Diane Sawyer in N. KoreaFollow

Anyone been following the piece on "Good Morning America" with Diane Sawyer reporting from North Korea? It's been some pretty powerful stuff, and it just goes to show you how human's absorb whatever information is thrown at them whether it is credible or not. Every single person she talked to on the streets said that the U.S and U.N were bad and responsible for all the ills in the world. They could not, however, tell her one single thing about the U.S or any other country for that matter.



So I sat there thinking what a shame it was for people to be so locked out of the outside world, that they believed everything their government stated. After thinking about it for awhile I wondered is your average person in the "free world" any better off? Sure we know that individuals like Osama and Kim Zong are "bad", but do we really know why? Their ideology, philosophy, and policies aren't exactly reported by mass media. The media simply portrays them as evil, and the average person believes it to be so because contray evidence is not available. Sure they have claimed lives in the name of their beliefs, but what thought process has brought them to this position?


Of course people in the free world have the ability to research these philosophies, but how many objective sources would we come across? It's just a bit scary how things constantly blasted to us via various forms of media can sneak up on us and become true without even realizing. So I pose the question are "we" any better off then the so called brain washed N. Korean's? Relatively.....I am sure, but don't we fall victim to some of the same mind shaping tactics???

It sure does.

/sigh

Why is it there is always someone who can take an extreme example of something--North Korea for instance --and tie it in with how we live, as if there is any remotely possible connection? The supposition that because Koreans are kept in the dark by an authoritarian regime must mean that we are also being kept from information just doesn't make any logical sense. It'd be like doing an expose' on Eskimos and commenting on their diet of whale blubber and then thoughtfully placing your chin in your hand and wondering aloud how we in the lower 48 are managing our high blood pressure that stems from our regular intake of Willy the Whale's fat. Hmmm, yeah, just how are we dealing with that serious problem? I know my daily three square whale McMeals are just killing my health!

/rollseyes

Totem

How TV, political, and radio spindoctors work, should be a part of required learning in every grammer school.... Common sence too.

Look, the whole Osama thing isn't that complicated. Muzzie wanted Whitney Houston, but Bobbie Brown was mackin' on that inbetween snorts of coke. Muzzie goes into a murderous rage, kills lots of people, and ends up jacking off to pictures of Goat of the Month instead of on Ms. Houston.

Simple.

Totem

Oreos. They live in a black and white world. CIA is more of a Milano/gray scale kind of organization.

Totem

I can read pro-Muslim (or even pro-terrorist) literature. I can go on the internet and browse news sites from the Middle East. I can watch Flash movies some lunatics made trying to convince me that the government orchestrated 9/11. I can read the blog of the friggin' president of Iran, for Christ's sake.

You can have all of that tracked by the NSA at no extra charge.

I hear in 2009 you'll be able to get fries with it too.

It's true. Only those ashamed of their actions would afraid of others seeing or hearing of them. As it is each one of us is filmed, monitored, or recorded hundreds of times on any given day and not one of you is concerned-- except when those of you are surfin' the **** ('Sup, BT? How's the scat?). Perhaps the entities are not our government-- at least our national government --but many of the institutions doing the recording are quite willing to share, sell, or trade their info for other's.

On principle everybody is against the loss of privacy, but the reality is most of us happily hand over our most personal data for even the cheapest of trinkets such as toasters for opening up a new credit card account, 10% off coupons, etc, etc. After all, how many here already have premium or used their email address to register a nic here, by way of example?

The alternative is living completely off the grid and I suspect not a single one of us here is willing to make that choice.

Totem

Not impressed; it's kind of corny.

Wow, Inuyashaaaaaasammmma is so deep.

Is this the part where we measure penises?

on a sidenote:



yes, and I can relate very well to that. being born in the former GDR (ze commie estern part of yermany), we also were being kept in the dark pretty much... not as bad as the people in NC, luckily, but still... when I think of my thoughts/ideas when the wall came down 17 years ago and how much that changed since... (not only cause I got older, hehe)

anyways, knowing how much they can ***** with your brain AND seeing the actions of this frikkin Kim makes me wanna rate him down for good...