Several Weeks ago I published an article here at Magic City Morning Star News entitled: Western Cultural Perceptions of China in which I stated:
- I think it would surprise some westerners to read what appears in the Chinese Press. People in China whilst generally conscious of the political control that does exist, do not think of themselves as 'oppressed' and laugh when told that the western perception of Chinese people is that they are not 'free'. Life in China is as normal as life anywhere else. One does not live in fear of the government, and one certainly does not fear for their safety in public places, with the exception of course of motorized traffic.
One of the columnists wrote me an email enquiring about the perceptions that Chinese have of the U.S.A. and in his email he made the following statements:
- American media is horribly biased. Media reports tell us and the world that everything in America is corruption and crisis. Sex and sin dominate. Government officials are all corrupt and corporate officials place greed for money far ahead of service to customers. America is a land of fires, hurricanes, murders, child molesters, endangered species, carbon emissions and environmental degradation. That what the TV folks throw at us every day. "If it bleeds, it leads."
Newspapers such as the New York Times are so left-wing and disgusting that they are losing circulation rapidly. Fewer and fewer people want to read their daily dishing of garbage.
Movies, videos and television programs produce visions of incompetent and disfunctional Americans, with embedded Laugh Tracks played at intervals of five seconds while nothing funny ever happens.
If I knew America only through America's media output, I would probably agree with the Arab Terrorists that America truly is a Great Satan. It's an Orwellian distortion of the truth. America has no resemblence to America's media image seen by the rest of the world.
You only need to read the various views of different writers about the 2008 Presidential Candidates to realise that the general public are constantly being pulled this way and that as opposing worldviews vie for support. This of course is to be expected, but it does raise the question "What is the truth?"
Quite some time ago I wrote a lengthy piece on just that topic at Kingscalendar entitled: What is Truth? A Political Camera Angle! Within that article I pointed out that we are virtually at the mercy of Media and Political Activist agendas, basically because we live in a 'fast food' world, where we just want everything dished up to us on a plate, predigested for us, just to make life easier.
The trouble is, that whilst it is essential to have freedom of the press in a democracy, unless we take time out to digest what we have been served, and check out the 'alleged facts' presented to us, we may as well live in a totalitarian state wherein we are required to believe what we are told.
Wm. B. Fankboner Whose writing I quoted in my article on Truth, wrote:
- Spinoza said: 'Every man is by indefeasible natural right the master of his own thoughts.' The great fallacy of totalitarian movements like political correctness is that they seek to eliminate an important step in human cognition: the dialogue with the self, the act of dialectical mastication that allows us to absorb and process experience, and to direct and enable our own moral lives. Only in the inviolable sanctuary of the soul, in the sacred act of self-communion, can man realize his own transcendence and salvation. Political correctness provides us with the predigested morality of self-appointed ideologues, the profane consensus of mediocre minds, in lieu of our own common sense and the collective wisdom of the ages.
I wonder how many people ever take the time out to decide for themselves what they do and do not believe and that of which they do and do not approve. Perhaps I'm just a cynic. Personally, I tend to believe what my father taught me:
- People only ever believe what they want to believe!
R.P.Bendedek
Email: rpbendedek@hotmail.com
R.P.BenDedek is the pseudonym of the Author of 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran' (http://www.kingscalendar.com/), and is a guest columnist at Magic City Morning Star News. An Australian, he currently teaches Conversational English in China.
Editorial and Social Commentary List
"The King's Calendar" is a chronological study of the historical books of the Bible (Kings and Chronicles), Josephus, Seder Olam Rabbah, and the (Essene) Damascus Document of The Dead Sea Scrolls.
