People who are Easy to Manipulate

This is the kind of person the Mass Media wants.

There is an enormous interest now in Facebook, and its dangers. When the basic situation is much bigger - the use of the Mass Media by Business, with its obsession on making money - and its lack of interest in ethics. It wants people who it can easily sell to. And who will not question its dominance.

This was the kind of people wanted by the Church in Medieval times. And which the Enlightenment strove against.

A short historical review is in order. The Modern World included a new worldview - progressive, forward-looking, and Scientific. And a new technology, the Printing Press. This turned out printed matter, and a lot of it - on Paper, also new invention.

Society became divided between those who were enlightened (who read and wrote extensively) and those who were not. In America, this was typified by Thomas Jefferson - who wrote almost constantly, and had sex with one of his slaves.

America began with the Enlightenment - but soon became Industrialized. And fought a terrible Civil War - over Slavery. The Industrial North won, and soon Robber Barons ran the Railroads, and the economy. The Common People did not object - because they created jobs. There were objections however, from the Farmers, who were impoverished, while the Railroads and the Factories - prospered.

This gradual development, was obscured however, by WWI, the Depression, and WWII. That changed the whole world. I can remember the people (such as my parents) who resulted from this, since I was born in 1936.

They had no idea what was going on - so much had been going on, and so fast. Perhaps the people in New York City did - but we were in the Midwest, far from them. They were ignorant - but considered that a virtue.

They were also rich - they had new houses, and new cars. They were also fighting the Cold War, and spending huge sums on that. As a new Electronic Engineer, some of that money went into my pockets. I should have been happy, but I was not - I knew something was wrong.

I will end this posting here, in the Seventies - when the wheels were coming off our wagon.