In view of what has been going on for the last several days, these words seem to be apposite. They are from Jean-Francois Revel's book The Flight From Truth: The Reign of Deceit in the Age of Information:
...[F]ew persons seem to realize to what extent information has become the principal instrument, the permanent agent and mirror of the planet's omnipresence for all those who inhabit it, not through the provision of accurate information -- there precisely is the problem -- but thanks to a continuous torrent of messages, which begins by submerging individual minds from early schooling on[...]
Man has an image of the world and of his own society in that world. He acts and reacts with reference to that image. He accepts its implications willingly, passively, or grudgingly, or revolts against them. The more twisted and distorted the picture, the more dangerous his actions and reactions can become, both for himself and others."
Revel's phrase ''a continuous torrent of messages'' is especially apt for today's media in which there is ''news'' fed to us around the clock, 7 days a week. And the torrent of messages is not confined to the sordid ''news channels'' on TV or the dead tree media, but it pervades the ''entertainment'' arm of the media. It's obvious to anybody who dissents in the least from the official propaganda that movies, TV shows, and even (especially) commercials carry messages, sometimes in rather sneaky subliminal form.
Even among blogs, created by individuals, the leftist globalist message is omnipresent.
I read a number of blogs on art, antiques, decorating, history, and various oddities, and the default position among those blogs is that of multiculturalism, one-worldism, egalitarianism, feminism, and pro-homosexuality. These ideas invade even the most innocent topics on many of the blogs I read.
There is a blog I read about vintage cartoons and cartoonists, and the blogger sees fit to inject left-wing editorializing into posts which should not be politicized. But everybody who accepts the 'image of the world and [our] society' as fed to us by the media shares this vision of what the world is, and more importantly, what it should be. And as Revel says, as the media-fed image becomes 'more twisted and distorted', the more dangerous the actions and reactions of the indoctrinated become.
The left, obsessed with their ideology, and infuriated at the fact that some people refuse to be conformed to their false image of the world, are at a fever pitch of frustration and rage.
I think most of us who are dissenters from their world of falsehoods are able to ''turn off'' politics and the news cycle for a while, and occupy ourselves with healthier and happier things, even if only briefly. But the left, who are as someone said ''hag-ridden by visions of utopia'' seem unable to abstain from thinking of everything in political terms. Hence you see a memorial service for shooting victims being turned into some kind of bizarre rally, with cheers, whoops, and t-shirts.
This truly is a religion for them; it is all-pervasive for them. They can't seem to turn it off and simply take life and the world as it is. Everything is seen in the starkest terms; those they disagree with are their deadly enemies. And yes, there are a few on our side who see things in those terms, and they are not completely wrong to see enemies on the other side. But it is the leftists who hold the power right now, and who have the momentum on their side for the most part. And yet they have not got absolutely everybody under their heel just yet, and they will never rest until they do, apparently.
They are going all out to bring everybody into line with their ideology. But to do so they have to speak falsehoods continually. I've often thought that we live in the Age of the Lie; I don't recall any time in which so many people seem to speak lies, believe lies, and live lies, nor a time when truth was so little regarded.
Revel has something to say about that, too, in the same book.
''Democracy cannot live without the truth; totalitarianism cannot live without falsehood. Democracy commits suicide if it lets itself be invaded by falsehood, totalitarianism if it lets itself be invaded by truth. With mankind now moving ever further into civilization dominated by information, a civilization that would not be viable if it were nourished and sustained by regularly falsified information. I regard it as indispensable that democracy be universalized and, furthermore, improved. But present customs and habits being what they are, I think it more likely that falsehood will triumph, along with its political corollary, totalitarianism.''
Well, Revel has left us, so he didn't get to see the outcome of this struggle. I do hope he was wrong about the triumph of falsehood. I believe 'the truth is mighty, and will prevail.' It will ultimately prevail. We have to carry on as though it is a certainty or else we will falter.
