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4thTimeLucky · 06-16-2003, 10:48 AM

This reminds me of the fact that no matter how frustrated I get with some people on TFP they are at least well informed and make the effort to keep themselves so.

When a population knows so little about the wars their governments' are fighting and the countries they are fighting against then we should be worried. Sadly the US government isn't guilty of its usual failing- not informing its citizens - instead it is guilty of a worse demeanor - misinforming its citizens.

I can't remember where I read it, but I recently saw a good article on the way that Bush cleverly puts two statements next to each other in such a way as to make it appear that he is saying something, when a close analysis will show that he only alludes to it - a deception without a lie. One of his favourite uses of this trick is WMDs, which would help explain why so many people are under the misperception that WMDs have been found, when the reality is that just two 'interesting' trucks have been found.

I can't help but wonder whether the US government is happy to let its citizens remain so ignorant, because when the population is ignorant you can feed them whatever line you want to and follow whatever policy you want to.

I think it must be a size thing. America (see also Russia, China, Brazil...) is a huge country with huge populations so information has always taken time to disperse. Therefore it can become normal for the periphery to be ill informed of the actions of the core. Whereas in smaller countries, e.g. European nations, news travels fast and most people feels that they are connected to government - we will almost all visit our capital and our parliament at least once (and often a lot more) in our lives, and any group from anywhere can march to the capital to demand justice and voice their grievance (and we have been marching to the capital for centuries).

06-16-2003, 10:48 AM	#2 (permalink)
4thTimeLucky Psycho Location: 4th has left the building - goodbye folks	This reminds me of the fact that no matter how frustrated I get with some people on TFP they are at least well informed and make the effort to keep themselves so. When a population knows so little about the wars their governments' are fighting and the countries they are fighting against then we should be worried. Sadly the US government isn't guilty of its usual failing- not informing its citizens - instead it is guilty of a worse demeanor - misinforming its citizens. I can't remember where I read it, but I recently saw a good article on the way that Bush cleverly puts two statements next to each other in such a way as to make it appear that he is saying something, when a close analysis will show that he only alludes to it - a deception without a lie. One of his favourite uses of this trick is WMDs, which would help explain why so many people are under the misperception that WMDs have been found, when the reality is that just two 'interesting' trucks have been found. I can't help but wonder whether the US government is happy to let its citizens remain so ignorant, because when the population is ignorant you can feed them whatever line you want to and follow whatever policy you want to. I think it must be a size thing. America (see also Russia, China, Brazil...) is a huge country with huge populations so information has always taken time to disperse. Therefore it can become normal for the periphery to be ill informed of the actions of the core. Whereas in smaller countries, e.g. European nations, news travels fast and most people feels that they are connected to government - we will almost all visit our capital and our parliament at least once (and often a lot more) in our lives, and any group from anywhere can march to the capital to demand justice and voice their grievance (and we have been marching to the capital for centuries). __________________ I've been 4thTimeLucky, you've been great. Goodnight and God bless!