The Body Snatchers Of The Collective Unconscious

Almost immediately, the public was bombarded with images, slogans and symbols representing the "New War," as George W. Bush dubbed it, a "War on terrorism" as a "war like no other war". The government and the media have portrayed the President's war in apocalytic terms, an armageddon between good and evil, with declarations of the blessings of God for this war. Over the airwaves, the public is showered with songs linking the purpose of the U.S. Government with God's will, and images of people of many faiths uniting under God... "God Bless America" along with patriotic images of the flag and soldiers kissing their loved ones goodbye as they go off into the "New War". Most astonishing was the degree to which the government, the media and religion all seemed to be one voice when we would expect them to remain separate to maintain a healthy democracy with controls on the social pathologies which bring violence erupting from suppression of social discontent. There is no question about the fact that the hearts of all civilized people must go out to the victims of the attack and their loved ones, but what the elites are doing is cold-blooded exploitation of the victims, for their political advantage, not vindicating their loss and our loss. It is especially ominous that the mass media has joined in with this orgy of war cries with the government and with religionists for a Jihad of their own. Under democracy, we typically turn to the media as the most powerful watchdogs on the abuses of power in government. It was with this view that the First Amendment assuring free speech was included in the Constitution and the the First Amendment has been regard as the most important amendment. But for the news media to function as a watchdog over the government, it must be devoted to high ethical standards of objective journalism in the course of reporting the news rather than manipulating public opinion and perception and elected representatives in government. The fact is that the power of the economic elite that control the media has become greater than the power of government, itself. Now, it is becoming all too apparent that a government which answers to the media elites rather than the people is equally as dangerous to the birthrights of individual than a media that answers to the government. http://www.geocities.com/catzeye94109/MMR45.html [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on January 29, 2006]

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