[Grovenet] Fwd: Oh NO, not Flat Fatima!

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

What's even worse is when the telling of the facts leads to a false
understanding. 

Sometimes we simply dismiss all such telling as "propaganda" as if it was
unsavory and the work of a crook.

If we were to accept that, we'd have to accept all utterings of most people,
including any politician, as the utterings of a crook. We've certainly raked
the President over the coals about that sort of thing.

But it's not that simple. We *all* speak with bias. I gag when someone
speaks of an "unbiased" news source. There is no such thing. Anyone who
thinks there is simply isn't able to detect the bias. That doesn't mean it's
a minor bias either. We humans all live with huge blind spots. In the
physical world most of us learn to look behind ourselves to see what's going
on, especially if we sense danger. For some reason, many people never learn
to do that emotionally or mentally.  Unfortunately, that leads people to
believe they understand something when, in fact, they don't. 

It's not the fault of the speaker. We all filter what we say and how we say
it based on our personal biases. 

It's the responsibility of the listener to figure out whether they agree
with the story as told. I don't believe that's possible unless one looks at
many sides of an issue as told by many people. 

To me, one sure clue to an ignorant person is when he/she says, "Oh I NEVER
listen to (or read)..." followed by their choice of BBC, FOX, PBS, ABC, CNN,
Al Jazeera, etc. We can't all follow all of them, but lining out any of them
is a sure sign the individual accepts a bias that may warp reality all out
of recognition. 

Right now, many middle eastern leaders are claiming that the underlying
problem there is that so many westerners, especially Americans, have only a
warped view of the middle eastern environment, politically and
strategically. That's why, they say, we keep doing absurdly stupid things
like launching invasions and trying to meddle in internal affairs of various
governments. 

I suspect there's a lot of truth in that. After all, most Iraqi's were far
more prosperous, comfortable and safe under Saddam than they are under the
coalition or the "new" Iraqi government we installed. Yet, people keep
talking as if we've done something good by throwing millions of families and
children into such desperate straits.

Next I expect to hear that the problems in Iraq are the fault of the Iraqi
people. Hitler tried to use that logic to explain why so many Jews were
dying in the 1930's and 40's. A lot of people in and out of Germany believed
it. And I expect a lot of Americans will believe that the disaster in Iraq
is the fault of the Iraqis. In many important respects we aren't so
different from Hitler's followers. Oh, we're not Nazis. But that insanity
isn't a Nazi feature. That insanity is a feature of human beings. No one is
naturally immune. 

Ron D'Eau Claire 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Steven [mailto:NoSpam03 at comcast.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 2:13 PM
To: Forest Grove local interests list
Subject: RE: Re: [Grovenet] Fwd: Oh NO, not Flat Fatima!


This thread was about a photograph. I posted another use of the same woman,
possibly pointing to it's original use. I now understand from you that false
stories in the media are fine if the goal is to attempt to deflect the
reality. But the way I see it all false stories attempt to deflect reality.