The revolutionary act of telling the truth
30 September 2015
George Orwell said, "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
These
are dark times, in which the propaganda of deceit touches all our
lives. It is as if political reality has been privatised and illusion
legitimised. The information age is a media age. We have politics by
media; censorship by media; war by media; retribution by media;
diversion by media - a surreal assembly line of clichés and false
assumptions.
Wondrous technology has become both our friend
and our enemy. Every time we turn on a computer or pick up a digital
device - our secular rosary beads - we are subjected to control: to
surveillance of our habits and routines, and to lies and manipulation.
Edward
Bernays, who invented the term, "public relations" as a euphemism for
"propaganda", predicted this more than 80 years ago. He called it, "the
invisible government".
He wrote, "Those who manipulate
this unseen element of [modern democracy] constitute an invisible
government which is the true ruling power of our country... We are
governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested,
largely by men we have never heard of... "
