Are you the sort of person who can spot a “Hidden agenda” at ten paces? Or are you the gullible type who has to be told by someone else that you have been duped, sucked in, yes manipulated.
I started thinking about this when I was reading the news online. It‘s always flooded with celebrity gossip. Who’s pregnant, who’s lost/put on weight. Romance, bromance break ups, real or manufactured? Fashion trends success or faux pas. It’s everywhere and sadly we seem to lap it up with an insatiable appetite.
Is it harmless escapism? Well with the phone tapping scandal and all we know it’s far from innocuous. A proportion of “celebs” may court attention, for their own reasons. But is there a bigger “hidden agenda” why we are fed this diet of spurious revelations and intimate disclosures?
Already accepting it’s not force feeding, and we do have the option to think for ourselves. I have to ask are we making a free choice. In a society, where neuron linguistic programming, and intentionally influencing peoples decisions is weaved through all the mediums and environments we inhabit. Derren Brown is not the only master of mentalist, others may not be as good or as open but I believe their practices are played on us all the time.
So not only are we distracted with juicy gossip, when a serious events occur we have no real way of knowing why the “story” has come to our attention on that day, who is pushing this to the fore and what’s behind it.
Let’s look at the a recent handling of fuel prices. The threatened strike of Tanker drivers, the advice given to fill up Gerry cans? The date, or time of the month and point in the financial year, the large scale panic buying.
Then surprise surprise, we avoid a double dip recession and experience growth which is good news, but who’s been played us? The tanker drivers? Have they been Scape goated as the cause of all this panic buying and excuses for price rises? Who led them into this now? The advice seemed crazy to me and as they say timing is everything. Call me a skeptic, but I want us to be more skeptical about things that matter. Not satisfy our curious natures on the detritus, whether some romance is real or fabricated for media coverage.
There are a host of talented articulate investigative journalists out there come on, dig a bit deeper. The PM eats a pasty and Ed Balls orders a huge amount of sausage rolls and that’s the story? I am tired of attempts to sucker me and fearful how often its happened without me knowing. I crave integrity, naked truth and ask who’s going to stop pulling my strings and start changing the world?
Graphic art credits – Rick Jacobi
