“Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way round, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise”. Guess who said those words? It sounds very manipulative and pathetic but it is true that by constant propaganda we can brainwash a generation with ridiculous lies. The other day I saw a guy walking with these words on his t-shirt “My mind’s made up. Don’t confuse me with facts”. I guess he is a good representation of many people in our society who believe what they want to believe, no matter what facts and evidences point to. There is a greater emphasis on our subjective feelings rather than on objective truth when it comes to our beliefs.
Television, internet, social media and other visual media have become such a big part of our modern lives that we are all in some sense drugged to these screens/monitors. They are often seen as harmless entertainers, but the reality is that they gradually dictate and control our thoughts, actions and our core beliefs. For many young people these days the only reality they know is the virtual reality that is created by visual media. Hal Becker, media expert and management consultant once said ““Americans don’t really think–they have opinions, feelings… Television creates opinion, and then validates it.” Influence is probably an understatement when it comes to what the media is doing to our young people, it’s not just informing their minds; it is in fact shaping and manipulating their every thought.
The other day I saw a guy walking with these words on his t-shirt “My mind’s made up. Don’t confuse me with facts”. I guess he is a good representation of many people in our society who believe what they want to believe, no matter what facts and evidences point to.
“I know the secret of making the average American believe anything I want him to. Just let me control television…. You put something on the television and it becomes reality. If the world outside the TV set contradicts the images, people start trying to change the world to make it like the TV set images…” says Hal Becker in an interview in 1981. Of course that was 1981; today we have i-phones through which the secular media could instantly and constantly feed our youth with messages that instill secular values and ideas. There is an old saying “It is easier to believe a lie that one has heard a thousand times than to believe a fact that no one has heard before.” It is little wonder why our young people have such a difficulty to believe or practice Christian faith.
Influence is probably an understatement when it comes to what the media is doing to our young people, it’s not just informing their minds; it is in fact shaping and manipulating their every thought.
Tony Lentz, assistant professor at the Pennsylvania State University says “Allowing ourselves to be influenced by the subtle but powerful illusions presented by television, leads to a kind of mass madness that can have rather frightening implications for the future of the nation …We will have begun to see things that aren’t there, giving someone else the power to make up our illusions for us.” That’s right we have surrendered our power to think, choose and discern independently. We no longer have the freedom to make an informed decision when it comes to moral and spiritual values; in fact most of the decisions are made by the media and then pushed through our throats as politically right, religiously tolerant, socially acceptable messages. The worst part of this saga is that most of the brainwashing is happening in a programmed or controlled environment called “entertainment”.
“Hollywood, the mass media and many others who have ‘the power to make up our illusions for us’ have no desire to communicate ‘our cultural heritage.’ Nor do they want to include the Biblical God in their picture. But any other spiritual force is okay. A New Age “Christ”, a universal “Force”, a cosmic “Mind”, positive “energy”, Gaia or a Mother Earth…. All these fit the prevailing vision of a global spirituality. But God, the sole Creator of the Universe, is considered far too “intolerant” and “divisive” for the global society they envision” says Berit Kjos. Whether you like it or not the truth is that someone out there is working hard towards a global society where tolerance is a greater virtue than truth, where there is no place for absolutes (sorry God), where everything is relative, non-offensive, sensitive to the feelings of a fallen man. Secular media has dominated the air (TV and internet) with so many lies and has successfully spread the anti-Biblical messages that portray Christianity as a faith for narrow minded, self-righteous bigots.
In a world where people are expected to be truthful, a lie could confuse and hurt; but in a world that is filled with lies, where people have chosen to bury the eternal truth to believe the lies of illusion, discerning truth is not only confusing, but almost impossible for a natural man. When Adam and Eve (Gen 3) chose to believe the lie of Satan, they traded the eternal truth for a fatal lie, freedom for slavery. They thought they will become like God, instead they became slaves to sin. Here is the Apostle Paul’s description of our fatal choice “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claim to be wise, they became fools…they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images…therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts… (Rom 1: 21–24). In 2 Thess 2:11 Paul says “For this reason God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie…” When we choose to believe a lie, we disqualify ourselves to discern the truth and are blinded from the light. Oh, by the way did you guess who said those words on the power of propaganda…it was the German Chancellor Adolf Hitler.
We no longer have the freedom to make an informed decision when it comes to moral and spiritual values; in fact most of the decisions are made by the media and then pushed through our throats as politically right, religiously tolerant, socially acceptable messages.
– – Author: Rev. Francis Burgula – –
