and purchased guns and ammo) against the inevitable attacks about to be laid against their persons and property. Dad described how these people, well educated, intelligent people who lived in a gated community, were terrified of the world. He then said, "I think it's from watching the news. You know, son, when we didn't have a TV, we didn't know how 'dangerous' the world was. These folks who watch the news every night, they're scared out of their gourd because all they hear about is crime and murder and theft and violence."
It's true. My family lived for about seven years in a state of sheltered bliss. A fifty-word blurb in the morning paper doesn't have as much impact as some tense-voiced caster intoning, "Tonight in the Metro, the third shooting in as many weeks sends another innocent bystander to the hospital. What can the community do to be safe? We'll have that story tonight at eleven."
The first line of defense against terror is a broad, healthy perspective on the realities of the world. The first line of attack in the war of terror is to narrow that perspective to the very worst and most troubling elements of the world. This is done through the media. They do not make this attack because they are "one of them" bent on destroying our social order, but because this method of sharing information has proven over time to net the biggest gains for the owners of the media outlets.
