This has always been one of my favorite allegories because
it explains so much.
If you’ve forgotten, a group of blind men encounter an
elephant and make conclusions based on very narrow observations. One holds its tail and says that an elephant
must be like a rope. Another holds a leg
and decides an elephant must be like a pillar.
And so on.
There are Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi and other variations of the
story.
Or you can look at it from the elephant’s perspective.
A bunch of blind elephants decide to determine what a man is
by direct experience. So they find a man
and the first blind elephant tests the man with his foot and decides that men
are flat. After the other blind
elephants repeat the test they agree.
The point of all these stories is that you shouldn’t make
broad assumptions based on extremely limited and possibly misleading scraps of
data.
Yet our government and media present snippets of data to
mold us to their views all the time.
Most often they do it to make a case for something that’s probably not
supported by a broader base of data, or to hide potentially damaging elements. In short, they use emotion and the public’s
ignorance of the actual facts to push public opinion where they want.
Does that mean the public is ignorant and stupid? Not necessarily.
The public may only see what politicians and the media want them to see.
Listen, if your entire information pipeline was the Philly
local evening news broadcast, like Channel 6 Action News, you’d think the
following:
·
Factories and warehouses are especially flammable
in Kensington …
·
The homes of black families are also especially flammable
…
·
If you go to West Philly or Camden at night
you’re likely to get shot …
· There's a dress code for security videos: perps
must wear hoodies and dark pants …
·
Apparently 90% of this region is black; most of the
rest don’t speak English …
·
The few prominent whites here are news anchors, old
rich people, some cops, and union leaders …
·
Most of the other white males here are low-lifes
who wear wife-beaters year-round …
·
Most white females here are obese single parents
of mixed-race children …
Have I got that pretty much dead to rights? If all you know is from Action News, that’s
your world. You don’t really want to
“get closer to your world, my friend” if it’s true.
Now of course that’s not a true representation of the
demographics of the Philly area, but who would know that unless they had access
to – and the desire to find – the true story?
If you stayed tuned for the ABC national news, on a typical
night you’d additionally infer the following from the new segments:
·
Economic recovery is well underway, except for
some group/region/city/industry …
·
Budget cuts are really hurting families that
depend on government benefits …
·
Aging baby boomers are selfish pigs bleeding the
government dry …
·
Democrats are trying to help women, working families,
the poor and minorities …
·
A lot of Republicans are misogynist, xenophobic religious
nutjobs and hypocrites …
·
The only reason things aren’t getting better
faster is because Congress is being held hostage by right-wing zealots who hate
Obama, poor people, women, minorities and immigrants …
That’s about as deep as it goes. Throw in some celebrity criminal case with
attractive people – like Jody Arias – and a splashy travelogue of Obama and/or
his family somewhere and it’s a wrap.
If you don’t fast forward through the commercials, you’ll also learn:
·
Unbeknownst to you until now, you have a serious
health problem …
·
There’s a drug to help fix whatever that is …
·
The side effects of that drug may be far worse
than the problem …
No wonder most people are ill informed about what’s happening
in their own country. And positively clueless about what’s going on anywhere
else in the world, for that matter.
Not to mention perpetually running to their doctors for prescription
drugs to treat maladies they never knew they had. Or for
new pharmacological answers to issues traditionally – and usually successfully –
treated by diet and exercise programs. But that’s a topic for another time.
In terms of what’s really happening here and abroad, there
are readily available newspapers with more details, but hardly anybody reads those
anymore. And of course there’s the
Internet, but most people only look for news online that confirms whatever they
already believe.
The real, detailed and verifiable information is always available
to anyone who cares to dig for it. It’s
just that the way it’s packaged and manipulated for mass consumption by
politicians and the media, what gets delivered is consciously designed to leave
the audience with a certain impression.
Stuff gets left out because it doesn’t fit the narrative
being promoted.
If many in the media are in cahoots with politicians – as
they appear to be now – to advance an agenda, you can’t blame the public for
not knowing what they’ve never seen or heard.
When you combine sins of commission and sins of omission, it’s
tough to know what’s missing. Or even
what the whole story might be. Add to
that intentionally misleading “issue” ads and it’s no wonder the public is
confused and why so many hold beliefs that have no basis in reality at
all.
What's really interesting is that both Republicans and Democrats accuse each other of catering
to “low-information” voters. Which is more than just a little funny. Like the pot calling the kettle black.
The truth is, both parties currently depend on
low-information voters. If the voting
public really understood the full picture – about the economy, immigration, security,
government spending and other hot button issues – I believe neither party could
survive.
Of course, that’s presuming the voting public actually cares enough
to learn the facts so they can make better, more informed decisions about the
direction the country should take.
And based on recent events, that’s a Hell of a presumption
to make.
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