In our media rich world, the truth is no longer a sacred
entity but rather a sellable precept. And by sellable it is meant that the
truth is malleable and pliable enough to attract flies and dung beetles to it
in swarms and hordes.
We the people mostly live by our understanding of that much
maligned word. It is that understanding that makes whatever is being sold by
the media, a living sensational entity that can incite rage, rabble-rouse, and
excite the masses to the point of anarchy. This anarchy, in turn, of course,
will be vilified and morally opposed by the same media pundits i.e. moral
indignation. This self-proclaimed moral indignation is such a beautiful and
attractive concept that we buy into it with open ears and minds without
question.
Somewhere at the centre of the whole caboodle lies the
truth; or rather, a version of the truth that is so veiled in euphemisms,
rhetoric and commonplace platitudes that it is no longer recognizable but the
truth nonetheless.
And given that our understanding of the truth is skewed in
one bias or another, the propagation of what is real becomes easy to manipulate
and concoct. Point in question: Take any news report and read the attached
public commentaries. It is said that the truth is stranger than fiction, well,
the a foregoing will highlight that quickly enough.
Not that the political fraternity is far behind their
sensationalist media brethren. As a matter of fact, it is postulated that the
media learnt their trade by watching and listening to the political society at
large.
Whether we the people will ever know the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth, is up for grabs. We need to learn to
constantly question what we hear and read, to understand that what we are
bombarded with is at best plausible fact, and to search for corroborating
evidence amongst the maelstrom of out-there information.
The one infallible truthiness is that “Television is the
first truly democratic culture - the first culture available to everybody and
entirely governed by what the people want. The most terrifying thing is what
people do want” - Clive Barnes.”
And therein lays the rub of it all!
