Michael Butler's Blog

“Fearful people are more dependent, more easily manipulated and controlled, more susceptible to deceptively simple, strong, tough measures and hard-line postures. … They may accept and even welcome repression if it promises to relieve their insecurities.”
George Gerbner, who headed the Annenberg School for Communication for 25 years:

Heavy words and so important in today’s atmosphere where almost every subject is presented as a cause for fear. Let’s have a list to review: Cuba, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Israel and Palestine, China, South America, India, Drugs, Dubai, Climate, Resources, Fundamentalism, Election Theft, Globalization, Venezuela, and the list goes on and on.

Suspicion with the direst, darkest imagination of what might happen in the future becomes the paradigm for suppression. It suspends belief in hope that what will happen maybe positive. Those who believe in nothing become victims of those who believe in anything.

Our media are now under such corporate control by so few that the public is being starved for objective reporting. The press has always been subjective to a certain extent. However traditionally by law, it was diverse enough in ownership to have multiple points of view. A broadcast license was legally defined as the local community voice. Beginning with Reagan, this diversity has been steadily reduced as government allows conglomerates to acquire ever more news outlets, giving their opinions greater reach. This of course has increased media profits along with media subservience to government. Without the internet opinions such as these we would not have opportunity of varied opinion. You can be sure politicians and CEO’s, the media variety in particular, are seeking to arrest this freedom

FDR said, “You have nothing to fear except fear itself”.
Lincoln said, “ You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time”.
We need to amplify the importance of both of these sayings and demand respect for them at all levels of society; government, corporate and community.

Most of all. Think of the values inherent in these words seriously.
Validate the belief that people can vote their hopes, not their fears.