Distortions of Reality

We all know about the Great Wall of China, but they also have the "Great Firewall of China"
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Firewall_of_China).  The government monitors the internet usage and restricts what its citizens can see.  Iran and many countries have similar internet controls.  The result is the people in these countries have a distorted view of the world.  For example, most Chinese have little knowledge about the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 or about Dalai Lama.

Even though we may think we are immune to this because of our freedoms, we also have distortions in our view of the world.  Most of the big news media outlets (e.g. Fox News, CBS, CNN, Washington Post, New York Times, etc) are controlled by a few people at the top.  They determine which new stories out of hundreds are covered and how they are covered.   Rupert Murdoch who owns Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and other news outlets directs them to put out stories with a very conservative bias.   He is ranked 13th most powerful person in the world in the 2010 Forbes' The World's Most Powerful People list. With a net worth of $6.3 billion, he is ranked 117th wealthiest person in the world.  But he is not alone, the top people in big media are all rich people.  Consequently, the big media conveys the views of the rich.

They don't have to simply lie to us to control our views.  They can distort our views by confusing us.  For example, the scientific consensus is that global climate change is caused by humans, but most Americans are not aware of this because the media always finds someone to present an opposing point of view.  Why?  Because the rich (e.g Koch Industry) own the oil and coal companies which would be adversely affected by government regulations.

Currently, the media is focusing on the need to reduce the federal debt, even though we still have large number of people unemployed.   One way to reduce the federal debt would be to increase the tax on the rich and close loop holes on big corporations who avoid paying any taxes at all.  Even though numerous Congressmen have proposed bills to do this, most of the media does not even bother to mention this to us.   Instead, they cover proposals by other Congressmen to cut federal programs which would result in even more unemployed.  Why?  Because they are the rich that would be taxed and have loop holes closed on their companies.

You can see how the rich control the media and thus our view of the world.  And since we live in a democracy, our distorted views are translated into who we vote for.  The rich also can afford to spend lots of money on election campaigns and attack ads to further influence what we think and who we vote for.

Thus, like the Chinese, our reality is also being distorted - by the rich and powerful.