notanothermonday
Padawan Learner
I was listening to a rather mundane show today on the radio when they began talking about accounts of stories in the news being embellished upon. Stories where the facts are distorted to mythic proportions so much so that others around that bore witness to the event are susceptible to accepting the myth as the fact. An example from the local news here in the great white north.
http://www.startribune.com/local/16075672.html
However one week later we have this:
http://www.startribune.com/local/16384516.html
Two stories about the same event yet the details are different. In the first account we even have someone who claims to have seen her fly through the air. I only point this out to show how even a small event has the possibility of losing credibility or at least truth in what only takes a moment and a newspaper article or a TV news clip. While the first story sounds absurd and unbelievable many people were convinced that it was true. Even a police officer stated that while a man throwing a woman in to the middle of the road sounded outrageous he does believe that instances of road rage are getting worse and there is at least one woman who believes she saw her flying through the air into the middle of the road.
This leads me to this point. How often are we mislead by the emotional charge of a situation. In what way is our vision and our accounts of a story tainted by our emotional status and then how does that affect those around us that saw the same event? While this is a small event lets look at a bigger one and how damaging this can be.
The story of Misha Defonseca and her book "Misha: A Memoir of the Holocaust Years" was admitted to being a work of fiction.
http://jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/107290.html
Now we have to ask how often has this occurred? How many sensationalized stories of WWII have been told by fabulists? What are the real facts as they pertain to the history of the WWII and how many of the accounts of the atrocities are colored by the emotional charge and devastation felt by those involved? These become very fair questions. I am not stating that what happened during WWII was not detestable but to what ends have the stories from that war been manipulated or gone through the process of mythicisation so as to serve the needs and desires of those recounting them? Or worse yet how have these stories been twisted further by other powers so as to justify the death of so many in a war that at many times was under scrutiny here in the states?
This also leads us to a problem with our current situation and this post only goes to help those who have a tough time drawing into question the integrity of the current powers that be. One man states that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, others chime in and suddenly we have a war that was based off of a myth.
We have fabulists in the White House, we have them in all the offices of government, they live in governors mansions and work in city halls, they are heads of corporations, small businesses and social groups and they live down the street and even next door. We must be careful about what we accept as truth.
I am aware that this post may be redundant for this site something hit home this week for me. I have been reading Laura's book "The Secret History of the World" and after hearing the story I mentioned at the beginning of this post I realized how real the archetype in the human psyche of man is for the process of mythicisation. The fact that this process can occur almost immediately after an event is daunting.
http://www.startribune.com/local/16075672.html
However one week later we have this:
http://www.startribune.com/local/16384516.html
Two stories about the same event yet the details are different. In the first account we even have someone who claims to have seen her fly through the air. I only point this out to show how even a small event has the possibility of losing credibility or at least truth in what only takes a moment and a newspaper article or a TV news clip. While the first story sounds absurd and unbelievable many people were convinced that it was true. Even a police officer stated that while a man throwing a woman in to the middle of the road sounded outrageous he does believe that instances of road rage are getting worse and there is at least one woman who believes she saw her flying through the air into the middle of the road.
This leads me to this point. How often are we mislead by the emotional charge of a situation. In what way is our vision and our accounts of a story tainted by our emotional status and then how does that affect those around us that saw the same event? While this is a small event lets look at a bigger one and how damaging this can be.
The story of Misha Defonseca and her book "Misha: A Memoir of the Holocaust Years" was admitted to being a work of fiction.
http://jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/107290.html
Now we have to ask how often has this occurred? How many sensationalized stories of WWII have been told by fabulists? What are the real facts as they pertain to the history of the WWII and how many of the accounts of the atrocities are colored by the emotional charge and devastation felt by those involved? These become very fair questions. I am not stating that what happened during WWII was not detestable but to what ends have the stories from that war been manipulated or gone through the process of mythicisation so as to serve the needs and desires of those recounting them? Or worse yet how have these stories been twisted further by other powers so as to justify the death of so many in a war that at many times was under scrutiny here in the states?
This also leads us to a problem with our current situation and this post only goes to help those who have a tough time drawing into question the integrity of the current powers that be. One man states that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, others chime in and suddenly we have a war that was based off of a myth.
We have fabulists in the White House, we have them in all the offices of government, they live in governors mansions and work in city halls, they are heads of corporations, small businesses and social groups and they live down the street and even next door. We must be careful about what we accept as truth.
I am aware that this post may be redundant for this site something hit home this week for me. I have been reading Laura's book "The Secret History of the World" and after hearing the story I mentioned at the beginning of this post I realized how real the archetype in the human psyche of man is for the process of mythicisation. The fact that this process can occur almost immediately after an event is daunting.
