The root of the problem we face today is deceptively simple, but we're not standing up to it: our information supply. We need a sweeping change in how it works.
1. We need an Internet-based polling system to identify and prioritize the issues that matter to us. I wouldn't suggest how to craft this, only to say that it must be invented. 2. We need an information supply that provides equal space to each major different point of view on the issues. This doesn't mean ten million articles on each issue to bury us in information, but the cultivation of a new breed of editors and writers who will emerge through a "natural selection" process once the barriers (the barons) are removed. The status-quo media barons (the small handful of people who control with broad strokes what most people see on their TV and newspapers) each pretend to offer exactly this formula today, but in fact what they actually deliver is their opinions, aka sales jobs. That is, the mass media isn't "fair and balanced" as it claims to be, but instead is a marketing tool for those with the most money and power to sell their points of view, and they have gotten very, very good at it. The trouble is that it's all a sales job and not an effort to uncover and explore matters of importance to us. The rally of America behind the neocon-incited/media baron supported march into the invasion of Iraq/ME was a perfect example of how monstrous this problem really is, although there are numerous other examples, this one stands head and shoulder above the others. Imagine, just for one example, the New York Times or Time Magazine, reorganized in such a way as to provide side-by-side spreads, with the left side of the page offering a set of opinions from one school of thought, and the right side of the page offering opposing, contrasting opinions, each with equal space, and no deference to any point of view. If this cannot be achieved by turning the existing media structure inside out, then we need to replace it altogether with something different, based on the Internet pipeline. This approach is what we need, deserve and must get if we are going to advance forward and avoid war. War is not the natural course of events, but is instead the result of everything bad about human nature, beginning with ignorance. The more we know about people, the less inclined we are to want to kill them, to put it in the simple possible terms. The media barons, of course, will argue that too much information feeds confusion, that people really aren't smart enough to sort things out, and that they must be told what to think. Lucky for us, one could say, that the invasion example proves beyond any shadow of doubt just how untrue this is. The fact is that everything in our existence is defined in terms of contrast, the opposites, and when rulers and media barons interfere with this reality by sorting it out in their own terms, they not only misguide us, but can actually lead us down the path to destruction - as they did with Iraq and the ME. We don't need no stinking rulers or media barons to sort it out and lead the way. What we really need is knowledge of the issues and options, and then democratically applied (voting) solutions with follow-up reviews. The principle is simple, and parallels the democratic principles to which we claim to honor, which is simply that the consensus of an informed public will be correct more often then any ruler could ever be. The job of our information supply isn't to give us opinions, but facts. Since our existence is indeed defined by the opposites (e.g. we wouldn't know beauty without ugly; dark without light; up without down; good without evil, etc.), then it stands to reason that every fact will be contrasted by another other facts. There is no singular truth in the human experience. Perhaps it lies with God, but even if that is the case, we still have to deal with the human experience. Sorting facts and information out is difficult, but we have very clear evidence on the table today that doing so is NOT the job of rulers or media barons, but instead is a job best served by the democratic process with the best information we can deliver. Throughout history, kings and rulers have argued that "things are too complicated to trust public opinion". To this I'll respond that the Iraq/ME invasion proved, once and for all, how untrue and extremely dangerous this point of view is. People are complex, but they aren't stupid. There is evil in this world, as loads of history tells us, but as history also teaches, goodwill will prevail every time. We have the capacity for destruction, but building is what we are really all about. On this, as plainly evidenced by current events, our rulers and media barons have utterly and completely failed us - and now is the time to remove them from power. What can one person do? Vote with your feet. Ignore them. Turn off the TV; stop buying newspapers and magazines, and instead turn to emerging Internet based information sources. Encourage at every turn the development of information sources that offer a platform based on contrasting views. Bill _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: ProFox@leafe.com Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
